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

Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health, by Marty Makary. ISBN: 1639735313

One of the big problems we have in health and healing is that many professionals (doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, and others) are not keeping up to speed with the latest developments. They are stuck in old paradigms and provide inaccurate and sometimes dangerous advice to patients.

So let me start this review by mentioning how refreshing it is when a doctor, especially a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor, takes a hard look at long-held medical beliefs and shines a new and bright light on the subjects, many of which I have discussed in my books and posts.

If you are the type of person who completely trusts their healthcare providers, especially your primary physician, I strongly recommend you read this book!

Let me state my opinion again. Classically-trained, Western doctors, are great for fixing broken bones and handling emergencies, but when it comes to understanding root cause issues or health/nutrition/lifestyle issues, most are clueless – not from their own doing but because of our flawed medical education system.

The medical profession – including all the major health organizations -- has many blindspots, and unfortunately, these mistakes are spilling over into nutrition, health, and healing.

Through 12 riveting chapters, Dr. Markey takes readers on a journey from panic over peanut allergies to the overuse of antibiotics and so much more. In many instances, entire approaches to health were altered by bad research or the poor interpretation of that research.

To keep this review short, let me highlight the five things I value about this book.

Five Reader Takeaways from Blind Spots

1. Starting in 2000, we have been given the wrong advice about peanuts, leading to an explosion in peanut allergies – because abstinence doesn’t prevent allergies, it causes them. Back in 1999, the incidence of peanut allergies in children was estimated to be 0.6 percent. But in 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a recommendation that all children under age three and all pregnant and lactating mothers avoid ALL peanuts if a child was considered at high risk for developing an allergy – but because no one could predict “high risk,” it became a guideline for all. Sadly, this whole concept came from a misinterpretation of a 1996 research study. Finally, in 2017, after almost two decades of bad advice, the AAP reversed its guidelines to suggest the introduction of peanuts and peanut butter… but the damage had been done, including to parents who had been shamed for introducing peanut products to their children.

2. For many years before 2002, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was celebrated as a medical miracle for women experiencing menopause; it alleviated hot flashes, reduced brain fog and depression, and helped with sleep. Women felt better and studies showed women on HRT were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s and bone fractures, and a lower risk of heart attacks. Unfortunately, in 2002, a study completed with Harvard and Standford researchers (titled the Women’s Health Initiative) was interpreted to suggest that HRT significantly increases the risk of breast cancer – and that shock caused doctors to stop discussing and prescribing HRT. While this conclusion has been completely destroyed by others reexamining the data, the damage has been done. Even today, only a small number of doctors are actively promoting HRT for women’s health, while others are stuck in the misguided results.

3. The overprescribing of antibiotics, which many believe have “no downsides,” yet it is common knowledge that antibiotics do serious damage to our gut microbiome, which has major impacts on our physical and mental health. Yes, antibiotics – in certain conditions and for the right conditions – are life-savers, but doctors overprescribe them and Big Ag uses vast amounts in routinely treating most animals finished conventionally in feedlots. Antibiotics also have other side effects that most doctors (and patients) are seemingly unaware of, with research showing that 20 percent of patients treated with an antibiotic will have some type of adverse effect. Furthermore, the results from a study of 14,000 children found that the children who were given antibiotics in the first two years of their lives had higher rates of obesity, learning disabilities, ADHD, asthma, and celiac disease. Furthermore, a Danish study found that people who have taken five or more rounds of antibiotics were 53 percent more likely to develop diabetes.

4. The cholesterol myth, which we have known is inaccurate for decades, is still believed today: that people should avoid cholesterol in their diets or risk a heart attack – even with multiple major studies failing to demonstrate the connection between dietary cholesterol and heart disease. The truth from numerous studies is that dietary cholesterol comprises a small fraction of the human body’s cholesterol, with the vast majority of it made by the body itself. Furthermore, cholesterol is NOT bad, but quite necessary for cells and hormones. Furthermore, a 2020 study found that higher intake of eggs was not associated with an increase in one’s blood cholesterol levels, cardiovascular disease, or mortality. The whole focus around the cause of heart attacks is also backward because of the botched work of just one scientist, Ancel Keys, who blamed saturated fat for heart disease, when his own data (and all the following research studies) show that it is sugar and its inflammatory effect on the body (resulting in plague buildup) that is correlated with cardiovascular issues. Of course, the sugar industry helped support the false notion of fat and cholesterol causing heart disease with sponsored articles. Interestingly, one study (the Framington Heart Study) shows that the more saturated fat a person eats, the lower their blood cholesterol (and the lower their weight).

5. The power of medical dogma and groupthink when dealing with chronic medical issues – and the importance of questioning not only your doctor’s diagnosis, but their recommendations and prescriptions as well. In fact, Dr, Makary states that many of today’s medical practices are not supported by solid research. One study found that 40 percent of accepted medical practices did not prove successful when rigorously tested. Many doctors make pained faces and joke that they know more than “Dr. Google,” but the truth of the matter is that their hubris about their conventional (and possibly outdated) information could truly harm you rather than help you. I encourage you to not only get second opinions from other doctors, but to take a deep dive into the scientific and medical literature and be your own health advocate. When looking for first or second opinions, consider both functional/integrative and naturopath doctors, who tend to look at the whole body system and for root causes rather than just symptom management.

Also discussed in the book is the HIV/AIDS crisis, where we have gone wrong with baby deliveries, silicone breast implants, the opioid crisis, fluoride in water, and ovarian cancer.

Final Thoughts About Blind Spots

The book is written at a level that most of us can understand while also deeply researched and footnoted, with hundreds of citations to support his conclusions.

Dr Makary does a wonderful job of being both professional and honest, cracking open a world most of us never see, and showing the reader that we must be diligent. Hopefully, medical professionals are also reading this book and opening their minds to the possibility that their medical education was not as unbiased and thorough as they may have thought.

You may be shocked and dismayed when reading this book, but also empowered. Your doctor does not know everything – or even the current thinking – so use them more as partners in health, not as the one and only experts.