Cordyceps : China's Healing Mushroom

Rating:
Summary: lacking in credibility and scholarship
Review: I must say that I was quite disappointed in the presentation of Dr. Halpern. I bought the book because it appeared to have been written by a professional and - of even more import - seemed to be very well referenced. Upon inspection, neither of these observations appeared warranted. Far from being well referenced, the text is typical of its kind in constantly referring to "One clinical study..." or "In research done in [city] in 19--...", demonstrating the miraculous effects of this "healing mushroom" in nearly every ailment one could imagine, without substantiating even one of the claims. While there are four pages of 'primary sources' at the end of the book, NOT ONE of them is cross referenced to a statement in the text - while at the same time, of the six total annotations that ARE found in the text, two of these are references for the definition of fatigue! But this is not the worst of it. There are some glaring errors in the work which are absolutely unacceptable from someone of Dr. Halpern's apparent stature. While I might be willing to forgive a non-chemist for a statement like "Oxidation produces free radical electrons..." (p.33), or a non-biologist for referring to "...a wolf (L.lupus)." (p.74), no one should excuse a PHYSICIAN for saying that ANYTHING "...boosts concentrations of an essential enzyme called ATP." (p.42) or "...positive antibodies to the virus changed to negative in twenty-one patients..." (p.44) or "...by an infection called human immunodeficiency virus..." (p.75). It seems clear after reading this why Dr. Halpern is writing 'books' instead of treating patients. There are many more of these sorts of transgressions throughout the book but perhaps the most ridiculous are his suggestions at the end to only use cordyceps products which "...are standardized to contain a given amount of active constituents in every dose" (p.91), when he has repeatedly said that, in nearly every "study" (not) cited, the mode of action of cordyceps and the compounds responsible for the "effects" are unknown!! Indeed, how then can Dr. Halpern confidently recommend a particular brand of cordyceps from all of the ones marketed? It is the one saving grace of the book that he does repeatedly say that no supplement (including cordyceps) should be taken without guidance from one's physician and, as just mentioned, that the mode(s) of action of cordyceps is/are as yet unknown. Overall though, I think that books of this sort - however well intentioned - simply damage any legitimate scientific efforts to identify and substantiate the potential benefits of 'traditional' medicine. In my opinion, this book's real value is as a lesson in how NOT to evaluate information.