Dr. Marty Makary’s new book, “Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health,” explores the fallibility of medical recommendations that have, at times, been misguided or harmful.
Makary, a surgeon and professor at Johns Hopkins University, argues that many widely accepted health practices are based more on authority and intuition than solid evidence. He underscores how the medical establishment’s dogmatic adherence to certain recommendations can lead to significant public health issues.
One notable example Makary discusses is the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) 2000 recommendation for children under age 4, pregnant women, and lactating mothers to avoid peanuts due to potential allergy risks. This guidance was influenced by a UK study from 1996, which, despite its findings, was not supported by the study’s lead author.
This avoidance led to a significant rise in peanut allergies and severe reactions, creating a vicious cycle where fear of peanuts increased allergy prevalence. Today, the recommendation has been reversed, but the U.S. and U.K. still have the highest rates of peanut allergies globally.
Another critical area Makary examines is Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). For decades, HRT was celebrated for alleviating menopause symptoms and reducing heart attack and Alzheimer’s risks. However, in 2002, a study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested that HRT increased breast cancer risk by 26%.
This alarming conclusion, later found to be based on misrepresented data, led to an 80% drop in HRT prescriptions. Many women missed out on a potentially beneficial treatment due to the fallout from this flawed study.
Makary also highlights the overuse of antibiotics, which are often prescribed without distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections. This overprescription contributes to significant health issues, including impacts on gut health, which can lead to obesity, asthma, learning disabilities, and other conditions.
Studies, including one from the Mayo Clinic, show that early antibiotic use in children correlates with these adverse outcomes, emphasizing the need for more judicious use of these medications.
Fluoridation of drinking water, a practice begun in the 1940s to prevent tooth decay, is another area under scrutiny. Makary references a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, which found minimal contemporary evidence supporting water fluoridation’s effectiveness in preventing cavities.
Additionally, concerns have been raised about potential negative effects on gut health and IQ, with a 2019 study linking higher fluoride exposure during pregnancy to lower IQ scores in children.
Makary concludes that many accepted medical practices, such as fluoride in water and HRT, may be based more on historical assumptions and less on current evidence.
He argues that these examples demonstrate the importance of questioning medical recommendations and emphasizes that such practices should be continually re-evaluated in light of new evidence rather than being accepted as immutable truths.
