Contents

Dedication

Epigraph

Prologue: Taking a Look at Alternative Medicine

Introduction: Saving Joey Hofbauer

Part I: Distrust of Modern Medicine

1  Rediscovering the Past: Mehmet Oz and His Superstars

Part II: The Lure of All Things Natural

2  The Vitamin Craze: Linus Pauling’s Ironic Legacy

Part III: Little Supplement Makers Versus Big Pharma

3  The Supplement Industry Gets a Free Pass: Neutering the FDA

4  Fifty-Four Thousand Supplements: Which Ones Work?

Part IV: When the Stars Shine on Alternative Medicine

5  Menopause and Aging: Suzanne Somers Weighs In

6  Autism’s Pied Piper: Jenny McCarthy’s Crusade

7  Chronic Lyme Disease: The Blumenthal Affair

Part V: The Hope Business

8  Curing Cancer: Steve Jobs, Shark Cartilage, Coffee Enemas, and More

9  Sick Children, Desperate Parents: Stanislaw Burzynski’s Urine Cure

Part VI: Charismatic Healers Are Hard to Resist

10  Magic Potions in the Twenty-First Century: Rashid Buttar and the Lure of Personality

Part VII: Why Some Alternative Therapies Really Do Work

11  The Remarkably Powerful, Highly Underrated Placebo Response

12  When Alternative Medicine Becomes Quackery

Epilogue: Albert Schweitzer and the Witch Doctor: A Parable

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Also by Paul A. Offit, M.D.

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher