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Product Description
Product Description
How can you know which alternative treatments really heal and which are potentially harmful? Now, thanks to the formidable partnership of Professor Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh, you can find out. Ernst is the world’s first professor of complementary medicine, based at Exeter University, where he has spent over a decade meticulously analyzing the evidence for and against alternative therapies. Simon Singh is the well-known and highly respected science writer of several international bestsellers. Their book is honest, impartial and hard-hitting, providing a thorough examination and judgment of more than thirty of the most popular treatments such as acupuncture, homeopathy, aromatherapy, reflexology, chiropractic, and herbal medicine.
In Trick or Treatment, the verdict on alternative medicine is delivered for the first time with clarity, scientific rigour and absolute authority.
In Trick or Treatment, the verdict on alternative medicine is delivered for the first time with clarity, scientific rigour and absolute authority.
About the Author
Professor Edzard Ernst, formerly a clinical doctor, has studied homeopathy and practiced this and many other alternative treatments.
Simon Singh has a Ph.D. in particle physics. He is the author of bestsellers Fermat’s Last Theorem and The Code Book. Big Bang, his history of cosmology, became a New York Times bestseller.
Simon Singh has a Ph.D. in particle physics. He is the author of bestsellers Fermat’s Last Theorem and The Code Book. Big Bang, his history of cosmology, became a New York Times bestseller.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Scientific Method Tackles Alternative Medicine,
By
This review is from: Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial (Paperback)
In this fascinating and immensely readable book, the authors focus on what science has to say about various alternative medicines. Starting with a chapter on how science works and on how the ultimate purpose of any therapy is to cure disease and improve the quality of human life, the authors discuss the "evidence-based medicine" approach, i.e., the inclusion, in the medical repertoire, of treatments that have been shown, through careful clinical trials, to work, and the abandonment of those treatments that do not work. The scientific method is very clearly explained as well as how it can be used (and has been used) in examining the claims of alternative medicines. Next, four alternative medicines are examined in great detail (one per chapter): acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic therapy and herbal medicine. In each case, the authors give a history of the specialty, its evolution, the people responsible for developing it, any risks that these therapies may entail and the results of various scientific enquiries to determine whether they actually work. The placebo effect is a very important concept which is fully explained and used throughout the book. In the final chapter, the authors discuss various important related issues as well as possible reasons for the continued popularity of certain alternative medicines that have been proven to be useless (beyond the placebo effect). Finally, an appendix is included in which an additional thirty six alternative techniques are summarized, one per page, including any scientific investigations, their results and any possible risks.This book is actually very hard to put down. It is written in a style that is clear, authoritative, and quite captivating. It is also devoid of any jargon, thus making it accessible to a broad readership. Not only is this a book that can be enjoyed by anyone, but it should be consulted especially by those considering the services of a practitioner of any alternative medicine.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic unbiased look at alternative medicine,
By Ronald Raygun "Book Rook" (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial (Paperback)
For anyone that is either seriously interested or even slightly interested in alternative and complimentary, I highly recommend this book. It starts out with a broad overview of clinical testing, explanation of the placebo effect and how we can tell if something works or not (without bias introduced). The book then proceeds to look in varying degrees of depth many popular and not-so-popular therapies.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
required reading for anyone interested in alternative medicine,
By
This review is from: Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial (Paperback)
I took a sociology class on the history of Healthcare in Canada and abroad with a relatively short portion of the class being dedicated to alternative medicine. According to my prof, there were many alternative medicines that were nonsense, but that homeopathy, acupuncture and herbal medicine were all respectable forms of medicine because of the results. At the time I wasn't even slightly familiar with these practices so I bought his explanations. However, after seeing headlines about Homeopaths going after Simon Singh for libel I decided to look into Singh and found this book.This book is a very thorough dismemberment of the main concepts that form the theoretical and practical logic of homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic treatment. Singh is very careful to write in a way that is accessible and clear to a variety of readers. Health is an area that can be immensely confusing because of the wide berth of information available for consumption, especially online. I highly recommend this book to people who use or have considered using any form of alternative medicine or treatment. This book will hopefully give you the foundational knowledge necessary to make good health decisions for yourself and your family while being able to identify pseudoscientific claims and practices whose efficacy is centered around the placebo effect.
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