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

Perhaps alternative medicine is entirely useless. Perhaps persuasive marketing has fooled us into believing that alternative medicine works. Alternative therapists might seem like nice people, talking as they do about such appealing concepts as ‘nature’s wonders’ and ‘ancient wisdom’, but they might be misleading the public — or maybe they are even deluding themselves. They also use impressive buzzwords like holistic, meridians, self-healing and individualized. If we could see past the jargon, then would we realize that alternative medicine is just a scam?

Or maybe alternative medicine is overwhelmingly effective. Perhaps the sceptics, including many doctors, have simply failed to recognize the benefits of a more holistic, natural, traditional and spiritual approach to health. Medicine has never claimed to have all the answers, and over and over again there have been revolutions in our understanding of the human body. So will the next revolution lead to a discovery of the mechanisms underlying alternative medicine? Or could there be darker forces at work? Could it be that the medical establishment wants to maintain its power and authority, and that doctors criticize alternative medicine in order to quash any rivals? Or might these self-same sceptics be puppets of the big pharmaceutical corporations who merely want to hold on to their profits?

Or does the truth lie somewhere in the middle?

Whatever the answer, we decided to write this book in order to get to the truth. Although there are already plenty of books that claim to tell you the truth about alternative medicine, we are confident that ours offers an unparalleled level of rigour, authority and independence. We are both trained scientists, so we will examine the various alternative therapies in a scrupulous manner. Moreover, neither of us has ever been employed by a pharmaceutical company, and nor have we ever personally profited from the ‘natural health’ sector — we can honestly say that our only motive is to get to the truth.

And our partnership brings balance to the book. One of us, Edzard Ernst, is an insider who practised medicine for many years, including some alternative therapies. He is the world’s first professor of alternative medicine, and his research group has spent fifteen years trying to work out which treatments work and which do not. The other of us, Simon Singh, is an outsider who has spent almost two decades as a science journalist, working in print, television and radio, always striving to explain complicated ideas in a way that the general public can grasp. Together we think that we can get closer to the truth than anybody else and, equally importantly, we will endeavour to explain it to you in a clear, vivid and comprehensible manner.

Our mission is to reveal the truth about the potions, lotions, pills, needles, pummelling and energizing that lie beyond the realms of conventional medicine, but which are becoming increasingly attractive for many patients. What works, and what doesn’t? What are the secrets and what are the lies? Who is trustworthy and who is ripping you off? Do today’s doctors know what is best, or do the old wives’ tales indeed tap into some ancient, superior wisdom? All these questions and more will be answered in this book, the world’s most honest and accurate examination of alternative medicine.

In particular, we will answer the fundamental question: ‘Is alternative medicine effective for treating disease?’ Although a short and simple question, when unpacked it becomes somewhat complicated and has many answers depending on three key issues. First, which alternative therapy are we talking about? Second, which disease are we applying it to? Third, what is meant by effective? In order to address these questions properly, we have divided the book into six chapters.

Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the scientific method. It explains how scientists, by experimenting and observing, can determine whether or not a particular therapy is effective. Every conclusion we reach in the rest of this book depends on the scientific method and on an unbiased analysis of the best medical research available. So, by first explaining how science works, we hope to increase your confidence in our subsequent conclusions.

Chapter 2 shows how the scientific method can be applied to acupuncture, one of the most established, most tested and most widely used alternative therapies. As well as examining the numerous scientific trials that have been conducted on acupuncture, this chapter will also look at its ancient origins in the East, how it migrated to the West and how it is practised today.