Saturday, March 27th, 2010
- ISBN13: 9780195383423
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Hailed in the New York Times as “entertaining and immensely educational,” Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book’s ultimate goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make medical therapies appear to be effective–not just to consumers, but to therapists and poorly trained scientists as well. Bausell explores this remarkabl… More >>
Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine
For anyone who truly understands Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this book is written based on an oversimplified premise in the first place. Unlike biomedicine, there is no one-to-one mapping between a prescription (whether that is an herbal or acupuncture formula) and a symptom. For patients having the same symptom, there can be various underlying pathological pattern differentiations according to TCM, and therefore different treatment plans. So to achieve the clinical result that a particular TCM modality is able to achieve, the so-called scientific research trial should first of all be designed in such a way that a true TCM treatment actually treats a patient.
TCM is a highly individualized health care modality whose methodology is in between science and art. Because of that, choosing a credible experienced practitioner is vitally important. Also because of that, I seriouly question the validity of utilizing the current science methods to evaluate something that is beyond mere science(by the way, I’m not an alternative medicine practitioner, I myself am a scientist.) Just like one can not use Newtonian physics to evaluate quantum physics.
Rating: 1 / 5
The proof is in the pudding, Europe is way ahead of the US in alternative medicine and the results are there for all to see, the US is falling farther and farther behind.
I suffered from severe GERD so bad that I would spray my bedroom walls with gastric fluid while fighting for air. My psoriatic arthritis was so bad I had a very difficult time with mobility, even touching my toes was painful. I was scheduled for Aortic arch replacement surgery since my aorta had grown to over 5cm, according to tests at both Mayo and the U of Minn hospitals.
So I threw away my Nexium and my Enbrel and started on high doses of pro and prebiotics, EFAs such as fish oil, vascular support supplements such as hyalauronic acid, and cellular support supplements such as MSM and CoQ-10, in total 25 supplements.
My GERD is completely gone, it took two months. My psoriatic arthritis symptoms are completely gone, I’m more limber than I can ever remember, my range of motion constantly amazes me. I no longer need the aorta replacement since my last diagnostic has it at 4cm. I’ve been carefully monitoring my aorta for 5 years now, I was seriously preparing for open-heart surgery. How one can relate the changes that I’ve seen to “placebo effect” is beyond me. Why I can eat anything before retiring without any problems with GERD is related to placebo is beyond me. Why you can put a quarter 2 feet in front of me and I can pick it up without moving my feet or bending my knees is related to placebo is beyond me, I could never do that before.
I trust nutrition and nutraceuticals *much* more that what I consider the true snake oils – prescription drugs. I’m 56 and will no longer take prescription drugs unless absolutely necessary. 90% of all prescription drugs world-wide are consumed by Americans. You can cite statistics but remember the words of Mark Twain: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
My trust is with alternative medicine, it’s been my boon, not my bane, and this book doing people a big disservice my minimizing it.
Rating: 1 / 5
I am 25 year old Pharmacy student, I’m an advocate of drug therapy but in no way shape or form do I believe ALL Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is worthless like the author does. The book uses very long stories and tons of explanations to try and rationally explain why CAM therapy is one giant placebo effect. Let me give you an example of how our author refers to CAM therapy chapter 4, page 67 “In other words, what we really have here is a blueprint for a most wondrous, myth-perpetuating machine.”
Go read you’re own clinical trials and do you’re own research; don’t accept anyone else’s conjectures just because they have Dr in front of there name.
Rating: 1 / 5
At least that is what the author would have you believe. Many authors such as this one do not believe in complementary or herbal medicine because they trust dangerous drugs with nasty side effects more. The problem is not that complementary medicine doesn’t work, it is just that the dosages that people take are mostly not sufficient to have any pharmacological effect. Glancing at the PDR for herbal medicine one finds that many herbs require several grams a day for correct potency, while drug stores typically sell herbs at 400mg doses, 10-fold less than what is needed.
Effects of herbs are pretty clear, if they have no effect, then why are marijuana, cocaine or opiates illegal? Clearly if herbal compounds have no effect, then what is the harm in legalizing all of those substances, since allegedly they produce no effect? What about silybinin, the compound from milk-thistle that has clear liver regenerative effects proven by scientific literature?
For every treatment discussed in this book, I can find several scientific references that show that they work. It takes a statistician to throw out the points that disagree with his hypothesis and trick other people into believing his nonsense. It’s what drug companies have been doing (most recently Merck) for decades.
In addition, most early drugs were all derivatives or isolates from natural compounds, even chemotherapy drugs such as paclitaxel and doxorubicin and even the pain reliever aspirin all trace their origins to complementary and alternative medicine. Another complementary approach to immune healing is sunshine, which increases vitamin D production. Even the FDA recognizes that americans are deficient in Vitamin D and that this increases the risk for cancer.
Complementary and alternative medicine works just fine, if it doesn’t, then maybe we should pretend that morphine’s actions for pain relief are just placebo as the author would have you believe.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book could help more people appreciate research critically. A noble aim. However, the writing lumps alternative medicine into one broad and vague category. That’s not helpful for patients, clinicians, or researchers. It’s easy to relate to the author’s story of having a relative searching for a miracle cure for pain through pills or special foods and treatments. Isn’t there a better way to inform and protect consumers? The author’s answer is to focus on the placebo effect and end with a sermon on the power of hope. I would have liked to see a more nuanced discussion of risks versus benefits. For instance, even without definitive research, learning breathing exercises could be considered low risk. According to the author, there’s currently nothing but placebos, hope, and miracle seekers. I would have liked to see him reserve some of his hope for advancements in research.
Rating: 2 / 5