Consumer Health, Eighth Edition:
Message to Readers
More is known today about achieving and maintaining good health than ever before. Life expectancy is at an all-time high, and although there is still much room for improvement, health-related accomplishments have exceeded the fondest dreams of past visionaries. In 1890, when life expectancy at birth was 37 years, the imaginative Jules Verne predicted that in 1000 years it would reach 58! In fact, it has doubled to more than 74 years in less than a century. This progress has been partly due to a safer environment that includes cleaner water, safer food, and better living space. Yet we hear plenty of news about the environment that worries us. Preventive and therapeutic medical care have advanced tremendously, yet we worry about the risks associated with immunization, cancer therapies, prescription drugs, surgery, and many other methods of treatment. How can we resolve our concerns and reap the benefits of modern scientific discoveries? The key is to become informed consumers.
Health consumers are not a special class of citizen. Rather, we are people who must make decisions about purchasing or using products for health maintenance, enhancement, or protection or for physical transformation.
The challenges involved are enormous. The health marketplace—the world of commercial activity for health-related products and services—is complex and dynamic. Health concerns can be overwhelming, especially for people confronted with medical crises. Science-based health care can provide tremendous benefits, but it can often do harm, even when delivered responsibly. Quackery is far more pervasive than most people realize. Health-care costs continue to rise rapidly despite numerous reform efforts. The rapidly growing older adult population faces a bewildering array of choices and obstacles for obtaining and paying for appropriate health care. It can also be difficult to determine what health care actually costs and to shop for the best prices.
Government and private agencies protect consumer rights in some ways, but not others. The health-care industry is accountable to consumers to some extent, but quality is often elusive and abuses persist. Some scams are even facilitated by legislation and government policies. In addition, many people lack access to adequate health care because of cultural, transportation, language, and economic barriers.
Consumer advocacy calls for justice and fair play in the marketplace. Yet many self-appointed “consumer advocates” do not act in the public’s interest. Although some are sincere and make a contribution, others use their role to engage in irrational business bashing or act from motives of personal aggrandizement. Occasionally, business trade associations even pose as “consumer groups” and seek self-serving legislation.
Consumer Health offers a panoramic view of the health marketplace. It explains and supports the scientific methods that are essential for validating claims about how products and services affect health. Its topics range from dental health to mental health, from prenatal care to services for older adults, from the home medicine cabinet to hospitals, from bodybuilding to body disposition after death, from acupuncture to zinc, from stimulants to sleep aids, from hair care to foot care, and from health care plans to dietary plans. This book can help you to:
- Avoid wasting money on unnecessary, ineffective, or unsafe products and services
- Take care of yourself and minimize your need to spend money on health products and services
- Choose appropriate health products and services to meet your needs
- Get the most value out of your health dollars
- Optimize benefits from encounters with health-care providers and facilities while minimizing the potential for harm
- Assert and protect your rights
- Set reasonable expectations for what health care can do
- Evaluate how political issues affect access to health-related innovations and accountability of marketers
The key to intelligent decision-making is to use relevant and reliable sources of information. Consumer Health is both an introductory text and a reference book on the opportunities and pitfalls of the health marketplace. The various chapters offer hundreds of practical tips; the Appendix provides a comprehensive list of trustworthy sources. You will get the most out of the book by using the detailed index to search for information and the glossary for definitions of terms that might be unfamiliar.
We also operate many Web sites that can supplement your coursework. Consumer Health Sourcebook (www.chsourcebook.com) provides chapter updates and hyperlinks to reliable online sources. It also links to Consumer Health Digest, a free weekly e-mail report of relevant news. Internet Health Pilot is a gateway to reliable online information. Quackwatch is a comprehensive guide to quackery and health fraud. Its subsidiaries include Acupuncture Watch, Autism Watch, Cancer Treatment Watch, Casewatch (relevant legal cases), Chelation Watch, Chirobase (chiropractic), Credential Watch, Dental Watch, Device Watch (health devices), Diet Scam Watch, Homeowatch (homeopathy), Infomercial Watch, Mental Health Watch, MLM Watch (multilevel marketing), Naturowatch (naturopathy), NCCAM Watch, Nutriwatch (guide to sensible nutrition), and Pharmwatch. All of these sites are accessible free of charge. Visiting them is a good way to enhance your learning experience.
| Stephen Barrett, MD William M. London, EdD, MPH Robert S. Baratz, MD, DDS, PhD Manfred Kroger, PhD |
This page was revised on July 20, 2006.