In trick or treatment the authors used the method of clinical trials to evaluate scientifically the efficacy of various alternative medicines, particularly acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic therapy and herbal medicine.
They sought to answer the fundamental question is alternative medicine effective for treating disease? Which therapies work and which ones are useless? Which therapies are safe and which ones are dangerous?
Chapter 1 looked at scientific method and explained how scientists can determine if a particular therapy is effective or not.
Chapter 2 applies scientific method to acupuncture
Chapter 3 applies scientific method to homeopathy
Chapter 4 applies scientific method to chiropractic therapy
Chapter 5 applies scientific method to herbal medicine
Chapter 6 looks at the results and says, so what?
The issue of placebo is dealt with more fully, and an examination made as to whether pure or near pure placebos should be administered by doctors today.
The team tackle the issue of how the alternative and complementary medicine industry has become such a juggernaut and names the supposed culprits of this shameless promotion.
The authors finally look at what they see as critical for the improved position of alternative medicine, namely thorough regulation of what they see as the wild west of alternative medicine.
The authors also provide a rapid fire appendix covering evaluations of 30 other common alternative medicines.
The authors defined alternative medicine: any therapy that is not accepted by the majority of mainstream doctors, and typically.. these alternative medicines have mechanisms that lie outside of the current understanding of modern medicine. in the language of science, alternative therapies are said to be biologically implausible.
The principles of evidence based medicine
What are they?
Ar they effective for evaluating alternative medicine?
Placebo affect
Do the authors explain the placebo affect thoroughly?
i would say no they don't give it enough attention. do they look at any anecdotal evidence as to the physiological affects of the placebo affect. they look at a lot of anecdotal evidence as to affects of placebo that apparently do not have a physiological follow through. Is it within the definition Look at not, can alternative medicine cure cancer but in fact is there sufficient anecdotal evidence that the placebo affect is so powerful in harnessing our mind, that it has physiological effect? For example: unexplained recovery from cancer. what evidence has been published about the effects of alternative medicine in cancer sufferers, and if the placebo affect is so strong that someone recovers from a cancer. If there is strong evidence then isn't placebo a worthwhile and valid treatment in modern times?
A look at energy, meridians and the power of the mind
the authors are quick to quash the notion of Chi'i, energy, meridians and other philosophical basis of alternative therapies, essentially all connected to the mind and spirit. Certainly the possibility of spirit existing is scientifically implausible, but what about the power of the mind?
How provable are effects of the mind, and how connected is the power of mind to energy? If the power of the mind could be behind energy, and energy can be harnessed as can the power of the mind, then can we prove energy exists? I'm certainly a believer in energy, and it relates very clearly to the mind. For example with yoga, I relax myself with my mind but i prefer to term the process letting in good energy and breathing out the bad.
is there a difference between the placebo affects of any alternative medicines and the conventional medicine used to treat the same condition?
