Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars | 64 ratings
Price: 21
Last update: 09-28-2024
About this item
Bloomsbury presents Blind Spots written and read by Dr Marty Makary
From Johns Hopkins medical expert Dr. Marty Makary, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Price We Pay—an eye-opening look at the medical groupthink that has led to public harm, and what you need to know about your health.
More Americans have peanut allergies today than at any point in history. Why? In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a strict recommendation that parents avoid giving their children peanut products until they’re three years old. Getting the science perfectly backward, triggering intolerance with lack of early exposure, the US now leads the world in peanut allergies—and this misinformation is still rearing its head today.
How could the experts have gotten it so wrong? Dr. Marty Makary asks, Could it be that many modern-day health crises have been caused by the hubris of the medical establishment? Experts said for decades that opioids were not addictive, igniting the opioid crisis. They refused menopausal women hormone replacement therapy, causing unnecessary suffering. They demonized natural fat in foods, driving Americans to processed carbohydrates as obesity rates soared. They told citizens that there are no downsides to antibiotics and prescribed them liberally, causing a drug-resistant bacteria crisis.
When modern medicine issues recommendations based on good scientific studies, it shines. Conversely, when modern medicine is interpreted through the harsh lens of opinion and edict, it can mold beliefs that harm patients and stunt research for decades. In Blind Spots, Dr. Makary explores the latest research on critical topics ranging from the microbiome to childbirth to nutrition and longevity and more, revealing the biggest blind spots of modern medicine and tackling the most urgent yet unsung issues in our $4.5 trillion health care ecosystem. The path to medical mishaps can be absurd, entertaining, and jaw-dropping—but the truth is essential to our health.
Top reviews from the United States
Joseph Marine5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant book on the dysfunctional elements of American academic medical culture
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2024
This is a brilliant, riveting book by a leading American surgeon and health policy expert. Everyone who will ever give or receive medical care or advice should carefully read every word, especially doctors and health policy leaders. In lucid, highly readable and engaging prose, using personal anecdotes and skilled medical storytelling, Dr. Makary paints a clear picture of an American academic medical culture hampered by groupthink, self-importance, dogmatism, and careerism. He describes the problems clearly and suggests solutions. Reading the book itself is an antidote. I hope that a new generation of medical students and young doctors will read this book and be inspired to reform and improve the dysfunctional elements in academic medicine that Dr. Makary so clearly describes.
N5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy read, super informative, perspective changing
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2024
Prior to reading this book, I had a very high degree of confidence that medicine was almost exclusively data-driven, in a good way.
I still have very high regard for the field of medicine, but my views have been tempered in a useful way by this book. I think it could have a hugely positive effect by highlighting some of the opportunities to increase the receptivity of medicine to new ideas and new data.
I still have very high regard for the field of medicine, but my views have been tempered in a useful way by this book. I think it could have a hugely positive effect by highlighting some of the opportunities to increase the receptivity of medicine to new ideas and new data.
Blue sky5.0 out of 5 stars
Shows the the medical field will disregard studies if it doesn't prove their narrative
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2024
Very interesting book divided up into several chapters on medical ideas many of which were proven wrong. Most of these studies the Ama and other organizations knew were incorrect bit they were published without pushback even if not factual. Very easy read and very informative
janaw5.0 out of 5 stars
This should be required reading for medical students!
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2024
Dr. Makary has done it again! This is a thought-provoking book about the value of true evidence-based practice. Patients have a right to question the medical advice they are receiving and get the studies that inform their care.
Kindle Customer5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye opening!!! Definitely recommend this, especially healthcare workers.
Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2024
Let me start with I am a nurse in labor and delivery. My husband never wants to listen to my work stories, but one day, I came home and he had all kinds of work related questions for me, I was floored. He had heard the author speaking on a radio show promoting this book. He had me listen and asked me about some of things discussed related to the babies being born section. I listened and then I ordered the book! I have seen first hand some of things he talked about. Others were before my time, but shocking none the less to read how long things took to change because the "establishment" didn't want to believe. I used to be that person that went by the "literature." I didnt realize how much literature was being suppressed. There have been many things I have seen in my career that I at one time didn't believe in until I saw it firsthand. So I am aware the dogma exists to not believe, but after seeing it for myself, I now keep an open mind to new ideas. The section on skin to skin contact with mom is a perfect example. What sealed it for me was when I was caring for a mom whose baby had a congenital condition and birth defects that were incompatible with life, meaning the baby was going to die no matter what. Mom wanted to try to carry the baby to term, hopefully deliver a living baby, and hold him until he died in her arms. He was born and in doctors' hands, not doing well. I put him skin to skin with mom, and he immediately started improving. He was breathing and pink and like any otherwise healthy baby. He did so well that mom decided to let other family members hold him. In their arms he would stop breathing and turn purple, they would panic and ask me what to do, i would take baby and put him skin to skin with mom, reminding them, mom wanted to hold him while he died. However, every time he went skin to skin, he started breathing again and turned pink without any medical intervention at all. This went back and forth for hours as the various family members took their turns. In the end, the baby lived for 12 hours and eventually died in mom's arms as planned, but mom got 12 hours with her precious baby that she wouldn't have had without skin to skin contact. I had seen doctors recommend certain treatments or procedures that parents have refused, and everything turns out fine, to the point of me thinking, "miracles do happen." I now have changed my practice to side with patients and support whatever decisions they make. I stand up to doctors and routinely question the "why" when I dont agree. I share with them and my patients my experiences with "going against the norm." In many cases, it has strengthened my relationship and trust with patients and doctors.
This book really opened my eyes to the politics involved in research studies that i was never aware of. It actually angers me to see how closed-minded and set in their ways some of these doctors are. I, too, was fired from a job for standing up for what I believed in when I didn't agree with how things were happening, and it turned into a blessing in disguise. I have very strong feelings on some healthcare concerns that are being politicized and just tried to "fly under the radar" and not share my thoughts with people with opposing views just to not rock the boat, but once i started opening up debate dialogue I found both sides have valid points. I agree with Dr. Makary that we need more studies. On any topic, there should be 2 independent studies to validate results. Politics has no place in scientific research. Doctors should be allowed to research what they want, and journals shouldn't be able to quash legitimate articles just because they don't like how the results turned out. Their job should be to review the methodology and statistics to ensure it was not an "altered outcome" but not reject it on topic alone. To think that so many people have died because of the politics involved in progressive doctors questioning the status quo and trying to make it better is appalling. As Dr Makary says, saying, " I don't know" is better than making something up or passing off opinion as fact. His discussion about studies being done or falsified just to push the agenda of an industry shows the bias in the medical community is not towards improving healthcare and looking for a better way to help people, but to uphold their own prior achievements. I grew up learning that the only thing constant is change. Things are constantly changing. It is ok for things to be one way and new discoveries to change those things multiple times. Hopefully those behind the scenes responsible for preventing good new research will read this and take the blinders off and open their eyes to new ideas, at least be open to legitimate debate and research to prove or disprove those ideas, and not just shut them down because they dont like the idea initially.
This book really opened my eyes to the politics involved in research studies that i was never aware of. It actually angers me to see how closed-minded and set in their ways some of these doctors are. I, too, was fired from a job for standing up for what I believed in when I didn't agree with how things were happening, and it turned into a blessing in disguise. I have very strong feelings on some healthcare concerns that are being politicized and just tried to "fly under the radar" and not share my thoughts with people with opposing views just to not rock the boat, but once i started opening up debate dialogue I found both sides have valid points. I agree with Dr. Makary that we need more studies. On any topic, there should be 2 independent studies to validate results. Politics has no place in scientific research. Doctors should be allowed to research what they want, and journals shouldn't be able to quash legitimate articles just because they don't like how the results turned out. Their job should be to review the methodology and statistics to ensure it was not an "altered outcome" but not reject it on topic alone. To think that so many people have died because of the politics involved in progressive doctors questioning the status quo and trying to make it better is appalling. As Dr Makary says, saying, " I don't know" is better than making something up or passing off opinion as fact. His discussion about studies being done or falsified just to push the agenda of an industry shows the bias in the medical community is not towards improving healthcare and looking for a better way to help people, but to uphold their own prior achievements. I grew up learning that the only thing constant is change. Things are constantly changing. It is ok for things to be one way and new discoveries to change those things multiple times. Hopefully those behind the scenes responsible for preventing good new research will read this and take the blinders off and open their eyes to new ideas, at least be open to legitimate debate and research to prove or disprove those ideas, and not just shut them down because they dont like the idea initially.
Al Lewis5.0 out of 5 stars
What doctors think they know might harm you.
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2024
The Blind Spot highlights the dangers of groupthink in medical research and practice. Once a consensus is formed, those who attempt to counter it are met with derision and blacklisting.
I know this from firsthand experience, since I got blacklisted from conferences for calling out the workplace wellness industry, which as coincidence would have it was enabled by a lower-level employee of Dr. Makary’s own institution. Remember when your employer used to hire a “vendor” to line you up to take your blood and tell you and your employer all the undiagnosed diseases you had? The data quite clearly showed zero value in this but a combination of groupthink, profitability and payoffs to benefits consultants kept it going long past its Sell By date.
Now imagine this groupthink thing playing out in the medical field as a whole. Accurate data is developed by independent, underfunded iconoclasts contradicting the consensus, a consensus feeding many careers. As Upton Sinclair said: “You can’t convince someone of something whose salary depends on believing the opposite.”
So the medical establishment suppresses this dissent, blacklists the dissenters, and cuts off their research funding. The Blind Spot provides numerous examples of this.
Example: antibiotics are not “harmless,” and are probably prescribed maybe twice as often as they should be, especially for children. Children given multiple antibiotics as babies and toddlers end up with adverse effects that don’t show up until years latger.
Example: hormone replacement therapy got a bad rap due to one study way back in 2002 and is only now getting its mojo back as a quality-of-life improvement that also significantly reduces common health risks.
Example: many people still don’t eat eggs because some researchers were bribed almost a half-century ago by the sugar lobby to demonize fat-and-cholesterol. It’s taken decades to undo that lie, largely because dissenters were suppressed. (My own nutrition course was taught by one of those perps, and it took me decades to get over it.) Even today, sugary products advertise “Contains No Cholesterol.”
Example: most deadly ovarian cancers don’t originate in the ovaries. They originate in the fallopian tubes. This is well-established. But women are still subjected to invasive surgeries that don’t address this root cause.
My only complaint about Blind Spot is that all the things that could have been in there that aren’t. For instance, few people know that most cavities (including my own, as it turned out) can be treated painlessly for $40 or less with a couple of drops of silver diamine fluoride. It’s been around for years, but for obvious reasons dentists don’t tell you about it. Perhaps Dr. Makary is saving nuggets like this one for a sequel…
I know this from firsthand experience, since I got blacklisted from conferences for calling out the workplace wellness industry, which as coincidence would have it was enabled by a lower-level employee of Dr. Makary’s own institution. Remember when your employer used to hire a “vendor” to line you up to take your blood and tell you and your employer all the undiagnosed diseases you had? The data quite clearly showed zero value in this but a combination of groupthink, profitability and payoffs to benefits consultants kept it going long past its Sell By date.
Now imagine this groupthink thing playing out in the medical field as a whole. Accurate data is developed by independent, underfunded iconoclasts contradicting the consensus, a consensus feeding many careers. As Upton Sinclair said: “You can’t convince someone of something whose salary depends on believing the opposite.”
So the medical establishment suppresses this dissent, blacklists the dissenters, and cuts off their research funding. The Blind Spot provides numerous examples of this.
Example: antibiotics are not “harmless,” and are probably prescribed maybe twice as often as they should be, especially for children. Children given multiple antibiotics as babies and toddlers end up with adverse effects that don’t show up until years latger.
Example: hormone replacement therapy got a bad rap due to one study way back in 2002 and is only now getting its mojo back as a quality-of-life improvement that also significantly reduces common health risks.
Example: many people still don’t eat eggs because some researchers were bribed almost a half-century ago by the sugar lobby to demonize fat-and-cholesterol. It’s taken decades to undo that lie, largely because dissenters were suppressed. (My own nutrition course was taught by one of those perps, and it took me decades to get over it.) Even today, sugary products advertise “Contains No Cholesterol.”
Example: most deadly ovarian cancers don’t originate in the ovaries. They originate in the fallopian tubes. This is well-established. But women are still subjected to invasive surgeries that don’t address this root cause.
My only complaint about Blind Spot is that all the things that could have been in there that aren’t. For instance, few people know that most cavities (including my own, as it turned out) can be treated painlessly for $40 or less with a couple of drops of silver diamine fluoride. It’s been around for years, but for obvious reasons dentists don’t tell you about it. Perhaps Dr. Makary is saving nuggets like this one for a sequel…