Credibility of consumer health digest

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.

RECYCLED

This book is printed on recycled, acid-free paper containing 10% postconsumer waste.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 QDB/QDB 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

ISBN 978-0-07-802848-9 MHID 0-07-802848-5

Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Michael Ryan Vice President & Director of Specialized Publishing: Janice M. Roerig-Blong Publisher: David Patterson Executive Editor: Christopher Johnson Marketing Coordinator: Colleen P. Havens Development Editor: Darlene Schueller Senior Project Manager: Lisa Bruflodt Cover Designer: Studio Montage, St. Louis, Missouri Design Coordinator: Brenda A. Rowles Buyer: Sue Culbertson Media Project Manager: Sridevi Palani Primary Typeface:11-point Times Composition: Stephen Barrett, M.D. Printer: Quad/Graphics

All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Consumer health : a guide to intelligent decisions / Stephen Barrett ...[et al.]. — 9th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-07-802848-9 (alk. paper) 1. Medical care. 2. Health products. 3. Quacks and quackery. 4. Consumer education. I. Barrett, Stephen, 1933- RA410.5.C645 2013 362.1--dc23 2011039127

www.mhhe.com

Stephen Barrett, M.D., a retired psychiatrist who resides near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has achieved national renown as an author, editor, and con- sumer advocate. In addition to heading Quackwatch, he is vice president of the Institute for Scientific Medicine and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly called CSICOP). In 1984, he received an FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery. In 1986, he was awarded honorary membership in the American Dietetic Association. From 1987 through 1989, he taught health education at The Pennsylvania State University. In 2001 he received the Distinguished Service to Health Educa- tion Award from the American Association for Health Education. He has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 2001 and is also listed in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in Medicine and Health Care, and Who’s Who in the World. An expert in medical communications, Dr. Barrett operates 25 Web sites; edits Consumer Health Digest (a free weekly electronic newsletter); is medical editor of Prometheus Books; and is a peer-review panelist for several top medical journals. His 51 books include The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America and seven of the previous editions of Consumer Health. His other major works include Dubious Cancer Treat- ment, published by the Florida Division of the American Cancer Society; Health Schemes, Scams, and Frauds, published by Consumer Reports Books; The Vitamin Pushers: How the “Health Food” Industry Is Selling America a Bill of Goods, published by Prometheus Books; and Reader’s Guide to “Alternative” Health Methods, published by the American Medical Associa- tion. His Quackwatch Web site, which serves as a clear- inghouse for information on health frauds and quackery, has won more than 70 honors and awards. Since moving to North Carolina in 2007, he has been swimming com- petitively and has won 25 state championship events.