Overkill

An acclaimed medical expert and patient advocate offers an eye-opening look at many common and widely used medical interventions that are far more harmful than helpful.

Modern medicine has significantly advanced in the last few decades as more informed practices, thorough research, and incredible breakthroughs have made it possible to successfully treat and even eradicate many serious ailments.

But while we have learned much that has changed our outlook and practices, we still rely on medical interventions that are vastly out of date and can adversely affect our health. It is an article of faith, for example, that finishing a course of antibiotics prevents the recurrence of illness, that sunscreens block harmful UV rays which cause skin cancer, and that all cancer-screening programs save lives. But do scientific studies back up such beliefs?

In this game-changing book, infectious-disease expert and Rotavirus vaccine inventor Dr Offit highlights fifteen common medical interventions still recommended and practised by medical professionals, despite clear evidence that they are harmful - including the above examples, as well as the treatment of acid reflux in babies, the lowering of fevers, and the reliance on heart stents and knee surgery.

By analysing what makes these practices so ineffective and harmful, and by presenting medical alternatives, Overkill gives patients invaluable information to help them ask their doctors better questions and to advocate for their own health.



'According to this expert skeptical account, there is less to many medical interventions than meets the eye ... A valuable corrective text for our overmedicated nation.' -Kirkus Reviews

'With ample end notes (50 pages worth) to support challenges he may expect to be forthcoming, this hit-list of medical myths and misguided therapies comes from a highly reputable source - the director of Vaccine Education at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and a professor of vaccinology and paediatrics.' -Robin Osborne, GPSpeak Praise for Bad Advice- 'Paul Offit is a pediatrician, a vaccine scientist, and one of our foremost explainers of science. In Bad Advice, he distills what he has learned - often the hard way - from standing up for science in the face of bogus theories, quack remedies, and the flat-out denial of empirical fact. Skillfully, Offit uses stories of his many missteps in the treacherous public arena to teach us how to confront pseudoscience effectively. In the process, without noticing, we learn fascinating lessons in the relevant science. A forcefully-written, indispensable book, particularly at the present moment.' -Geoffrey Kabat, cancer epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and author of Getting Risk Right- understanding the science of elusive health risks