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Blind Spots

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

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About this listen

 'ENTHRALLING.... A PASSIONATE, WELL-ARGUED AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING READ.' - The Times

AN AMAZON BOOK OF THE YEAR

For readers of Chris van Tulleken, Tim Spector and Ben Goldacre: An international bestseller which reveals how modern-day crises have been caused by the medical establishment, and what you really need to know about your health.

Is HRT unsafe? Should you avoid giving peanut butter to small children? Blind Spots uncovers how inaccurate research drives medical myths which can spark public health crises.

Doctors said for decades that opioids were not addictive, igniting the opioid crisis. They refused menopausal women hormone replacement therapy, causing unnecessary suffering. They demonised natural fat in foods, driving patients to eat processed carbohydrates as obesity soared.
Modern medicine shines when it draws on good scientific studies. But when medicine is led by dogmatic groupthink, it's everyday people who fall victim. Blind Spots examines the latest research to reveal the truths essential to our health.©2025 Marty Makary (P)2025 Bonnier Books UK Medicine & Health Care Industry Policy & Administration Health Medicine Nutrition
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This is a brilliant and shocking account of groupthink, arrogance, and bullying in the medical establishment, delivered with high-quality scientific reasoning. Don't come here looking for anti-vaxxer validation or to nourish conspiracy theories - this is top-quality scientific contrarianism. Do expect a sharp critique of illustrative medical dogma (for example, about peanut allergy, HRT, antibiotics, ovarian cancer, childbirth, fats, breast implants, etc) that persisted while doing untold harm and resisted evidence for years. In each case study of awfulness, Makary draws out a broader lesson about how the system of medical knowledge and practice functions (and is dysfunctional) - confirmation bias, effort justification, cognitive dissonance, denial of doubt, and cancelling dissident views.

It was a refreshing read, and I am glad Makary will be the US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner - that moribund institution needs an injection of relentless curiosity, humility, challenge and following evidence.

I'm a man, but if I were a woman, I'd be especially furious about some of the things described here.

High credibility challenge to medical dogma

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