Paul Offit has written a number of books, mostly on how people misuse medicine and give bad medical advice. Overkill is largely about how doctors themselves often make serious mistakes and give patients the wrong recommendations. It is a book that may change some of your own medical decisions. The chapter titles do most of the work.

• Treating fever can prolong or worsen illness
• Finishing the antibiotic course is often unnecessary
• Antibiotic drops don’t treat pinkeye
• Vitamin D supplements aren’t a cure-all
• Supplemental antioxidants increase the risk of cancer and heart disease
• Testosterone for “Low-T” is dangerous and unnecessary
• Baby aspirin does not prevent first strokes or first heart attacks
• Embrace allergenic food for infants
• The false security of sunblock
• Avoid reflux medicines for fussy babies
• Prostate cancer screening programs do more harm than good
• Thyroid cancer screening programs don’t save lives
• Breast cancer screening programs aren’t exactly as advertised
• Heart stents don’t prolong lives
• Surgery for knee arthritis is unnecessary
• Don’t remove mercury fillings
• Vitamin C does not treat or prevent colds
• Don’t ice sprains
• Teething doesn’t cause fever

It’s probably the first chapter that has the most surprising claim: fever-reducing pills like aspirin and ibuprofen are likely to prolong a viral infection, because the immune system works better at a higher body temperature. This is backed up by medical research. Another surprising claim backed up by evidence is that there is no medical benefit to finishing a course of antibiotics once you feel better, and given that antibiotics can have their own side effects and can increase the danger of antibiotic resistance when overused, we should stop taking them as soon as we can.

There is a question of whom to believe. Offit is a doctor, and indeed is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Surely he knows what he is writing about? But other doctors may give different medical advice citing other studies. This places the patient in a difficult position, presented with medical experts who disagree. Ultimately, you either need to do a lot of research yourself, or just make the most rational judgment you can given the time constraints you have and what you know about the credibility of the different experts.
Offit does present a convincing case for all his claims. It is alarming when one does internet searches regarding the medical issues he raises how often one finds supposedly authoritative websites not even mentioning that there is evidence against their recommendations. The collective claims in the book going against a lot of standard advice enhance the sense that medicine has a far less strong foundation than is commonly supposed, and while plenty of treatments are indeed helpful and can be life-saving, there is also a great deal of overtreatment. 

Certainly, Overkill is worth reading for anyone inclined to be suspicious of a lot of medical advice, and also for those who tend to trust what their doctor tells them. The writing is clear, and it is is easy to focus just on those parts that particularly concern the reader. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews. He teaches philosophy in the NYC area and is an APPA certified philosophical counselor

Categories: General

Keywords: medical errors, medical advice