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

From Johns Hopkins medical expert and bestselling author Dr. Marty Makary—an eye-opening look at scientific research on health topics that have been overlooked or dismissed because of medical groupthink.

Modern medicine has developed giant blind spots. Learn about the latest research on topics that are NOT routinely discussed in traditional medical settings, but are central to your health:

• The Microbiome
• Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women
• The Peanut Allergy Epidemic
• Eggs (& other foods)
• Blood tests rarely ordered that everyone needs
• Childbirth
• Cancer Prevention
• Marijuana
• The Culture of Medicine
• GLP-1 Drugs Longterm
• Medical Dogma

Could it be that many modern-day health crises have been caused by the hubris of the medical establishment? Experts said for decades that opioids were not addictive, igniting the opioid crisis. They have been refusing menopausal women hormone replacement therapy, causing unnecessary suffering. They demonized natural fat in foods, driving Americans to processed carbohydrates as obesity rates soared. They told people there are no downsides to antibiotics and prescribed them liberally, causing a drug-resistant bacteria crisis. ‍ When modern medicine issues recommendations based on good scientific studies, it shines. Conversely, when modern medicine is interpreted through the harsh lens of opinion and edict, it can mold beliefs that harm patients and stunt research for decades. Dr. Makary reveals the biggest blind spots of modern medicine and tackles the most urgent yet unsung issues in our $4.5 trillion health care ecosystem. The backstories behind the medical dogma that is propagated for decades can be absurd, entertaining, and jaw-dropping—but the truth is essential to our health.

The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care - And How to Fix It

One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising healthcare costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading healthcare experts, travels across America and details why healthcare has become a financial crisis. Using vivid stories and original research, Dr. Makary explains how a new business model of price gouging, middlemen, and a series of elusive money games is in need of a serious shake-up. He shows how so much of healthcare spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary also untangles medical bills that are so confusing most doctors can't interpret them and challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable.

Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care

A New York Times best-selling book about the effort to make our healthcare more transparent and safer for patients. Focusing on both old ways of doing business and new innovations disrupting health care, this is a guidebook for patients and reformers alike.​

The book details the hazards of transparency done poorly and the reward of transparency done well--when physicians and patients are at the center.​ How do we take health care to the next level? The barriers and heroes of the American health care system are highlighted vividly in this Library Journal Book of the Year.

Mama Maggie: The Untold Story of One Woman's Mission to Love the Forgotten Children of Egypt's Garbage Slums

Since 1997, Maggie Gobran and her organization Stephen’s Children have been changing lives in Cairo’s notorious zabala, or garbage slums. Her innovative, transformational work has garnered worldwide fame and multiple Nobel Prize nominations, but her full story has remained untold—until now. Bestselling authors Martin Makary and Ellen Vaughn chronicle Mama Maggie’s surprising pilgrimage from privileged child to stylish businesswoman to college professor pondering God’s call to change. She answered that call by becoming the modest figure in white who daily navigates piles of stinking trash, bringing hope to the poorest of the poor. Smart and savvy, as tough as she is tender, Maggie Gobran is utterly surrendered to her mission to the “garbage people” who captured her heart. ​At her request, the book also spotlights the people she serves—the men, women, and children who prove every day what a little bit of help and a lot of love can do.