What Your Doctor Won't Tell You : The Complete Guide to the Latest in Alternative Medicine
Consumers could certainly use a solid journalistic examination of "alternative" medical therapies and their advocates. Heimlich's, unfortunately, is not that book. While justifiably deploring overmedication and unnecessary surgery, Heimlich ( Homeopathic Medicine at Home ) accepts uncritically many suggestions, so long as they do not emanate from the "establishment." The result is a melange of solid good sense (stop smoking to prevent heart disease), interesting potential (acupuncture as a treatment for sundry ailments; the mind-body connection) and much that is highly dubious and potentially dangerous, including discredited south-of-the-border cancer therapies, floral extracts, magnets and "psychic diagnosis." Typical of the author's gullibility is her failure to impute other than altruistic motives to her sources; she accepts, with no apparent awareness of conflict of interest, an "expert" opinion on vitamin megadoses from a manufacturer of such products. Her book will bolster the convictions of believers; its anecdotes, testimonials and naivete will rightly reinforce the doubts of skeptics. Heimlich is married to Henry Heimlich, the physician who devised the lifesaving Heimlich Maneuver.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.