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This title in other formats:
Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine
by Simon Singh
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Synopses & Reviews Whether you are an ardent believer in alternative medicine, a skeptic, or are simply baffled by the range of services and opinions, this guide lays to rest doubts and contradictions with authority, integrity, and clarity. In this groundbreaking analysis, over thirty of the most popular treatments'"acupuncture, homeopathy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic, and herbal medicines'"are examined for their benefits and potential dangers. Questions answered include: What works and what doesn't? What are the secrets, and what are the lies? Who can you trust, and who is ripping you off? Can science decide what is best, or do the old wives' tales really tap into ancient, superior wisdom? In their scrutiny of alternative and complementary cures, authors Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst also strive to reassert the primacy of the scientific method as a means for determining public health practice and policy. Review: "Noted science writer Singh and British professor of complementary medicine Ernst offer a reasoned examination of the research on acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, herbal medicine and other alternative treatments. Singh ( Fermat's Last Theorem) and Ernst work hard to be objective, but their conclusion is that these therapies are largely worthless. As they examine the research on various alternative therapies, the authors explore the principles of evidence-based medicine on which their conclusions are based, including clinical trials and the placebo effect; they also explore related ethical issues. The authors report that many patients will improve with any alternative remedy — but no more than those given a placebo. Exceptions exist; some herbal remedies (e.g., St. John's wort, echinacea) can be helpful though not always advisable, and chiropractors can relieve low back pain under certain circumstances. This is a stimulating and informative account that will be indispensable to anyone considering an alternative treatment, though it may not dissuade true believers. 16 illus." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review: Alternative medicine is global big business, with an estimated $74 billion spent each year worldwide on therapies of all sorts, from nutritional supplements to meditation to chiropractic therapy. Given the popularity and ubiquitous media coverage of such treatments, I suspect that by now a majority of Americans either have personally tried some type of alternative medicine or watched relatives or friends ... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) experiment with it. (I include myself: A physician trained in family medicine, I practice yoga and, at the suggestion of my doctors, have tried acupuncture for low back pain and dietary supplements for arthritis.) For anyone who has ever wondered about the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of such alternative therapies, "Trick or Treatment" by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst offers fascinating and clearly presented information. Ernst is a physician and professor of complementary medicine in Britain, a former practitioner of homeopathic medicine who decided that homeopathy and other alternative treatments deserved keener scientific scrutiny. He has both reviewed the research literature and contributed to it, having invented a sham acupuncture needle that is used as a "placebo" in studies testing acupuncture's effectiveness. He and Singh, a science journalist, explore the history of four popular forms of treatment — acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic therapy and herbal medicine — as well as the claims made for them. They describe the theories commonly invoked by practitioners to explain how each is thought to affect the body. Then they turn to the scientific evidence, particularly that derived from carefully conducted, double-blind clinical trials in which a therapy has been compared with a placebo in groups of patients suffering from a specific illness or symptom. They argue convincingly that conducting many such trials and carefully weighing the collected results is the only way to decide whether an alternative therapy works. (In an ironic touch, the book is dedicated to the Britain's Prince Charles, who established the Foundation for Integrated Health, an organization with a research mandate that nevertheless published a government guide on alternative therapies that contained little or no scientific information about their effectiveness.) Ernst and Singh recount intriguing historical details about each of the four types of therapy. For example, Otzi the Iceman, whose 5,000-year-old frozen corpse was discovered by hikers in the Alps in 1991, was tattooed with lines and dots that appear to correspond to acupuncture points and meridians, suggesting that the practice may date back five millenniums. He also carried pieces of a birch fungus that contains a natural antibiotic, indicating he may have been taking an herbal remedy for intestinal parasites. Acupuncture was revived in the 20th century by Mao Zedong. It attracted widespread interest among Western physicians after reporter James Reston, who underwent an emergency appendectomy in Beijing in 1971, wrote enthusiastically in the New York Times about receiving acupuncture to treat his postoperative gas pain. Homeopathy and chiropractic medicine are of much more recent origin. The former — which involves administering solutions so highly diluted that they contain only water — was invented by 18th-century physician Samuel Hahnemann, who sought a gentler alternative to bloodletting and other dangerous medical treatments of his day. The latter was the creation of Daniel David Palmer, an Iowa practitioner who became fanatically convinced that all maladies stemmed from subtle displacements of the spinal vertebrae that blocked the body's "innate intelligence." Some forms of alternative medicine have been studied extensively, and the results (not surprisingly) are mixed. Homeopathy, the authors conclude, is "a bogus industry that offers patients nothing more than a fantasy"; it wastes money and can be dangerous if it keeps patients from using effective treatments. Chiropractic therapy shows some evidence of working for low back pain, but is expensive and has significant risks, especially if the neck is manipulated. Clinical trials of acupuncture have found evidence of its effectiveness in only a few conditions: low back pain, headaches, neck disorders, bedwetting, postoperative nausea and vomiting. A table in the chapter on herbal medicine rates the evidence as "good" for 10 of the 35 herbs listed; the evidence for the rest is rated as "medium" or "poor," and the authors emphasize that many herbal remedies can interact with other medicines. The book's final section provides useful one-page summaries of the research findings (often scanty) on three dozen additional forms of alternative treatment, ranging from the Alexander technique and aromatherapy to reiki and traditional Chinese medicine. Singh and Ernst conclude with sound advice for anyone considering alternative therapies: Check with your doctor first, and don't stop your conventional medicines; look for scientific evidence of efficacy before you spend your money; and remember that every treatment, whether orthodox or alternative, has risks. Reviewed by Susan Okie, who is a physician and a national correspondent for the New England Journal of Medicine, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)Synopsis: In this groundbreaking analysis, more than 30 of the most popular alternative healing treatments--acupuncture, homeopathy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic, and herbal medicines--are examined for their benefits and potential dangers. 16 illustrations.
Synopsis: The truth about the potions, lotions, pills and needles, pummelling and energizing that lie beyond the realms of conventional medicine.
About the Author Edzard Ernst, based at the University of Exeter, is the UK"s first professor of complementary medicine.Best-selling author and science journalist Simon Singhlives in London. His books include Fermat"s Last Theorem, The Code Book, and Big Bang.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780393066616
- Subtitle:
- The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine
- Author:
- Singh, Simon
- Author:
- Ernst, Edzard
- Publisher:
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Subject:
- Alternative medicine
- Subject:
- Evidence-based medicine.
- Edition Description:
- American
- Publication Date:
- August 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 342
- Dimensions:
- 9.48x6.42x1.17 in. 1.16 lbs.
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