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Book Review: Medical Myths That Can Kill You And 101 Truths That Can Save, Extend, and Improve Your Life, by Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D. Published by Crown Publishers, 2008. There are currently over 800,000 physicians practicing in the United States. By definition, some of these physicians are mediocre. That is to say, if we are to accept the idea that a particular physician is a superior physician, then we must also accept the idea that he or she is superior to other physicians who would, of necessity, be considered to be mediocre. But our acceptance of the idea of the existence of mediocre physicians within our health care system should in no way imply that we also accept, without challenge, the idea that these mediocre physicians should be allowed to write mediocre, irresponsible, and ill-informed books, and in Medical Myths That Can Kill You, And the 101 Truths That Will Save, Extend, and Improve Your Life we have just such a book. The book is written by Dr. Nancy L. Snyderman, the Chief Medical Editor of NBC News, and based upon the book's content, viewers of the NBC Nightly News may want to avoid taking seriously any advice that the doctor may provide. The irresponsible writing actually makes it's first appearance on the dust jacket of the book, where one finds the following statement: “Fact: Donating blood may lower your risk of heart disease.” It is understood that Dr. Snyderman is not the author of what is written on the dust jacket, but she should certainly be cognizant of what is found there, and one would hope that a medical doctor would have knowledge of the meaning of the word “fact.” Maybe in Dr. Snyderman's touchy-feely world of medical care, a doctor is allowed to state that a “possibility” is a “fact,” but here in the real world we draw distinctions between the two words. In the real world, I am not allowed to say “Fact: The Phoenix Lander may find three-eyed aliens on Mars tomorrow,” because I am not stating a fact. Some may say that I am being a bit too severe in a criticism that is largely semantical, but I would respond with a question: Are we not to expect a proper adherence to semantics in a book that is written by a physician and is purportedly written for the unwashed masses in an effort to set us misguided souls on the correct path to avoiding the medical myths that will kill us? I would think that a book about medical myths should be very clear and concise about what is an actual fact. If Dr. Snyderman is allowed to say that “possibilities” are “facts,” then are we not allowed to conversely treat the so-called “facts” in her book as mere “possibilities?” Unfortunately, the book is not an improvement upon it's dust jacket. One of Dr. Snyderman's “truths” that is found in the book proper is the following: “Truth: Statin drugs help fight cancer.” The foregoing statement demonstrates that either Dr. Snyderman is an irresponsible person or that she has a rather vague understanding of the word “truth.” In explaining this “truth,” Dr. Snyderman says the following: Taking statins “may halve your risk of developing colon and advanced prostate cancer while reducing the risk of pancreatic and esophageal cancer more than 50 percent.” Once again, Dr. Snyderman provides us with a possibility masquerading as a fact. Does she not see the difference between the definitive statement, “Statin drugs help fight cancer,” and the follow-up statement that they “may” decrease the risk of certain cancers? Dr. Snyderman cannot say definitively that statin drugs help fight cancer because even the National Cancer Institute is unwilling to make such a ridiculous statement.
Dr. Snyderman suggests that statins help fight colon cancer. The one large study which indicates a reduction of colon cancer in patients taking statins was a study done by the University of Michigan in conjunction with researchers in Israel. In this study, there was a 47% reduction in incidence of colon cancer among patients taking statins. The only problem with this study is that the 47% reduction in colon cancer was in patients taking statins as opposed to fibrates. While the study might indicate a reduction in colon cancer as a result of the consumption of statins, it could just as easily indicate an increase in colon cancer as a result of taking fibrates. On it's web site, the National Cancer Institute makes the following statement: “People should not take statins for cancer prevention outside of a clinical trial.” If people are not supposed to take statins for cancer prevention, then can someone please explain why a medical doctor, in a book that claims to provide us with 101 truths that will “save, extend, and improve our lives,” is citing the cancer-fighting attributes of statins as one of the life-saving truths? Are we to understand that only those with high cholesterol are worthy of the effort to prevent cancer? Does Dr. Snyderman think that her ill-advised “truth” will not prompt those with a history of cancer to badger their physicians for unnecessary statins? Regardless of whether statins actually do help fight cancer, Dr. Snyderman's presentation of the cancer-fighting qualities of statins as a life-saving truth is irresponsible. Speaking of irresponsible, Dr. Snyderman's discussion of the micronutrient, selenium, is astoundingly that. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2007 indicated that individuals who took selenium as a supplement were more prone to develop diabetes. Based upon this study, Dr. Snyderman has decided that none of us need to supplement with selenium. Dr. Snyderman glibly states that, “What you require in terms of selenium is easily obtainable from your diet.” Dr. Snyderman is so astoundingly misguided on this subject, that is difficult to believe that anyone would heed her advice on any subject. There were a myriad of problems with the Annals of Internal Medicine study that Dr. Snyderman cites, but let's just deal with the most blatant one: At the end of the study, no blood sugar tests were performed to confirm that the study participants had actually developed diabetes. The study researchers relied on participant's reports that they had developed diabetes. So let me see if I understand this: Study after study suggests that selenium supplementation may help prevent some forms of cancer, may increase fertility in men, may prevent cataracts and macular degeneration, may boost the immune system, may combat a number of skin conditions including eczema, dandruff, and warts, reduces the incidence of prostate cancer and cervical dysplasia, but because there is one flawed study of 1,202 participants who began the study with skin cancer (and by the way, apparently did not die from skin cancer, possibly thanks to the selenium supplementation), we should all give up selenium supplementation. Dr. Snyderman, we all have a pressing question for you: What is the color of the sky in your world? Dr. Snyderman's writing is most irresponsible and ill-informed when she discusses the issue of hydration. Dr. Snyderman provides us with another “truth” that has no basis in science, but is rather based upon her disliking frequent trips to the restroom. Dr. Snyderman's “truth” is that you do not need to drink eight glasses of water every day. She bases her “truth” upon an American Journal of Physiology article that was published in 2002 and was written by Dr. Heinz Valtin. I would suggest that if Dr. Snyderman really wanted to provide us with truths to improve our lives, she may have consulted the writings of a doctor who dedicated his life to the subject of proper hydration, Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. In his book, Your Body's Many Cries for Water, Dr. Batmanghelidj responds to the article written by Dr. Valtin and Dr. Snyderman should have considered this response prior to publishing a book that will misguide many people. Dr. Snyderman's writing is at it's most dangerous when she makes the following statement: “Thirst regulates our water intake quite well.” I say that her writing is dangerous because, as Dr. Batmanghelidj points out, studies indicate that as a person ages, their sense of thirst deteriorates. Indeed, Dr. Batmanghelidj cites instances of elderly people having no thirst even after twenty-four hours without any fluid intake. If we follow Dr. Snyderman's dictum of “let your thirst guide you,” we will have elderly people dying as a result of the fact that they possess no guiding thirst. Dr. Snyderman's truth concerning second hand smoke is just appallingly laughable. Her statement is that “second hand smoke takes fifty thousand lives each year.” I am not a smoking apologist, and I certainly believe that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. I have never smoked anything in my life-- not a pipe, cigarette, cigar, or joint. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. I hate the way that the smell gets into my clothes and my hair. I do not ever care to be around somebody that is smoking, but I have never accused any smoker of attempting to kill me, and I certainly would never make a statement about 50,000 deaths being caused by second hand smoke without actually checking the source of the statistic. Dr. Snyderman is quoting a number that was fabricated by anti-smoking crusader, Stanton Glantz. Glantz's number, 50,000 annual deaths caused by second hand smoke, was arrived at through a meta-analysis of twenty-three disparate epidemiological studies. In an astounding lack of adherence to scientific precepts, Glantz determined that non-smokers who were exposed to second hand smoke had a 20% increase in arterial deposits. Based on a 20% increase in arterial deposits, Glantz jumped to the conclusion that 20% of the 1,000,000 annual deaths from heart disease are caused from second hand smoke, and now we have even respectable bodies such as the American Heart Association publishing the fallacious 50,000 number. It should be noted that the Center for Disease Control, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Congressional Research Service, and the World Health Organization all disagree with Glantz's fraudulent number, and yet Dr. Snyderman quotes it unquestioningly. Dr. Snyderman, in a book that is supposedly providing “truths,” tells us that second hand smoke is killing tens of thousands. I challenge Dr. Snyderman to provide the names of five individuals whose deaths have been scientifically documented to have been caused by second hand smoke. If fifty thousand are dying each year, and she has been practicing for several years, then surely she has treated at least five of the hundreds of thousands who have died in that time. Just name five of them, and then maybe we will begin to take your numbers more seriously. Just five. In addition to the irresponsible truths that we have noted, Dr. Snyderman provides several truths that are just silly, if not moronic. One of her truths is that “Dessert can be dinner.” She suggests that Rocky Road ice cream can occasionally serve as dinner, and says that “If you make a meal out of a certain treat from time to time, you'll be less tempted to overindulge in your splurge foods.” Of course, Dr. Snyderman has no scientific data to support this silly opinion, but regardless, one fails to see how this “truth” can save, or extend, or improve one's life. Another of Dr. Snyderman's truths is that “Hyperactivity in kids is not related to sugar.” She then says “There is no scientific evidence that sugar triggers hyperactivity in children.” Even if elementary human physiology did not refute Dr. Snyderman's silly truth – that is, the dump of sugar into the blood stream, the delay in the release of insulin from the pancreas, and the sudden surge in energy provided prior to the insulin taking effect – any parent who has witnessed the post-Halloween binge of their seven-year-old or who has been unsuccessful in monitoring the whereabouts of a large, milk chocolate bunny on Easter will very easily provide anecdotal, if not scientific, evidence concerning sugar and hyperactivity in children. Again, one wonders how this silly truth will save, extend, or improve one's life. While the book does have a small amount of useful information, the majority of Snyderman's 101 truths that are supposed to “save, extend, or improve” our lives are commonly known truths that did not require the printing of another book. For example, one of Snyderman's truths is that a person can not contract sexually transmitted diseases from toilet seats. For the majority of us, the term “sexually transmitted” does not sound anything like “toilet-seat transmitted” and we would not tend to confuse the two. For any who may have confusion about the terms, I think that there was a Seinfeld episode involving a tractor and gonorrhea that may help to clear up the issue. Dr. Snyderman accurately states that bone density tests are useless, but fails to mention that they are useless because the treatment will be the same regardless of the test results. If you are a post-menopausal woman, and your bone density test indicates osteoporosis, your doctor will prescribe calcium supplementation. But if your test does not indicate osteoporosis, your doctor will still recommend calcium supplementation, just to be on the safe side. Dr. Snyderman mentions the link between the consumption of soft drinks and heart disease, but neglects to mention that the work of both Dr. Mildred Seelig and Dr. Carolyn Dean indicates that the heart disease is caused by the phosphoric acid in the soft drinks depleting the magnesium in the body. I found many other problems with Medical Myths That Can Kill You, but this book review must end somewhere. Dr. Snyderman and her publisher needlessly killed many trees in order to print a book that is irresponsible in it's opinions, ill-informed in it's science, and moronic in it's commentary. Let us hope that lives of trees will be the only lives taken as the result of the book's printing.
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