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Consumer Health

A Guide to Intelligent Decisions

9TH EDITION

STEPHEN BARRETT WILLIAM M. LONDON MANFRED KROGER

HARRIET HALL ROBERT S. BARATZ

9TH EDITION

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Make Good Decisions about Your Health Care The most comprehensive consumer health text available, Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions offers a panoramic view of the health marketplace. You’ll learn how to sharpen your critical consumer skills so you can distinguish valid health claims from those that are fraudulent or misleading. By offering science-based facts and guidelines, Consumer Health provides the tools you need to make smart decisions about health care products and services for yourself and your family.

Some of the many new and revised topics include:

Updated information on health care economics, refl ecting the most recent legislation and debates regarding insurance and mandatory coverage and how it affects you.

New and expanded material on complementary and alternative medicine, including the latest on fad diseases, “energy medicine,” accreditation standards, and diploma mills.

Current research and information on nutrition and weight management, including “detox” products, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, and the newly-designed MyPlate food guide.

About the Authors

Stephen Barrett, M.D., has been investigating and writing about consumer health issues for more than 40 years. His Quackwatch website serves as a clearinghouse for information on health frauds and quackery. He serves as Vice President of the Institute for Science in Medicine, is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, edits Consumer Health Digest, and is a peer-review panelist for several top medical journals.

William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H., is a health educator and professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University, Los Angeles. He is also the associate editor of Consumer Health Digest, co-host of the Credential Watch website, and a member of the editorial board of the journal FACT (Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies: An Evidence-Based Approach).

Manfred Kroger, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Food Science and Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and Society at The Pennsylvania State University, where he has won several teaching awards. He is a science communicator for the Institute of Food Technologists and is scientifi c editor of its online journal, Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. He is also associate editor of the Journal of Food Science and a scientifi c advisor to the American Council on Science and Health.

Harriet Hall, M.D., a retired family physician and colonel, served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. Her administrative positions included chief of clinic services and director of base medical services. She now devotes her time to investigating questionable health claims and writing and lecturing about pseudoscience, quackery, “alternative medicine,” and critical thinking. She is a contributing editor to both Skeptical Inquirer and Skeptic magazines and a founding member and editor of the Science-Based Medicine blog.

Robert S. Baratz, M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D., an expert on quality of care, is president and medical director of South Shore Health Care in Braintree, Massachusetts, where he practices internal, oral, and occupational medicine. He serves on the medical faculties of Boston University and Tufts University and is used as a consultant by many regulatory and law enforcement agencies.

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CONSUMER HEALTH A Guide to Intelligent

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STEpHEN BARRETT, MD Author, Editor, Consumer Advocate Webmaster, Quackwatch Network

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

WiLLiAM M. LONDON, EDD, MpH Professor, Department of Public Health

California State University Los Angeles, California

MANfRED KROgER, pHD Professor Emeritus of Food Science

Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and Society The Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

HARRiET HALL, MD Retired Family Physician

Puyallup, Washington

ROBERT S. BARATz, MD, DDS, pHD President and Medical Director, South Shore Health Care

Braintree, Massachusetts

Ninth Edition

CONSUMER HEALTH: A gUiDE TO iNTELLigENT DECiSiONS, NiNTH EDiTiON

Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2013 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2007, 2002, 1997. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States.