The more desperate people are to achieve some goal, the more likely they are to fall prey to quack and pseudoscientific treatments or aids. Thus, the seriously ill are often easy targets for quack medicine. Parents of autistic children are taken in by a whole range of fake treatments and cures. But the ultra-healthy can also fall into this sort of trap. By the ultra-healthy, I mean individuals heavily involved in professional sports or amateur athletics. In the new book Good to Go, Christie Aschwanden provides an excellent survey of the variety of crazy regimens used by athletes to speed and aid recovery after training.
Good to Go. By Christie Aschwanden. New York: W.W. Norton. 2019. ISBN 978-0-393-25433-4. 302 pp. Hardcover, $27.95.