Review by intrepid14 -- Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
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intrepid14
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Review by intrepid14 -- Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
[Following is a volunteer review of "Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks" by Morton E Tavel, MD.]
3 out of 4 stars
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From vaccinations to red meat to drying your hands with a paper towel or blow dryer, Dr. Tavel covers a wide range of medical topics. The focus of the book is to debunk myths, mostly from the alternative world. He also covers conspiracy theories such as EMF’s from the internet. He debunks myths from food and water and their contaminants, as well as covers diet and exercise. He goes over weight loss pills and myths, then continues into such subjects as sodium and high blood pressure. Dr. Tavel covers a wide array of medical issues that intersect your daily life from the internet to how you dry your hands.
He is a cardiac surgeon and leans on the side of traditional medicine. If you are strictly alternative you may not find enough in this book to enjoy it. I was able to overlook the clear bias against alternative medicine, because he had a lot of good topics, which I did enjoy reading about. He comes at it from a medical standpoint and I would say is anti-alternative medicine. He does address alternative medicine, but uses statistics to show it is irrelevant.
I liked how it the book was written. It was easy to read and not technical at all. He used many statistics and sited all the studies. It was written in a conversational manner and I didn’t feel talked down too, though he is a doctor. I found him easy and sometimes even funny. I did not like that he did not explore any alternative medicine. He was not a supporter of Chiropractors and believes the “gluten problem" is not near as prevalent as it has been made out to be.
The one concern I would have with the book is his take on diet. He says saturated fat is bad as is red meat, and that you should always eat breakfast. These studies have been debunked the opposite way and show that it is not saturated fat that is bad nor the red meat, but sugar. Now he didn’t think sugar was great, but I disagreed with much of his diet views. The diet views line up with traditional medicine and does not look at the newer studies which have moved us to intermittent fasting, Paleo and Ketogenic diets.
I rate this book, Tips Myths and Rips: A physicians’ Advice by Dr. Taler, a 3 out of 4 stars. I thought the rating and the writing were very good. I do believe it is out of date as far as studies on diet and did not line up with new research. I didn’t rate it a 4 as I would not recommend the portion of the book that is on diet. I did like some portions such as how to get chlorine out of drinking water. I didn’t rate it lower as I don’t think it is fair to rate a book lower just because I disagree. However, I don’t think he was open to the other side of medicine and that is why I gave it a 4. The formatting was a little strange in places, where the numbers were bulleted. The chapter titles also had something wrong with the formatting with some random numbers on each side of the chapter titles. Overall there was some interesting fact to me such as using paper towels over a blow dryer, and debunking the myths of the harms of the internet and cell phones.
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Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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3 out of 4 stars
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From vaccinations to red meat to drying your hands with a paper towel or blow dryer, Dr. Tavel covers a wide range of medical topics. The focus of the book is to debunk myths, mostly from the alternative world. He also covers conspiracy theories such as EMF’s from the internet. He debunks myths from food and water and their contaminants, as well as covers diet and exercise. He goes over weight loss pills and myths, then continues into such subjects as sodium and high blood pressure. Dr. Tavel covers a wide array of medical issues that intersect your daily life from the internet to how you dry your hands.
He is a cardiac surgeon and leans on the side of traditional medicine. If you are strictly alternative you may not find enough in this book to enjoy it. I was able to overlook the clear bias against alternative medicine, because he had a lot of good topics, which I did enjoy reading about. He comes at it from a medical standpoint and I would say is anti-alternative medicine. He does address alternative medicine, but uses statistics to show it is irrelevant.
I liked how it the book was written. It was easy to read and not technical at all. He used many statistics and sited all the studies. It was written in a conversational manner and I didn’t feel talked down too, though he is a doctor. I found him easy and sometimes even funny. I did not like that he did not explore any alternative medicine. He was not a supporter of Chiropractors and believes the “gluten problem" is not near as prevalent as it has been made out to be.
The one concern I would have with the book is his take on diet. He says saturated fat is bad as is red meat, and that you should always eat breakfast. These studies have been debunked the opposite way and show that it is not saturated fat that is bad nor the red meat, but sugar. Now he didn’t think sugar was great, but I disagreed with much of his diet views. The diet views line up with traditional medicine and does not look at the newer studies which have moved us to intermittent fasting, Paleo and Ketogenic diets.
I rate this book, Tips Myths and Rips: A physicians’ Advice by Dr. Taler, a 3 out of 4 stars. I thought the rating and the writing were very good. I do believe it is out of date as far as studies on diet and did not line up with new research. I didn’t rate it a 4 as I would not recommend the portion of the book that is on diet. I did like some portions such as how to get chlorine out of drinking water. I didn’t rate it lower as I don’t think it is fair to rate a book lower just because I disagree. However, I don’t think he was open to the other side of medicine and that is why I gave it a 4. The formatting was a little strange in places, where the numbers were bulleted. The chapter titles also had something wrong with the formatting with some random numbers on each side of the chapter titles. Overall there was some interesting fact to me such as using paper towels over a blow dryer, and debunking the myths of the harms of the internet and cell phones.
******
Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Latest Review: "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon
