Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks

I just finished reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, and it's the most important book I've read in a long time. It's not a thriller, it's a nonfiction work of popular science. But that description doesn't do this book justice. Bad Science has the power to change the world (for the better), if people would read it carefully and with an open mind. It rails against the anti-science winds sweeping our culture, and more importantly, empowers ordinary people of reasonable intelligence to think like scientists and protect themselves from so much unscientific claptrap dressed up as science that is for sale, is on the Internet, and even in respectable media such as newspapers.In fact, I believe Bad Science should be a mandatory part of all high school science curricula, or at the very least, required reading for all medical students (who in my experience are as vulnerable to pseudoscience as other people). Heck, whoever you are, if you haven't read this book, you need to.Ben Goldacre is a brainy muckraker who, with acerbic wit and unassailable accuracy, attacks anti-scientific BS and clearly explains how it cloaks itself in a scientific aura, and how it's wrong. The beautiful thing is, you don't have to be a scientist or even a particularly scientifically literate person to understand. Anybody with a brain can detect BS if given the proper tools.Goldacre's targets cover the spectrum from "quacks, hacks" to "big pharma flacks". He lays bare the alternative realities in which live detox treatments, ear candling, anti-aging cosmetics, homeopathy, diet experts, antioxidants, pharmaceutical companies with large advertising budgets, vaccine opponents, and most frightening of all, people who oppose antiretroviral therapy for AIDS and argue that HIV does not cause this disease.In my opinion, the author is utterly fair in his arguments. But he is not always nice. (Is there a reason why he should be?) Ben Goldacre is my new hero, slaying dragons of ignorance and going head-to-head in intellectual combat with some of the most hysterically irrational elements in society today.Along the way as you read this entertaining book, you'll learn what you need to know about clinical trials, about the power and limitations of statistics, and about how to think critically, to become a little Ben Goldacre yourself.My favorite quote from the book is one of the best science quotes of all time:The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

I bought this book knowing I would probably agree with it. Turns out I was right.Detox baths, ear candling, Brain Gym, homeopathy, the MMR scare, nutritionists, moisturisers, vitamin supplements, pharmaceutical companies - they are all myths that are deftly and humorously deconstructed by physician and professional skeptic Ben Goldacre. Most importantly, he presents facts - quotes peer-reviewed papers, looks behind the news reports, reasons on the evidence. The chapter on how big pharma distort the data from clinical studies is worth the price of admission alone. It's easy to read, but it probably helps if you have a background of some sort in the sciences.However.Despite any protestations to the contrary, don't ever think Ben Goldacre cares overly much about the people whose myths he gleefully deconstructs. Referring to things that are untrue as a 'vast empire of nonsense', 'hocus pocus' (Brain Gym), 'gobbledegook' (homeopathic remedies) tells me the author doesn't have an entirely objective view. Neither does casting doubt on the intelligence of members of a profession: apparently, nutritionists 'lack the intellectual horsepower to be fairly derided as liars', and journalists that sensationalise news reports are are `intellectually offended by how hard they find science' and therefore 'resentful' of not being part of the progress of science. There is a fair dollop of intellectual snobbery throughout the book.Skepticism is fine, even healthy to a point. It's foolish to swallow everything you hear. But hard-nosed skeptics usually have more faith than they care to admit - and Ben Goldacre has an almost evangelical faith in evidence-based medicine.Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book. And it certainly confirmed some suspicions. I just worry about how Ben Goldacre's unrelenting skepticism has coloured his interpretations of the facts. In the end, books like these really only polarise people into opposing groups. I wish the author was more interested in dignifying the uninformed than bashing people with logic.

Great read, logical, to the point, and brings up loads of valid information. My issues- Ben is skewed toward treating ills with pharmaceuticals whereas I'm coming to believe that lifestyle/functional medicine that looks at lifestyle issues first is the direction medicine needs to go in. Change your crappy diet first, then throw drugs at symptoms if necessary. Issue #2- in a nod to changing diet, he states that most people know what food is good for them. I'd beg to differ. No they don't. The vast majority of grocery store aisles are packed with processed food industry junk. The government, the educational system and the medical system all promote a diet heavy on crap. Official diabetes association advice still recommends “healthy whole grains” and keep injecting that insulin. Brilliant. When official advice leads you down the road to chronic disease, then you have to assume that most people DON'T know what to eat. Real food with no ingredients labels vs processed, carb-laden junk that we're surrounded with and told to eat. What are most people going to pick? And mostly because they're addicted to it.Ben, if you haven't already, read Denise Minger's book Death by Food Pyramid. She's another that looks at the evidence and presents a very well-documented case for diet change first. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.