3 out of 4 stars
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The moment I set eyes on ‘Health Tips, Myths and Tricks’ - a Physician's Advice - with the subtitle “Health Information to liberate us from ‘Snake Oil” it triggered enough curiosity in me to first want to know the author’s credentials. The author Morton E. Tavel, MD is a physician specialist in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases. He has years of experience behind him which included teaching at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He holds many other positions in medical circles. He has researched, written and lectured throughout his career. I thought this veteran physician’s advice would be priceless.
This is the digital age where countless media blitzes bombard people non-stop with ‘snake oils’. These are those so-called remedies of doubtful authenticity that we encounter everywhere in the media. Doubtless, their salesmen, the quacks and charlatans, make quick bucks out of gullible people who are too eager for quick fixes. The remedies are often useless, spurious, and even dangerous. But glib ‘snake oil’ salesmen are always quick to cash in on people’s general gullibility. I never knew that even the acclaimed and celebrated Dr Mehmet Oz was one such salesman until I read Health Tips, Myths and Tricks. The book’s 62 chapters attempt to rebut many such claims of such unscrupulous snake oil salesmen. These chapters are divided into three easy- to- navigate sections:
The first section - chapters 1 to 32 - delivers useful tips for healthful living, giving out scientific and practical ways to achieve real wellness. It guides readers in taking authenticated, backed-by-medical science informed decisions about health and wellbeing. The tips should help people avoid getting duped by scamsters and quacks.
The second section - chapters 33 to 52 - seeks to delink myths and misconceptions. Myths cloud the link of people’s perception of the world around them. Food, drink, new technologies and other happenings is that world or environment. This section helps readers relate to the environment without getting obscured by myths.
The third section - chapters 53 to 62 - blows the lid off some tricks and strategies of the so-called ‘snake oil’ promoters and peddlers employ on a public that is too easy to entice and fleece. This section should help readers to see through the egregious designs of these touts.
The entire book is light and easy to read and understand. Being a man of medicine himself, Morton E. Tavel has managed to include every bit of essential information about health and wellness that can touch the common person’s life. Throughout his years of medical practice, research and teaching Dr Tavel has encountered thousands of cases where people got carried away by slick marketing ploys. They ended up with dubious remedies, ‘snake oils’ that not only make a hole in their pockets but may be downright useless, even dangerous. Dr Tavel guides his readers with credible logic. Wherever necessary he provides references for irrefutable proof of authenticity, linking to sources of works by distinguished professionals and peer-reviewed scientific papers.
The reader gets to learn how to tackle the problem in a credible and scientific manner. Take for example the problem of weight and obesity that plagues 70% of the American public. The proven method to weight management is a reduction by calories coupled with the correct diet, opines Dr Tavel. Any other method such as ‘miracle weight-loss supplement’ would be useless and a waste. Yet a gullible public would drain off millions of dollars to slick peddlers of ‘snake oil’. People are that easy to dupe.
In like manner, Dr Tavel goes on giving tips regarding the most common issues that plague people. These issues may be about not skipping breakfast, the dangers of trans-fat, or the DASH diet for high blood pressure. They may be about red wine and cardiovascular diseases, sleep, exercise and allergies.
But I personally disagree with the author on certain issues. For example, I find his take on alternative systems of medicine, herbal and natural remedies rather harsh. Perhaps his opinions are born out of unclear, less than factual information. True, modern medicine is an empirical science despite being comparatively recent. Alternative systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese Traditional Medicine have evolved over millennia. They are still resorted to and trusted by millions of adherents because they work and are affordable. So, to trash away such ancient wisdom only because of lack of, say, a double-blind system of testing is being arbitrary. To my mind, this appears prejudicial.
What I like most about Health Tips, Myths and Tricks is its handbook-like comprehensiveness, its scientific in tenor despite being written for the layperson. Dr Tavel has broken down the complex body of medical knowledge to present it in a language the common person is familiar with. It appears to be professionally edited and the style is racy, interspersed with tints of humor at times. Every chapter is a meticulous document, seamlessly sifting the unrealistic from the real, a thorough how-to book to which one can come back again and again for reference.
I am sure any reader who reads Health Tips, Myths and Tricks with a discerning (and critical) mind will benefit hugely from the invaluable, medical-science backed information. The book speaks of Dr Tavel’s sincere attempt to help people sensibly resolve health and wellness issues and liberate them from ‘snake oil’!
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
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Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
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