Introduction

COMMON MEDICAL MYTHS BOOMERS
SHOULD FEAR THE MOST

As a Boomer who is also a Health care provider, I felt I had the right answer for most medical questions I fielded at parties or from friends and relatives। This changed radically as the Boomers, me included, entered the era of information overload। Suddenly, the most esoteric of healthcare questions facing my generation were the cover stories for periodicals that had previously dealt with ’What to wear for summer.”, Where to windsurf in Hawaii” and ‘How to make your man happy.’. The more I read, the less sure I became about many things; diet, exercise, इ was obviously not alone; almost every major Medical Center began publishing Newsletters on every Health-Care related topic under the sun। Sometimes, they agreed but often they were verbose, superficially contradictory and noncommittal. Even in the areas concerning the Spine where I had diligently kept up with the rapidly expanding medical literature, the results were often contradictory especially in the areas of diet, nutrition and exercise.
A very ominous trend was also developing; widely circulated periodicals and general public books were disseminating information that was not only questionable but often potentially harmful. While most people realized that they could not become ‘toned’ in ten days after twenty years of a sedentary lifestyle, when these same half-truths were repeatedly presented to them every time they went to the grocery store, anyone would begin to wonder if there was not a grain of truth present. The answer is often ‘yes’ but usually the truth is only a small sliver of the pie while the remainder is either not useful or actually potentially harmful.
The following book is an effort on the part of Scott Burkhead, Maggie Kelly M.D. and myself to take the popular literature, extract the most common recommendations that are presented to the public and try to examine the grains of truth, explore the areas that are potentially harmful and then try to summarize the larger picture. The book is written somewhat tongue-in-cheek when we talk about the Myths but not when we talk about our recommendations.



CHAPTER 1 THE MAKING OF A MEDICAL MYTH

Many Medical Myths are presented in a way that it is easy most of us to see them for what they are “too good to be true”.

1. Weight can be rapidly lost by specialty diets as long as a Doctor, Actor or Self-styled Expert’s name is attached or the diet is named after a Tony area where everyone has an ideal body weight.
2. An exercise program can quickly and easily change you from a couch potato into a hulk or hottie as long as it is done within ten minutes a day or is shown by a model who has a body that defies the laws of nature and gravity.
3. Sexual prowess is the right of every American if you only have the correct mind set.
4. If you just have the right attitude, the two hour commute, crummy job and personal stresses in your life will become only minor irritants and you will positively glow with the radiance of good mental health.
5. If you take the right vitamin and supplements, the ice cream sundae and hamburger you just ate will be out weighted on your metabolic scales and your arteries will ignore the rapid influx of high fat calories.
6. A good night’s sleep is yours merely by drinking a glass of milk, taking a hot shower or walking the dog before dinner. The five cups of coffee you had today (two of which were after 3 P.M.), the chronic pattern of worrying about the next day before it is here and the three glasses of wine with dinner will become non-factors.
7. The old verities; a well-balanced diet, eating and drinking in moderation, exercising as a normal part of your lifestyle etc do not apply to Boomers because our parents thought they were true.
8. We will age differently than our parents because we are not our parents (Yet!).



Unfortunately, not all of the myths are presented in such an obvious way so that it is easy to tell truth from fiction. Often, the truth is hidden within a complex mass of partial truths and partial lies. We have taken the most pertinent health issues as they pertain to Boomers including; Nutrition (vitamins, antioxidants and supplements), Exercise ( ), and specific Health issues such as; Cardiac disease, Obesity, Insomnia, Musculoskeletal Problems, Prostate disease in men and Breast disease in women and reviewed common general assertions made in the current popular literature concerning them.






We have selected the Myths to be discussed based upon their prevalence, their medical importance and their potential for harm. We have reviewed the general medical information that is available to Boomers; Periodical, General Internet sites, Blogs, and Newsletters.

We have begun this book with a self-assessment test. We have compiled the headlines that are presented as fact to the reader, and then asked you to test your own knowledge by using a questionnaire format. We have also presented the results of the same questions that we have submitted to both Healthcare provider and the general public in the form of a questionnaire.

The answers are for each of these assertions is;

a. This is a true fact that is generally supported by scientific data.
b. This is a fact that is probably true and is supported by some scientific data.
c. This is not a fact, it is not supported by scientific data but it does not appear to be harmful.
d. This is not a fact, and the scientific data suggests that it may be harmful.

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In each Chapter, there will be several topics. We will give a brief overview of the topic, then list a series of statements found in the literature. We will then discuss the answers looking for;
1. The Myths that are presented to you.
2. How the Myth is presented.
3. The portion of the Myth that is truthful.
4. The portion of the Myth that is not true.
5. The portion of the Myth that is potentially harmful
6. The general overview of the scientific literature
7. The recommendations that we have on the topic.