Fake Medicine: Exposing the Wellness Crazes, Cons and Quacks Costing Us Our Health. By Brad McKay. Hachette Australia, 2021, ISBN 978-0-7336-4686-7, 290 pp. You can buy this book on Booktopia or Amazon.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard that Dr. Brad McKay had published his first book, Fake Medicine: Exposing the Wellness Crazes, Cons and Quacks Costing Us Our Health (2021). Of course I knew of McKay (pronounced McKai) and have met him at a few skeptic conferences over the years. I know him best from reading about him in the Australian Skeptic journal and of course from The Skeptic Zone Podcast. But because it was a first book from an author about a subject—medicine—that I really know little about, I wasn’t so sure. 

The book has been sitting here next to me for a couple weeks with the person wearing a tin-foil hat on the cover waiting for me to give it a try. Now that I’m fully vaccinated (Pfizer, in case you want to know), I have started to venture out. My first trip away from my home was to see my son Stirling, whom I haven’t seen in over eighteen months, in Washington State. I choose to take McKay’s book to read on the trip. 

I started it in the hotel and was hooked after the first two chapters. You see, alternative medicine isn’t my area of expertise. I’m a social historian and am interested in people and “Why did they?” and “How did they?” kind of questions. I also love mysteries, and McKay begins by telling us about his upbringing in New Zealand with religious parents who reminded me a lot of my parents. They were the type that if the doctor says so, then don’t challenge it—the argument from authority. Plus it always helps to have God on your side when dealing with health issues, so pray till it stops hurting. And hurting it was. 

As a teen, McKay had a medical problem that gave him excruciating pain in his backside. In his book he takes us through the whole cycle of diagnosing the problem: first the doctor, then a physiotherapist and an osteopath. Then when it was time for surgery, McKay’s parents thought it might be helpful to see if God would intervene. I don’t want to give it away, but McKay’s writing style made me keep turning over the pages to find out what ended up happening. 

After this, we are introduced to a new medical mystery, and we follow McKay as he meets people who keep trying to help diagnose him. It’s a theme he weaves through many of the chapters, and it isn’t until you are mostly done with the book that you finally discover what was wrong and how it was fixed. I’ll just add: Go, Science! 

All through the book, McKay uses short chapters to describe various issues he came across as a medical doctor now living in Australia. He talks about the phenomenon of Dr. Google, and he admits that there are pluses and minuses with his patients trying to diagnose themselves. Within the chapters are subchapters about many different modalities, some of which are used as alternative treatments, such as vitamins, cupping, raw milk and raw water, naturopathy, ear candles, bee sting facials, non-toxic tampons, diets, sun-gazing, and so much more. He explains each to novices such as me in nonmedical language using a nice conversational tone to relate real experiences from his life as examples. 

The chapters on anti-vaxxers and COVID-19 conspiracies just made my blood heat up. I’m really glad that McKay was able to include current information to make the book timely. 

Social influencers such as Pete Evans, Jessica Ainscough, and Belle Gibson—plus the stories of the 2019 Samoa outbreak and Taylor Winterstein and others—were included. What made me pleased with myself was that I knew all these stories because I am an avid listener of Richard Saunder’s The Skeptic Zone Podcast, and Saunders regularly covers these stories. After each episode, my Guerilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) team promptly wrote or added content to Wikipedia pages associated with these social influencers. 

In a nutshell, what makes this book so enjoyable is that McKay explains these concepts in an understandable and entertaining way. He uses real-life experiences and adds in bits of his own personal history, which hits all the buttons of the social historian within me. At the end of the book, he discusses various problems that we as science communicators have to deal with, such as the media pushing false balance. He offers solutions for readers to combat it and “be part of the solution” with ideas on what to do when you encounter misinformation. 

I would like to see McKay write about the TV series he hosted Embarrassing Bodies Down Under. I’m sure his insight on what he learned during that time would easily fill a book. Traditionally taboo health topics deserve their own book.

To conclude, I would like to quote directly from McKay’s introduction:

I’ve often thought of myself as a lone voice … this is no longer the case. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught humanity the devasting impact the spread of misinformation can have on our health. … Our modern world provides us with free and easy access to more information than ever before, and yet we as a society still haven’t discovered a sure-fire way to sift fact from fiction. More needs to be done. We must be more critical. We must battle fake medicine.

One more thing: here is a special treat for you—a three-part series by one of my favorite interviewers, Maynard, speaking to Dr. McKay about the book for The Skeptic Zone. Check them out, because they are a lot of fun. One – Two – Three and Book Launch

Note: All photos courtesy of Richard Saunders – April 2021 – Sydney, Australia