What if your doctor’s medical advice is all wrong? What if there was no scientific evidence for their recommendations about your diet, lifestyle choices, or prescription medications? Would you know enough to advocate for your own health?
In Lies My Doctor Told Me, Dr. Ken D. Berry highlights the biggest misconception in the healthcare industry: that doctors know everything. He explains that while some physicians advocate outdated practices because they’re too busy to keep up with new research, others blindly accept results from Big Pharma-sponsored studies. But most importantly, in this book, Dr. Berry busts more than 25 commonly-believed medical and diet-related myths and teaches you evidence-based approaches to take control of your health.
About the Author
Dr. Ken D. Berry is a board-certified family physician. He was recently accepted as a fellow in the American Academy of Family Medicine. Dr. Berry’s practice focuses on preventing and treating chronic diseases caused by the Standard American Diet, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. He empowers patients with information to help them navigate this “upside-down circus that is modern medicine.”
What’s Inside
There are 30 chapters in Lies My Doctor Told Me, and each chapter covers one common misconception in medicine. Dr. Berry breaks down each myth with sections that describe the lie, why you should care (or how the lie affects your health), and where support for the lie comes from (such as Big Pharma or the American Heart Association, for example). Dr. Berry provides common-sense reasoning about why the lie is absurd, then backs it up with the research to debunk each myth.
Closing out each chapter/lie, you’ll find a take-home message to sum up the key truths to remember when speaking with your doctor or loved ones about the issue in question. You’ll also learn Dr. Berry’s personal opinions and practices on the matter in a “Do as I do” section. Finally, Dr. Berry includes homework in the form of recommended reading about each lie, if you’re curious for more.
After each lie gets a thorough debunking, Dr. Berry turns his attention to those in medicine in a chapter titled, “Dear Colleagues.” Here he chastises bad doctors and advises medical students, new doctors, and veterans to see the light and right their wrongs (or not start bad habits at all!).
What You’ll Learn
Dr. Berry tackles the most prevalent medical and health myths of the last 50 years, including why low-salt diets do little (if anything) for high blood pressure, strokes, and heart disease. And why you have no reason to fear saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, red meat, processed meat, or grilling meat. And did you know beefing up your workouts may sabotage your weight loss goals? Or that sun exposure doesn’t correlate with skin cancer risks, and diet may be more effective than sunscreen? You’ll learn the science behind these exposed “lies” and a lot more.
Then Dr. Berry tackles over 25 mini-medical myths in a quick lightning round called, “Little White Lies.” It contains truths for lies, like we only use 10 percent of our brain, we should drink eight glasses of water per day (or more), spicy foods cause reflux, stretching before exercise matters, etcetera.
What We Like
We like how Dr. Berry examines the origins, fallacies, and truths behind each medical lie in an unbiased, organized, easy-to-digest, information-packed format. Readers can start and stop anywhere they like, and the extra reading recommendations provide a roadmap to follow if you’re interested in a specific subject.
We also enjoy how Dr. Berry provides patients with the tools to start a discussion with their doctors about their diet and alternatives to prescriptions. This allows both parties to work on natural health solutions as a team.
Room for Improvement
Dr. Berry admits that he left out citations for his research to keep his book short and costs down. However, we wish readers could find a list of references on his website to read the studies mentioned. Dr. Berry strongly advocates for both doctors and patients to check medical research, see who paid for the studies, and not blindly trust health advice given by doctors. We wish he made it easier for readers to do so.
The Final Word
In “Lies My Doctor Told Me,” author Dr. Berry’s goal wasn’t to bash doctors and point fingers in Lies My Doctor Told Me. But learning the truth about these medical myths that harm your health will encourage you to become the best advocate for your own well-being. You may be surprised to learn how many of your good intentions are actually sabotaging your health goals.
Shop for Lies My Doctor Told Me here.
Click here to learn more about Dr. Berry and to watch his LowCarbUSA videos.
