2 out of 4 stars
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Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks by Morton E. Tavel, MD is a book of practical medical advice, written for a general audience. One can think of it as a sort of handbook for healthy living: the chapters are short, and the Table of Contents allows for the reader to flip back and forth easily to access the advice that one desires. The book is organized loosely into three sections: Tips for healthier living, which range from the obvious (‘eat breakfast’) to the unintuitive (‘potatoes are not bad for you per se’); Myths about healthcare that the author rectifies; and Tricks that others could use against you, and thus the author recommends should be shunned.
One of the most assuring things that this books offers is authority: the author is indeed a physician. You can Google the author, and it is evident that the author is not only licenced, but prestigious as well: he has authored numerous research publications, editorials, and even a full medical text. The authenticity of the author’s authority is key: staying healthy is an important part of human flourishing, and it is encouraging—nay, necessary—to know that the person telling you how to avoid quack medicine is not himself a quack.
The book specializes on giving advice for “as wide an audience as possible” (ii), which I deem to be both a necessary task and a noble goal. Given the often-contradictory claims about health that appear in the media, contemporary people are often left unsure as to what to do, beyond the general advice given by mothers and health classes in primary school. In this book, not only does Dr. Tavel recall to mind much of the common-sense health education from health class (which, to be fair, I and many of my peers have mostly forgotten), but also gives his medical advice on more contemporary health issues, such as e-cigarettes/vaping, probiotics, energy drinks, vaccines, GMOs, gluten-free diets, etc. His opinions are reasoned, often supported by studies, and not merely a repetition of the ‘party line’ repeated by the media.
That being said, the book is not without its flaws. The author makes many claims (both regarding medicine and statistics) throughout the book that I judge to merit a citation, yet he does not cite every claim that he makes. I understand that, for a book aimed at a general audience, one would like to avoid writing a book that is weighed down by a lengthy Reference section. Yet when the author claims that “Some studies observe x, y, z ,” I would like to know what studies he is referring to. That the author does not cite all his sources undermines the authority of some of his advice. Moreover, this book contains many grammatical errors. The errors are not so egregious that I cannot understand what the author is saying, but they are indeed distracting. I prescribe the editors one (1) copy of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style .
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. Given the numerous grammatical errors throughout the text, this book does not merit a perfect score. The author’s lack of citations, and the somewhat common-sense nature of some of his advice prevent this book from meriting a three out of four. Yet the book has much merit: it is indeed written by a genuine physician, and a prestigious one at that; some of the advice was definitively not common-sense—who knew potatoes were surprisingly healthy?—and thus it is much appreciated to have been included in this book; and this book is aimed at a general audience, which allows the average Joe to make informed decisions regarding their health. For those merits, the book does not deserve a one-star rating. Overall, I would recommend this book for those laymen who are looking for clear advice about staying healthy day-to-day.
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Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
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