{"id":2849,"date":"2014-01-22T00:23:01","date_gmt":"2014-01-22T00:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2025-04-18T07:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T07:45:17","slug":"a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/","title":{"rendered":"A critical look at medical quackery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things tend to stay the same the more they change. Recently, Google published an incisive, thoughtful book regarding medical quackery which shows how people can easily believe on things that don\u2019t really make sense as such. Dr. Worthington Hooker wrote the book in \u2018MDCCL\u2019 or 1850 to make things much easier for you. The title of the book is, Lessons from the History of Medical Delusions. <\/i>Despite the book being 160 years old, it still remains very relevant today.<\/p>\n

Medical delusions that laypersons and doctors believe<\/h2>\n

In the book, Dr. Hooker makes key observations on what he refers to as \u2018Medical Delusions\u2019 that are believed by laypersons and doctors. These delusions are usually based on a logical fallacy referred to as \u2018pos hoc ergo propter hoc\u2019 <\/i>in Latin. The fact that something happens after another doesn\u2019t imply that one event resulted because of another. For instance, if a person takes a certain antibiotic and gets a rash, does that mean that he is allergic? He may be allergic or not as there are other reasons that can cause rashes. Just before the rash started, the antibiotic ends up taking the entire blame. Careful studies show that few than 10 percent of people who tend they are allergic towards penicillin are allergic<\/a> actually. Clear medical thinking demands that such events are looked into scientifically and the assumptions tested before a conclusion is made.<\/p>\n

Another point that Dr. Hooker notes is that it is highly likely that there is no one theory that actually explains all the aspects of health and wellness or that there is an approach or a cure which can solve all the problems. Normally diseases are caused by environmental factors, nutrition, genetics and infection among other things. There needs to be a variation in therapeutic and preventive approaches depending on the exact cause. If you think well about it, there is a less likelihood for one medicine to cure insomnia, asthma, bunions and liver disease.<\/p>\n

The book also targets medical fashions<\/h2>\n

Dr. Hooker also targets medical fashions in his book. It is no secret that patients, doctors and the media do love new ideas, new diseases and new things. While everyone could be thinking about the most fashionable disease, this doesn\u2019t mean that everyone\u2019s symptoms are explained. Patients stand to benefit far much more from clear thinking and honest, simple and reliable observations rather than focusing and theorizing on in style single disease processes.<\/p>\n

Despite this book by Dr. Hooker being written way back in 1850, the truth is that it\u2019s still very readable. The doctor seems to be very proud of his medical profession but he is also very humble about the mistakes and errors that have placed the medicine field. He points out that the best tools that can help in advancing medical knowledge are scientific observations, studying and listening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things tend to stay the same the more they change. Recently, Google published an incisive, thoughtful book regarding medical quackery which shows how people can easily believe on things that don\u2019t really make sense as such.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cpr"],"yoast_head":"\nA critical look at medical quackery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CPR blog for A critical look at medical quackery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A critical look at medical quackery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CPR blog for A critical look at medical quackery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Online CPR Certification Blog | World News in Medicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-22T00:23:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-18T07:45:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/\",\"name\":\"A critical look at medical quackery\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-22T00:23:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-18T07:45:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/54248b57c4973c8f339e90ca1ad2b46b\"},\"description\":\"CPR blog for A critical look at medical quackery\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A critical look at medical quackery\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Online CPR Certification Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/54248b57c4973c8f339e90ca1ad2b46b\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02633b4fc66ccd10394db68cc59a903a6ca17029064cd9a9e664a1d84afeba2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02633b4fc66ccd10394db68cc59a903a6ca17029064cd9a9e664a1d84afeba2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A critical look at medical quackery","description":"CPR blog for A critical look at medical quackery","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A critical look at medical quackery","og_description":"CPR blog for A critical look at medical quackery","og_url":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/","og_site_name":"Online CPR Certification Blog | World News in Medicine","article_published_time":"2014-01-22T00:23:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-18T07:45:17+00:00","author":"Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/","url":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/","name":"A critical look at medical quackery","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-22T00:23:01+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-18T07:45:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/54248b57c4973c8f339e90ca1ad2b46b"},"description":"CPR blog for A critical look at medical quackery","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/a-critical-look-at-medical-quackery\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A critical look at medical quackery"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/","name":"Online CPR Certification Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/54248b57c4973c8f339e90ca1ad2b46b","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02633b4fc66ccd10394db68cc59a903a6ca17029064cd9a9e664a1d84afeba2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02633b4fc66ccd10394db68cc59a903a6ca17029064cd9a9e664a1d84afeba2b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16048,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2849\/revisions\/16048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onlinecprcertification.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}