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Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial

Authors: Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

15 reviews
Sales Rank: 1247

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.5

ISBN: 0593061292
EAN: 9780593061299
ASIN: 0593061292

Publication Date: April 21, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book dispatched from stock in the UK

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Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Medical Myth Buster June 8, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

This book should be compulsory reading for every medical student, doctor and the worried well. It is easy to read and it explains both the history and research now available for many traditional and some very creative placebo treatments and products.

I recommend this book to anyone with an open mind to science and medical research.

5 out of 5 stars

MOSTLY TRICK, NOT MUCH TREATMENT May 28, 2008
10 out of 15 found this review helpful

This is a book that should make us all sit up and listen. Trick or Treatment is dedicated - with a well-savoured irony, I suspect - to the Prince of Wales.

Most of the previous publications on alternative and complimentary medicine that I have read, seem to be based on opinion and/or anecdotal evidence. 'Trick or Treatment' is quite different. Edzard Ernst, one of the two authors, is the first Professor of Alternative and Alternative Medicine in the world. Under his leadership the faculty at Exeter University has carried out extensive and definitive research, on a large scale, to test the efficacy of a range of alternative and complimentary treatments including, amongst others, homeopathy and acupuncture. Both Professor Ernst and his co-author Simon Singh are adamant that neither of them had any previous bias, no vested interests were involved, and no assumptions were made in advance. The aim was solely to find out through exhaustive and objective research, whether the claims of success made by alternative medical practitioners are soundly based on hard scientific evidence.

The results of Ernst's research at Exeter are clear. And what results! The book provides conclusive proof that most alternative 'medicines' and practices are, with some exceptions, worse than useless, other than having a placebo effect; in some instances they can actually cause harm. As the authors remark, they mostly "relieve nothing more than cash from the patients pocket". Some herbal remedies are proven to have beneficial properties. For those of us who love the stuff but suffer from "Go away, you reek of Garlic", we can now (genuinely and righteously) counter with " but I HAVE to take it, it's for my heart, you see".

Perhaps the most surprising result from Exeter is the one that deals with the most widely used and, up to now, perhaps the most respected of all the alternative practices eg. Homeopathy. The authors give hard evidence that homeopathy has little or no efficacy; in most cases the claims of success are apparently false, either by design or more probably through self-delusion.

For those who have so strongly advocated the inclusion of certain alternative and complimentary treatments within the NHS. here is a book that provides judgements and decisions that are founded on reason, and informed by evidence. It would be nothing short of a travesty if substantial funds were diverted from effective and conventional treatment on the NHS, in order to support unsubstantiated and unproven alternatives. If supporters of Complimentary and Alternative medicine, can counter the conclusions reached in Trick or Treatment with sound evidence-based research of their own, let us hear it loud and clear.

In general this book is written with a clarity and precision that makes it easy for the average person to grasp the whole research process. It is not only a fascinating read the first time round, but the information within makes it a book you will want to refer back to, time and time again.

5 out of 5 stars

Very readable, very important May 27, 2008
9 out of 12 found this review helpful

Every now and again a book comes along that's so important I feel I should be pushing it through people's letterboxes. This is one. It's an incredibly well researched and balanced critique of 'alternative' medicine written in a very readable style. A thoroughly excellent book, the contents of which shouldn't be ignored.

Everyone should read this.

5 out of 5 stars

An interesting insight May 18, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Any thinking person would likely agree that the public is largely capable of making its own mind up when it comes to matters which may have a bearing on their own health. So it follows that any valid evidence which might influence a decision by an individual on what might be beneficial or prove harmful in the treatment of a condition of their own health should be welcome.

I found a wealth of such information in the pages of "Trick or Treatment?" and am grateful to the authors for the depth of their research which I could never have mustered the resources to embark on myself. Professor Ernst is clearly a champion of evidence-based medicine with loyalty only to the patient.

The importance of highlighting the possibility that some herbal remedies can seriously interfere with the impact of prescription drugs can surely never be underestimated and I unreservedly commend this work which emphasises that point without overstating it. The point is also made that some so-called remedies are a complete waste of money which, if so, might be better invested in the purchase of this book.

3 out of 5 stars

The scorn for alternatives May 15, 2008
12 out of 42 found this review helpful

The medical critics of alternative medicine often overlook a few key points :

1. If their science cannot explain how it works , then it cannot work. Very arrogant that.
2. Clinical trials are time constrained, and this skews results and eliminates other results.
3. Medical critics say clinical trials are lacking for alternative medicine, and they are, but this only seems to concern medical critics. Alternative practitioners use treatments that they believe work , regardless, and patients keep visiting these practitioners because they also believe it works, regardless.
4. Anecdotal data over millenia are completely disregarded by medical critics. The fact that treatments are still around after millenia counts for nothing ?
5. Drugs, as prescribed, are responsible for over 100,000 deaths in the USA every year. Deaths by alternatives are close to zero.
6. 75% of Oncologists say they won't use chemo if they had cancer.
7. Drug companies are scouring the rainforests and consulting shamen to find plants so that they can extract PATENTABLE chemicals from these plants. For an industry so scornful of alternatives, that seems a bit ironic.
8. Clinical trials are notorious for being biased to favor findings desired by drug comapnies, and bad results are buried.