Review: Health Tips, Myths, and Tricks: A Physician's Advice

HEALTH TIPS, MYTHS, AND TRICKS: A Physician's Advice by Morton E. Tavel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a basic health reference book with a twist. The author, Dr. Morton E. Tavel, MD has solid credentials, and an authoritative background as a practicing cardiologist as well as a medical school professor.

The book is arranged topically in short chapters within sections of tips, myths and tricks that discuss common questions that patients might want to ask of their physician. It is written in a readable conversational style as if he were speaking personally to the reader. Many of the topics addressed provide references to some scientific evidence, so that readers may follow up with further study if they desire to explore the issue further. The amount of scientific jargon however is minimal, and the answers are informative yet understandable.

There are 62 short chapters, and topics included are chosen from standard, common health concerns as well as controversies and hot-button issues. Some highlights are safe weight loss, trans fats and health, coffee, green tea, chocolate, foods to avoid, dangers of sodium, hypertension, red meat, fish, olive oil, red wine, the common cold, vaccines, second hand smoke, pain killers and sleep. Dr. Tavel addresses what he considers to be a number of myths, conspiracy theories, scams, irrational fears.

This could be a good general health reference book for the home library. It is useful for browsing, as opposed to using search engines to ask health questions because there is a large variety of information compiled here in one book.

I read the e-book version, and I do note some formatting issues. The e-book appears to have originally been formatted for the print edition and then converted to the e-book. without completely reformatting, which created some problems with navigation and visual appearance.

Another issue is large areas of blank white space within the chapters, which seem to be where the section/page breaks appeared in the original print version. This sloppy formatting detracts from the overall quality of the book in the e-book version. I have not seen the actual print version, so I don't know how it looks.

Beside these problems, there were some other editing and proofing errors, including run on sentences, poor syntax and errors such as advising the consumption of a quart of olive oil per week, which seems to be quite a large amount. I wondered why a chapter on polygraph tests was included.

All in all, I found this to be useful, informative book. While the content is good, due to the errors and formatting issues noted, I gave it a lower rating.


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What's the Buzz About Krill?

Krill are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that feed on plants in the ocean. Baleen whales, mantas, and whale sharks eat primarily krill. In Norwegian, the word "krill" means "whale food." People extract the oil from krill, place it in capsules, and use it for medicine. Some brand name krill oil products indicate that they use Antarctic krill. This usually refers to the species of krill called Euphausia superba.

Recently krill has been discovered to have some of the same potential benefits to human health as fish oil. Krill oil contains fatty acids similar to fish oil. These fats are thought to be beneficial fats that decrease swelling, lower cholesterol, and make blood platelets less sticky. When blood platelets are less sticky they are less likely to form clots.  It is being promoted and used for heart disease, high levels of certain blood fats (triglycerides), high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, osteoarthritis, depression, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and painful menstrual periods.

However at this point there is insufficient evidence that krill is effective for any of these conditions.  More scientific studies and evidence are needed. WebMd had a special precautions and warnings regarding krill:

Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Not enough is known about the use of krill oil during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid use.


Additionally there can be an environmental issue with krill harvesting, as the National Geographic has reported that krill stocks have dropped an alarming 70%.  The reason for this is not known, but since it is an important source of food for so much marine life, it may be unwise to begin large-scale harvesting of krill for human consumption.

At this point the science points toward fish oil or for vegetarians, flax seed oil.