Blind Spots

When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health

By: Marty Makary MD

Narrated by: Marty Makary MD

Bloomsbury presents Blind Spots written and read by Dr Marty Makary

From Johns Hopkins medical expert Dr. Marty Makary, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Price We Pay—an eye-opening look at the medical groupthink that has led to public harm, and what you need to know about your health.

More Americans have peanut allergies today than at any point in history. Why? In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a strict recommendation that parents avoid giving their children peanut products until they’re three years old. Getting the science perfectly backward, triggering intolerance with lack of early exposure, the US now leads the world in peanut allergies—and this misinformation is still rearing its head today.

How could the experts have gotten it so wrong? Dr. Marty Makary asks, Could it be that many modern-day health crises have been caused by the hubris of the medical establishment? Experts said for decades that opioids were not addictive, igniting the opioid crisis. They refused menopausal women hormone replacement therapy, causing unnecessary suffering. They demonized natural fat in foods, driving Americans to processed carbohydrates as obesity rates soared. They told citizens that there are no downsides to antibiotics and prescribed them liberally, causing a drug-resistant bacteria crisis.

When modern medicine issues recommendations based on good scientific studies, it shines. Conversely, when modern medicine is interpreted through the harsh lens of opinion and edict, it can mold beliefs that harm patients and stunt research for decades. In Blind Spots, Dr. Makary explores the latest research on critical topics ranging from the microbiome to childbirth to nutrition and longevity and more, revealing the biggest blind spots of modern medicine and tackling the most urgent yet unsung issues in our $4.5 trillion health care ecosystem. The path to medical mishaps can be absurd, entertaining, and jaw-dropping—but the truth is essential to our health.

©2024 Marty Makary, MD (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Hindsight is 20/20

I found most of this book super interesting and informative. I always wondered what the deal with the sudden peanut allergies were. I wonder about hormone replacement therapy. Towards the end, the author talked about MRNA vaccines and he is clearly pro. I wonder what he will think 10 years from now on that. Some of his biases show through

True honesty

I loved the simple facts given with now bias. Full of lots of useful information

A refreshingly, transparent and honest look at modern medicine and current problems with evidence based science and dogma.

Would love to have a deeper dive into possible strategies eliminating scientific monopoly and prevention of group thinking.

Humility

This book is the most balanced work I have read that effectively describes the serious need for increased humility in science and medicine, and a more skeptical eye from consumers.

Highly recommend

American healthcare system is too expensive, too broken and does not deliver on its promise. This book gives several examples which make you wonder. Now that Dr. Makary will be the head of FDA, it will be interesting to see if he is able to weed out the corruption by fighting and fixing this system from within or end up being a wounded warrior. Or even better, lands a top job at a Pharma or device company after his tenure ends.

I wish I would have knew the stuff in this book before my children were born

This book describes numerous events where medical bias caused disease. My children are a victim of this. We were told to not give peanuts until age 3 and 2 out of 3 of our children have severe peanut allergies, the unaffected child was given peanuts at 2 weeks old. It also talks about the guy biome and the overuse of antibiotics and we have fallen victim to that as well. Thank you for writing this and for future books I would love to know how to correct the gut microbiome.

Absolutely captivating

What an engaging book about our biases and how it can affect medical knowledge & information. I absolutely binge-listened to this book because it was so interesting!

Opinion vs facts

Topic were very germane to my practice. It make one question the dogma of medical practice

A must read!

The information is easy to understand and incredibly informative. Everyone can relate to something covered in this book.

Refreshing Look At The Real World of Medicine

The author was very thorough with his analysis. I appreciated his pragmatic approach to the business of medicine.