Trick or Treatment—The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine (Electronic book text)

Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., Boddy, K., The Desktop Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine: An Evidence-Based Approach (2nd edition), Mosby, 2006.

Ernst, E., Pittler, M. H., Wider, B., Boddy, K., Complementary Therapies for Pain Management: An Evidence-Based Approach, Mosby, 2007.

Jonas, W. (ed.), Mosby’s Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Mosby, 2005.

Hendler, S. S., Rorvik, D. (eds), PDR for Nutritional Supplements, Blackwell, 2001.

Useful Websites

The James Lind Library: www.jameslindlibrary, org

The Cochrane Collaboration: www.cochrane.org

Bandolier (evidence-based healthcare website): www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/Bandolier

Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies (FACT) website: www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/

NIH, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM): www.nccam.nih.gov

Healthwatch: www.healthwatch-uk.org

Exeter University, Complementary Medicine Department: www.pms.ac.uk/compmed/

Simon Singh’s homepage: www.simonsingh.net

Trick or Treatment? homepage: www.trickortreatment.com

Acknowledgements

The conclusions presented in this book are based on decades of research conducted by thousands of medical researchers around the world. Without their efforts, it would be impossible to separate the effective from the bogus, and the safe from the hazardous.

We would like to offer particular thanks to the entire staff of the Department of Complementary Medicine, part of the Peninsula Medical School at the University of Exeter. They have supported this project from the outset and have always been generous with their advice and encouragement.

Despite the importance of the subject, there were times when it was unclear that this book would ever be published. We are indebted to our editors at Transworld and Norton, who had faith in our ambitions when others thought that alternative medicine was not a subject worthy of investigation. Sally Gaminara and Angela von der Lippe have been helpful and kind during a very intense eighteen months. Of course, we are also grateful to our literary agent Patrick Walsh, who is both a brilliant colleague and an excellent friend.

Last, and probably not least, our wives have both been remarkably wonderful, patient and lovely during the birth of this book. Anita and Danielle have shared our joys and our anxieties, our hopes and our fears. Thank you.

Picture Credits

James Lind © Wellcome Library, London

Florence Nightingale’s polar chart © Wellcome Library, London

Model showing acupuncture needle entry points © Wellcome Library, London

Patient receiving acupuncture © Tek Image/Science Photo Library

Archie Cochrane © Cardiff University Library, Cochrane Archive, Llandough Hospital

Samuel Hahnemann © Science Photo Library

Oliver Wendell Holmes © Wellcome Library, London

John Snow’s map of cholera deaths in Soho, 1854 © Royal Society of Medicine

Cervical spine © Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library

Daniel David Palmer © Science Photo Library

Field thistle © Wellcome Library, London

St John’s wort © June Hill Redigo/Custom medical stock photo/ Science Photo Library