The blind spots of medicine
Audiobook
The blind spots of medicine
Stories of painful mistakes that endanger our health
Medicine is often wrong not because it knows little, but because it is too sure.
Do you think that medical recommendations are always based on evidence? That if we hear them our whole lives and experts repeat them, they must be right? I wish that were always true.
Physician and researcher Marty Makary convincingly shows that even today' s medicine has its blind spots. That is, areas where expert consensus has turned into dogma, where questions have stopped being asked, and where misinterpretations of data and pressure from authorities have led to mistakes that have cost entire generations. And maybe they affected you too.
Makary takes you through stories of research, medical decisions, and patients for whom the healthcare system failed – not because of the absence of evidence, but in spite of it.
In the book you will learn, among other things:
The peanut allergy epidemic was not triggered by nature, but by official health recommendations.
Millions of women have lost healthy ovaries unnecessarily because the true site of cancer origin was long ignored.
Routine administration of antibiotics destroys the microbiome and increases the risk of obesity, asthma, diabetes and mental disorders.
Eggs and cholesterol were scapegoated not because of evidence, but because of vocal individuals.
Due to ignoring the warning evidence of HIV transmission through blood, people could still be infected through transfusions for almost a decade.
Hormone replacement therapy can do more for the health of women over fifty than any other drug in history.
Dogma is passed down from generation to generation.
In the face of a flood of conflicting information, people most often believe what their parents taught them.
Before 1900, cardiovascular events were rare and almost never mentioned in the medical literature.
This book is not an attack on science. It is a challenge to live up to her ideals.
They wrote about the book:
This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the pitfalls of modern medicine.
- Peter Attia, bestselling author of Surviving
The book opened my eyes and shocked me in places. She made me think more about what doctors tell me, not be afraid to ask questions and possibly request a second opinion. I actually wish that doctors themselves would read it - perhaps it will contribute to greater humility and critical thinking in some of them.
- Vendula Kusá, editor
A timely and very readable book that brings a much-needed name to the fundamental evils of our medical establishment and advises what to do about them.
- Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine
Marty Makary
British-American physician, surgeon, and health care expert from Johns Hopkins University, where he is also the head of transplant surgery. He served on the board of the World Health Organization, is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and is a leading voice advocating greater transparency and innovation in healthcare. He participated in more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and the creation of the surgeon' s checklist, and served as a visiting professor at more than 25 medical schools. He has written several books and publishes in periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Lives in Baltimore, Maryland
Jan Melvil Publishing s.r.o., Roubalova 383/13, 602 00 Brno 2, Česká republika, www.melvil.cz
