Customer Reviews

Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine: The New Approach to Using the Best of Natural Therapies and Conventional Medicine

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I agree with the previous reviewer that this book is a bit simplistic and does not go into great detail, but it is meant to be an overview of "alternative" and complementary treatments for the average health care consumer. As a physician, I would not recommend this book for providers, but I think it's a great starting point for patients, and I would not hesitate recommending it to my own patients. The idea is to give the reader a quick summary of the CAM (complementary/alternative medicine) treatment involved, a helpful "traffic light" system that indicates whether the authors think the treatment might be beneficial (green), unknown/might be useful/use caution (yellow), or unsafe (red), based on the best scientific evidence available. There is a quick blurb on "What the research says" for each CAM treatment, and this is where I wish there was a bit more information--perhaps a list of studies that the motivated patient can look up himself. As a provider, I am interested in the studies from which the authors are drawing their conclusions--perhaps a book from the Mayo clinic experts with this kind of information specifically for providers can be made available someday.

There is a lot of conventional medicine in this book as well, some good sections on diet, exercise, and lifestyle, and a section on "what makes a good study". I don't find the presentation to be patronizing; rather, it is appropriate for the broad range of educational backgrounds of the audience for which it is intended. I think the photos and layout are pleasing to the eye.

I found the sections on energy therapies (reiki, healing touch, acupuncture) and "other approaches" (ie, naturopathy, ayurveda, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine) to be a little too lenient ("yellow lights" were given to most of these); most of these treatments need more research, and it should be stressed in the chapters that they should not be undertaken IN PLACE OF conventional treatments, but perhaps as adjuncts. In another chapter, spirituality and prayer is discussed, and although this is given a green light, it really should be stressed that prayer alone will not cure illnesses such as meningitis or diabetes, as some religious groups would have us believe. Of course, it can be used as a useful integrative practice for some patients.

A strong chapter on quackery and how to spot it should always be included in any book on CAM, in my opinion. Since it is not really addressed in this book, I would recommend my patients to also read Dr. Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch internet site, which is free, and which does not mince words when it comes to criticisms of CAM, studies involving CAM, and even the NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

I believe that the search for "alternative" treatments has picked up recently because conventional doctors, due to decreasing insurance reimbursements and increased demand to see greater numbers of patients, are not able to spend enough time with their patients, and really LISTEN to them. Doctors are no longer able to afford to open their own practices and become part of a community, where their patients are their neighbors and friends. More and more we see doctors jumping around the country in order to find the states with the lowest malpractice insurance rates, the best call schedules, the highest salaries. Patients are searching for someone they can trust, who will listen to their concerns and offer support. Many times a massage therapist or reiki provider has the time to provide this, whereas a doctor does not. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of "quack" CAM providers who take advantage of this as well, and they have a large stake in the continued support of their practices by the public and the government. It is up to conventional medical practitioners, who should demand as much scientific evidence to support CAM treatments as conventional treatments, to help patients sort the wheat from the chaff, and I think this book is a good starting point for opening the lines of communication.

I think money and politics and the threat of lawsuits sometimes affects the how researchers present a therapy or drug as either safe or not. It seems they tend more to the safe side than not, at least that what it seems like. The book has a lot of nice pretty pictures, and for those who are rushed for time and don't want to take an indepth look at a particular drug or treatment, then I suppose this book is adequate. Although there are a lot of websites out there, imo, that have just as good information if not better. I was suprised that Soy was given a green light given the nature that high amounts of soy does contain a chemical in it that might be considered by some to not be beneficial. Definately a good book for some. But for the serious alternative medicine researcher, there is no substitute for reading as much as you can from just about every source you can.

Although this book offers an overview of a wide field of various medicinal approaches, its promise simply isn't met: Items are given either a green, yellow, or red light with little or no meaningful discussion; alternative therapies are discussed so briefly as to make their discussion unworthy of the time spent in locating them; most of the book is big pictures and little words, setting a patronizing tone that persists throughout the volume.

There are many, many more useful books than this one out there. As much poor writing as there is, most books that cover any given medical area are going to offer more than this volume by virtue of offering at least some depth. This book simply offers none.

The answer to the question "Is this book worth the money it costs?" greatly depends on what you expect to get from it. If you're looking for a reference guide for the so called "alternative therapies" (I'll use CAM for short henceforth), you probably should look someplace else. If you are a believer in CAM, looking for a scientific proof that CAM works, you might be disappointed. Although the book does list 20 conditions, which can be "helped" with CAM according to scientific studies, a closer look reveals that by "helps" they almost always mean "provides a temporary and mild relief for some superficial symptoms", namely: non-specific pain, nausea, stress, anxiety, depression, and high blood pressure. In my case, I was looking not for the information, but for another point of view. It's not difficult to find all the information in this book online, either in favor of CAM (mostly coming from practitioners), or against it (QuackWatch, SkepDic, NCAHF, CSICOP etc.), or even something more or less neutral, like NCCAM. After listening to all the sides I thought that Mayo Clinic, as a respectable medical institute, but with unusually liberal approach towards CAM, may provide a unique perspective on the matter. In this respect the book was more or less worth the money I paid for it. Two things soured the experience, however. First of all, the book isn't as comprehensive as I was hoping for. It contains a basic description of 25 popular types of "alternative therapy", as well as 59 common herbs, vitamins and minerals. This is a nice coverage, actually, but with hundreds of therapies and thousands of herbs out there (if not more) it's far too small to be a real compendium. I was hoping for at least twice as much. In particular, there is nothing about such famous (or infamous) things as colon cleansing and Philippine healers. One star off for this. There is a lot of information about healthy living, and just a handful of pages about the dangers of CAM and the quackery, but since I've found nothing there I didn't know already, it didn't affect my rating. Some people might find it useful, though. Another matter is more serious: deception. To my best knowledge (but who knows) they tell only the truth in the book, but definitely not the whole truth, which creates false impressions. For example, they speak of the idea of "putative energy" or "life-force" as a supposed basis of some "therapies", but never mention the fact that such concepts are extremely anti-scientific. People who aren't versed in science may take this silence as a sign that science, at the very least, doesn't deny the existence of such "energies", which is not true. A more disturbing example involves prayer. The book gives it a "green light" and says that a study (emphasis on "a") showed that prayer can change the course of some disease, yet never mentions all the other studies, including at least two performed by Mayo Clinic itself (!), which showed absolutely no benefit of prayer on healing. Whether prayer works or not, I find such glaring omission unacceptable. There are many other examples like this one, and even the choice of words is sometimes misleading ("study couldn't prove" instead of "study disproved", for example). Because I generally like and respect Mayo Clinic, I will take off only one more star for this, but I can't promise to be so nice next time.

Very disappointed in how watered down the information in this book is...doesn't seem like the Mayo Clinic gave me any new information, and just scratched the surface on all that's available today. Wouldn't recommend to the serious reader, but a good place to start if you know absolutely nothing about health choices.

I purchased this book because I have been so happy with PDR for Herbal Medicines, 4th ed. (Physician's Desk Reference (Pdr) for Herbal Medicines). Which is another mainstream book on natural medicine. Unfortunately, this book is nowhere near that quality of research. It is a simplistic, inaccurate, and critically judgmental review of numerous approaches to natural health.

They use a stop light as a visual aide to show you their opinion of that particular item, a red light means not to use the treatment, or use it with a doctor's close supervision. The doctor's close supervision is a constantly reoccurring theme. A yellow light means use with caution, and a green light means it is safe for most people to use.

They give the herb goldenseal a red light. The Herbal PDR states the goldenseal is 90% effective against malignant brain tumors. It is more effective than any chemotherapy available.

Niacin they give a green light, stating that it can effectively reduce cholesterol, but then they go on to say it should only be taken under a doctor's supervision. A medical doctor recently told me that niacin was medicine's "dirty little secret" because everybody knows it is much more effective than any cholesterol lowering drug. But, there's no money to be made in it, so no doctor will tell you about it. Another natural alternative to a prescription for high cholesterol is vitamin C, it is discussed in great detail in Putting It All Together: The New Orthomolecular Nutrition.

It gives magnesium a yellow light and says that it is uncommon for most Americans to be deficient in it. We need 300 mg. of magnesium a day, and most people only get 250 mg. so there is a gradual depletion of our magnesium levels. It is one of the main causes of constipation, it is called for in heart cases, and it greatly reduces the chances of having a mentally retarded baby; the list goes on and on. If you have a health problem, a magnesium deficiency will seriously aggravate it.

When it does give interesting information, it doesn't give you the details to use it. For instance, it says that a study showed that vitamin C, E, beta carotene and zinc showed that it reduced the advancement of macular degeneration. But it doesn't tell you the dosage or even site the study so that you can look it up.

It gives homeopathy a yellow light, and says that there is no research to support its use. There is an immense amount of research supporting the efficacy of homeopathy. One researcher said "Either double blind studies don't work, or homeopathy does." He obviously went into the study believing that homeopathy didn't work. Hence the need for double blind studies, so that the researcher can't influence the outcome.

It says that generic supplements are as effective as brand names, which is simply not true. Quality varies greatly by manufacturer in all things, including herbs and supplements.

If you are educated on the subject of natural health, this book will make you furious because it is so inaccurate and misleading. If you are just getting interested in natural health, I recommend you start with Chemistry of Man (Man Series, Second Edition) instead.

It is never wise to completely shun a proven method, and it's never wise to shun all alternatives as well. "Book of Alternative Medicine: The New Approach to Using The Best of Natural Therapies and Conventional Medicine" is a scholarly written and researched guidebook to alternative medicine, combining natural therapies and the conventional wisdom of modern science to find solutions when the common method fails alone. A seminal piece that should be read by all who want to keep their health up to snuff, "Book of Alternative Medicine: The New Approach to Using The Best of Natural Therapies and Conventional Medicine" is highly recommended for community library medicine collections.

Mayo Clinic book on alternative medicine should be on everyones book shelf. It contains down to earth information about many simple procedures for good health.

This really deserves 3 1/2 stars. It is very good for what it includes, but should include a bit more. It mostly emphasizes cardiac health. Much of the information is well documented and available elsewhere.

But it does a very good job in presenting the material and making it understood by many people.

This book isn't really that informative. I should have saved my money and just used my computer.