The real goal is to reach a venerable age — say 85 — more or less intact. And the statistics tell Hadler that ignoring most of the advice Snyderman offers is the way to do it. The statistics are the key here, and readers will need stamina to traverse the thicket of numbers and analyses he provides.

Reviewing the data behind many of the widely endorsed medical truths of our day, he concludes that most come up too short on benefit and too high on risk to justify widespread credence.

Hadler sees no evidence that mild high blood pressure or mildly elevated blood sugar pose much of a risk to longevity — certainly not enough to warrant the aggressive drug treatment often offered for them. The same goes for the extra 20 pounds that make you overweight but not obese, and the modest rise in serum cholesterol that, these days, spell a statin for life for many healthy people.

He deplores the careful attention we pay to the state of our coronary arteries. Angioplasties, stents, coronary artery bypass grafts. All these procedures, he feels, “should be consigned to the annals of good ideas that proved bad”. As for the screening that purportedly keeps us safe from cancer, mammography and the blood test for prostate cancer are, in his view, cudgels that can harm as much as help. Nor does he want any part of routine colonoscopies: “Let my polyps go.”

Yet, both books do raise serious questions. Hadler articulates one: What exactly does it mean to be well? Is it complete freedom from pain, creaky joints, dyspepsia and sleepless nights? Or is it instead, as he suggests, the ability to cope with all these common physical problems without transforming oneself from person to patient?

... contd.