Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA Each Year.

You need this book. It is easy to become so engrossed in Kauffman's easy writing style that you will continue reading and lose track of time. Thumb through and stop at any place and you are guaranteed to find a wealth of information. Detractors to the best toxic-free remedies are provided rebuttals--you can learn a comprehensive approach to what and why. Let's make this required reading in medical schools! The only error I found was a typo misspelling of Antiplatelet in the Fig. 1-2 Treatment Meta-Analysis Table (p. 21). Again, this book is so loaded with useful information you will constantly refer to it. On p. 232 and again on p. 254 we read, correctly, how sunblock contributes to cancer by blocking Vitamin D formation--something that Rodale Press in their vast publishings fail to impart. Rodale Press, whom some may consider a leader in preventive health publishing, recommends sunblock to unsuspecting readers. The hallmark of clinical observations (p2-3) over random clinical trials [RCT] is a common sense approach often missed in the medical literature and is sometimes used to discredit bonafide treatments that elicit positive results. You will learn of the class-action lawsuit against Pfizer regarding Lipitor [still want to ask you Dr. if it's right for you?](p97) and that statins cause cancer (p98). The section on fluoridation is a must read. "How Antiflouridationists Have Weakened Their Cause," to only non-English speaking countries having the foresight to reject fluoride, to 60% US public water supplies being fluoridated--we get the good, the bad, and the ugly. As fluorides have been shown to increase cancer risks, adding them to water violated the Delaney Clause of the 1958 Amendment to the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938. So, the Delaney Clause was repealed in 1996 (p.273). Also, adding fluoride violates the EPA policy on drinking water standards (Safe Drinking Water Act) explaining why the 1990 National Toxicology Program on sodium fluoride was "revised" with findings of "clear evidence of carcinogenicity" to "equivocal" evidence. This was necessary to keep the flouridation program legal (p274). On mammograms, benefits claim lower breast cancer mortality without providing all-cause mortality. Kauffman reminds that this is also a major fault in "major texts in gynecology and oncology" (p217). However, I was surprised to find thermography cast in such low regard, but then this is coming from the American College of Radiology, who cites a false-positive rate of 25% (p.212). Kauffman clarifies this in Addendum 1, on an entire page devoted to Thermography, in which thermography is better "able to detect breast cancer 5-8 years before mammography with vastly fewer false-positive errors" (p.327). On anti-oxidents in red wine, Kauffman notes no evidence that moderate drinking offers worthwhile health benefits (p.142). What Kauffman calls "sudden enthusiasm for red wine in the late 1990s," reminds of a medical sch

In Joseph Conrad's famous novel, "Heart of Darkness," Marlowe, the narrator of the central tale travels to the Congo in search of the enigmatic and elusive Kurtz, a renowned European ivory trader who went to Africa as an idealistic "emissary of pity, and science, and progress." Marlowe finally encounters Kurtz on his deathbed, in a compound surrounded by a ruined fence, the posts of which are capped with shrunken human heads. Kurtz, having succumbed to primitive, destructive forces-- both external and internal-- utters his last words-a withering realization of truth: "The horror! The horror!" Readers of Joel Kauffman's book "Malignant Medical Myths" should prepare themselves for an analagous journey of discovery. Not only will they learn of the specifics: that taking an aspirin a day may not make you live longer; that low carbohydrate diets are beneficial, not dangerous; that statin drugs, while effective in reducing cholesterol-an irrelevant endpoint-do little to reduce mortality-and then only in a very select population; that high blood pressure is over-treated; that the benefits of moderate alcohol use, exercise, and mammograms are exaggerated; that chelation therapy is unfairly maligned; that fears of radiation are overdone; that cancer cure rates have not changed much in the last forty years. More important than these specifics is the totality-the picture of the medical establishment which emerges from them. That establishment, like Kurtz, is often seen as a beacon of pity, and science, and progress, but, when examined more closely, seems corrupted by greed, an aversion to truth, and a kind of tribalistic conformity; it seems to lack the structures which would provide an ethical backbone, and promote a commitment to scientific thinking. The hospital compound, with its white coats and gleaming machines is shadowed and compromised by an ominous fence of grievous errors and unpleasant truths. The first subheading in Dr. Kauffman's introductory chapter is: "You Do Not Have To Trust Your Doctor." The reasons gradually become clear: Doctors' recommendations often rely on information which is "outdated, biased, flawed, and sometimes based on outright fraud." Drug companies manipulate the results of clinical trials by careful selection of volunteers, by elimination of those who show initial adverse side-effects, by publishing only favourable results, by dealing only with surrogate endpoints, by failing to use placebos, and by failing to provide total mortality figures. Relative risk statistics, which are often highly misleading are used to advantage. Abstracts of medical papers, and hence press releases, may contain selective and hence misleading information. Doctors may not only rely on information given by drug company representatives; they are feted, gifted, and even paid by drug companies. Doctors on decision-making committees and panels often have conflicts of interest because of financial ties to drug companies. Doctors have great

Malignant Medical Myths by Joel M. Kauffman, Ph.D, is an eye-opening expose that shatters many common and deeply ingrained health myths. Kauffman explains how these myths are born and how they are kept thriving by favorably designed and selectively cited research. Kauffman articulates in a convincing manner: --Why taking an aspirin a day is unlikely to make you live longer if you don't already have diagnosed heart disease; --Why low-carbohydrate diets won't cause you to keel over from heart disease, nor cause your kidneys to explode; --Why cholesterol-lowering will typically cause more harm than good, and why overglorified cholesterol drugs are useless for the vast majority of people who take them; --Why hypertension drugs are similarly useless for the majority of folks they are prescribed for; --Why the current scare campaign against any level of ionizing radiation is misguided; --How cancer statistics are carefully 'massaged' to favorably portray modern cancer treatments as far more effective than what they really are; --Why the evidence used to support the continued fluoridation of public water supplies is highly dubious. Unlike many other health commentators, Kauffman isn't spruiking any alternative services in which he has a financial interest, nor does he market his own line of nutritional supplements; he simply believes people should have access to the facts. Malignant Medical Myths is a great antidote to so much of the medical misinformation that dominates our information networks today.

Joel Kauffman exposes 11 common medical myths we all think are true in his book Malignant Medical Myths. Okay, admit it! You know you've done it and I don't want you denying it. We've all done it. You're flipping through the television channels and you stop on a station with a man in a white coat talking about what he recommends for his own patients. "Take an aspirin a day to ward off heart attacks and live longer." "You need to take this cholesterol-lowering drug to prevent heart attack or stroke." "This exercise equipment will give you the workout you need to live a long and healthy life." Sound familiar? Isn't is strange how we rely so heavily on a slick 30-second spot we see on the boob tube to give us our surface knowledge about what is good and healthy for us? But what we don't know about how wrong some of these common medical myths are has led to 200,000 deaths a year in America and there is one man who has set out to help you protect yourself from becoming the next victim in this national marketing scam. His name is Dr. Joel M. Kauffman and he has written a controversial eye-opening book called Malignant Medical Myths. It is very similar to Kevin Trudeau's bestselling book Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About and will appeal to fans of that book. But unlike Trudeau's book which requires you to visit his various web sites and pay a subscription fee to find out about all the medical myths he talks about in his book, Kauffman lays it all out there in his book and provides the scientific facts to back up what he claims are lies coming from the medical community, drug companies, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the United States Department of Agriculture, and even the National Institute of Health. Revolutionary to say the least! But Kauffman is convinced Americans need to be aware of these things to protect themselves and their families from falling prey to the ignorance that pervades our society regarding common medical claims. In Malignant Medical Myths, he questions the following medical myths, as he calls them, put forth by health and medical "experts": 1. Taking an aspirin a day will make you live longer. 2. Low-carb diets are unsafe and don't work for weight loss. 3. Using statin drugs to lower cholesterol will improve health. 4. People over 50 should take medicine for hypertension. 5. A drink a day keeps the doctor away. 6. Exercise! Run for your life! No pain, no gain. 7. EDTA chelation therapy for atherosclerosis is dangerous. 8. Radiation is dangerous except when administered by an oncologist. 9. Yearly mammograms extend life. 10. Cancer treatments have cure rates of 60%. 11. Fluoride in the water prevents tooth decay and is safe. If you believe ANY of the above statements as medically accurate, then you need to get Malignant Medical Myths. Kauffman outlines for you his extensive research on each of these and explains to you the truth using scientific studies and informa

With medical 'interventions' and drugs dominating our thinking about 'health care' and not far from $1 out of every $7 generated in some Western countries spent on it, this book is an important one that takes a scientific look at the underpinnings of some of the most common avenues that may well be proposed to you by your doctor. If you are 'placed on' aspirin, cholesterol or blood pressure drugs or are facing chemotherapy, this book will give you the perspective you need to help you make your own informed choices and to educate your doctor as well. When you think mammograms and prostate testing or fluoride in your water are established health benefits, this book is for you. Dr. Kauffman is from that old scientific school where data and studies must be examined in detail rather than taking the words of the drug-representative educated medical world, or from those in the business of promoting their own commercial products, from inflammatory vegetable oils to fluoride toothpaste for all. This is not an easy book to read, or to review, but it has nicely divided chapters that give the low-down on specific subjects, the 'eleven myths'. Leave it on a coffee table and read the chapter about the type of drug you're on. If you benefit by just dropping one expensive non science supported drug from your daily regimen, this book is worth many times its price, and you'll likely be healthier for it. For example, if you're a woman or older person, you'll learn that your $3/day cholesterol-lowering drug will not extend your healthy life --so say the studies. And, 1 week of Lipitor saved pays for this book! Knowledge is power and Dr. Kauffman has done a remarkable job assembling of some of the more vital studies and this with surprisingly few (minor) glitches for a book of this type. With 'modern medicine' arguably the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States, can you afford not to know this book? One final remark: it is smart to know the medical facts beforehand since hospitals now pride themselves with how few minutes it takes to get a balloon with a metal stent into your artery. This book is indeed about preventing Malignant Medical Myths, a catchy name well chosen. Recommended and may it serve you well.