A Consumers Guide to Alternative Medicine: A Close Look at Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Faith-Healing, and Other Unconventional Treatments (Paperback)

~ (Author), Stephen Barrett (Author, Editor) "Everyone knows that "the world's oldest profession" is the selling of fake passion..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, New York, Nutrition Forum (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Butler, no stranger to fraudulent health claims and quackery (he was founder and president of the Quackery Action Council) here presents a rogue's gallery of physicians, pseudo-scientists and self-appointed guardians of health, contending that they have taken Americans for the proverbial ride through rip-offs, health misinformation and just plain fraud. Although attacks on these people--who include Stuart Berger, M.D., Gary Null, Earl Mindell and Lendon Smith, M.D.--are hardly new, Butler's message of prevalent health fraud in alternative therapies does bear repeating. In addition to taking swipes at various alternative and New Age therapies, from homeopathy to crystal and faith healing and Christian Science, Butler bears down especially hard on chiropractors, calling them "masters of doubletalk and weasel wording." The media, he says--the Phil Donahues, Oprahs, Larry Kings and Geraldo Riveras--are also to blame for quackery. He hits on consumer magazines, names publishers who in the past have published books he believes are detrimental to health and chides Publishers Weekly book reviews for allegedly promoting suspect alternative therapies. Butler makes helpful suggestions about how to be a smart but skeptical health-care consumer, as well as about what other professionals (nurses, dentists, physicians, pharmacists, ethical chiropractors, librarians) can do.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Butler, a nutritionist, attacks just about every alternative therapy in existence, including crystal healing, aromatherapy, and astrological counseling. Much of his data can be found in other works ( The Health Robbers , edited by Stephen Barrett and Gilda Knight, LJ 12/1/76), but he provides hard-to-find information refuting ultra-fringe therapies like firewalking and live cell analysis. Librarians may not appreciate his list of "book publishers to beware of," his suggestions that they place warning labels in books promoting unconventional therapies, or his allegation that many book reviews in Library Journal and Publishers Weekly "are done by non-experts who cannot tell the difference between a fact and a piece of nonsense." This is an extremely one-sided book mainly for libraries that collect heavily in alternative medicine. Others need more balanced viewpoints.
-Natalie Kupferberg, Montana State Univ. Lib., Bozeman
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 299 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879757337
• ISBN-13: 978-0879757335
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #871,732 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 18, 1999

By A Customer

I wish the author had cut the bombast and bluster and been more dispassionate -- explaining exactly what each "cure" was and why it didn't work. Instead he goes on about he quacks and expects us to take him at his word that the remedy is no good. I bought this book so I could understand exactly why certain remediesdidn't work, why they were quackery, partly to head off a friend. Instead I get told something is no good, but not why and not what should be used instead. I'm still searching for a good up-to-date book on the current fads and fallacies.

13 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There can be no 'Alternative' in science. Either something works or it doesn't., January 3, 2007

By	Jim Carey "stabbyappleton" (Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews

You can't have 'alternative' biology and 'alternative' physics, but yet the Cult of 'Alternative' medicine seems to think they are immune to scientific analysis, empirical testing, facts and all those other "nuances" that get in the way of their faith.

I see the majority of the reviews come from this Cult of true believers who no doubt found this searching for more scripture to preach to them. "What's this? Something that goes against my preconceived notions? Blasphemy!"

In actuality this book is NOT an attack-piece. It is a series of findings compiled by licensed professionals taken from well-documented, peer-reviewed, established sources such as JAMA and many other medical journals who used methods such as double-blind testing and chemical analysis to reach their conclusion. You see in science, the conclusion comes AFTER the research. This is the fatal flaw in the 'alternative' medicine field: much like with so called 'Christian' science, they have established the conclusion first and then seek to bend the 'evidence' to reach their pre-conceived end. (i.e. The Earth is only 600 years old this is why carbon-dating MUST be inaccurate). That is, of course, when they even ATTEMPT to use science to explain their outrageous beliefs. More often than not 'alternative' health is based on secondary sources (my friends mother swears the blood of a virgin cured her hangnail!) or ancient scripture (what worked in 16th century rural Asia MUST be better than today because those Asians were SO in tune with their bodies and so mystical and wise!) and ignores all evidence to the contrary (hangnails clear up naturally and 16th century rural Asia wasn't the healthiest place to be.)

Unfortunately this belief has permeated into society and has gotten away with a lot of fraud and false-hope by becoming an unquestioned 'alternative' to serious treatment. The book focuses in on how this developed as well as what causes a person to accept the irrational claims made by 'alternative' medicine con artists like Deepak Chopra and Andy Weil. The information in this book can be a great source of knowledge and comfort for any person who is seeking a truthful and honest look at alternative medicine and finds themselves awash in a sea of new age health books written with no sources or references and 'alternative' health gurus and self-proclaimed 'doctors' who speak like children and never back anything up.

18 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars illogical and faulty arguments, November 23, 1999

By A Customer

This book takes a broad spectrum attack on everything the author considers to be quackery. In his opinion unless anything is not proven by science it is false. This is plain ignorance. There are shortcomings to the scientific method as any true skeptic would know. For instance one of the main tenents of science is that of repeatability to verify causal relationships. If a thing has no repeatable cause and effect relationship, it must be false and a coincidence. However using this argument science can deny some of its own claims. Why hasnt anyone argued that because penicillin hasnt cured some of the diseases it has cured before, then it must be a quack medicine. It has failed the test of repeatability. The hypocrisy is evident, and it shows through in this book. Scientific method is nothing more than skepticism in an empirical mode. I have nothing against the scientific method and skeptical inquiry, since this is nothing more than common sense. However, I do have a problem with pseudo skeptics and scientists who hide under the banners of science and skepticism to promote junk as this author wrote. I will agree that there are frauds and liars in the alternative health field, but this is true of any field. This book is nothing more than the promotion of a new religion which is scientism. As is true with any religion, you will have fanatics who will believe what they want, no matter what the evidence is for the other side. This book is so biased that its only worth is in presenting the other side. This is why I gave it only two stars. Wise men will look at both sides of an issue to discover the truth. This book is far from that ideal.