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Melanie Warner

The Magic Feather Effect: The Science of Alternative Medicine and the Surprising Power of Belief Hardcover – January 22, 2019

by Melanie Warner (Author)

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The acclaimed author of Pandora’s Lunchbox and former New York Times reporter takes an enlightening, engaging deep dive into the world of alternative medicine and the surprising science that explains why it may work.

We all know someone who has had a seemingly miraculous cure from an alternative form of medicine: a friend whose chronic back pain vanished after sessions with an acupuncturist or chiropractor; a relative with digestive issues who recovered with herbal remedies; a colleague whose autoimmune disorder went into sudden inexplicable remission thanks to an energy healer or healing retreat.

The tales are far too common to be complete fabrications, yet too anecdotal and outside the medical mainstream to be taken seriously scientifically. How do we explain them and the growing popularity of alternative medicine more generally? Is there a biological basis for practices like acupuncture, tai chi, chiropractic, and energy healing? Who are the faithful patients and practitioners who tell these stories and speak of such mystical-seeming concepts as qi, chakras, and meridians in the first place?

In The Magic Feather Effect, author and journalist Melanie Warner attempts to answer these questions, taking us on a vivid, fascinating journey through the world of alternative medicine. Crossing continents and sides of the debate, visiting prestigious research clinics and ordinary people’s homes, she investigates the scientific underpinning for the purportedly magical results of these practices and reveals not only the medical power of beliefs and placebo effects, but also the range, limits, and uses of the surprising system of self-healing that resides inside us.

Equal parts helpful, illuminating, and compelling, The Magic Feather Effect is a brilliant exploration of some of the world’s most popular health treatments, the people who seek them, the scientists who study them, and the reasons they may work.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The small miracle of Warner's entertaining and highly useful book is that it gives you the tools to understand how alternative medicine works, so you can confidently make up your own mind...With lean and persuasive prose, she skillfully navigates the alternative-medicine landscape with an open mind and a strong bias for the scientific method." (The Washington Post)

About the Author

Melanie Warner is a freelance writer for various publications, including The New York Times and Fast Company. She has spent the past fifteen years writing about business, first as a writer at Fortune magazine, where among other things, she wrote about the dotcom boom in Silicon Valley. She was also a staff reporter for The New York Times, covering the food industry. The author of The Magic Feather Effect and Pandora’s Lunchbox, she lives in Honolulu.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; 1st edition (January 22, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501121499
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501121494
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,317,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #649 in Tai Chi & Qi Gong
- #1,257 in Holistic Medicine (Books)
- #4,141 in Healing

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Melanie Warner

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Melanie Warner is a freelance journalist who writes about science and health. Her book on processed food, Pandora’s Lunchbox, was published by Scribner in February 2013. She has worked as a reporter for the New York Times, a senior writer at Fortune magazine, and a blogger for CBSNews.com. Melanie lives in Boulder, CO.

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Well-balanced, easy to understand, very interesting and informative discussion

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2019

This book provides a fascinating, clearly written discussion of a journalist’s exploration of alternative medicine. The author provides a very balanced view of what works based on a combination of interviews, personal experiences, and review of relevant scientific literature.

I don’t want to discuss the well-reasoned conclusions she draws because part of the fun of reading this book is seeing how she unravels the mysteries of various claims about healing. I loved the distinction she made between illness and disease.

Reading this book has given me a much better understanding of the placebo effect and of which conditions might benefit from alternative medicine and which conditions are likely better treated conventionally. It also reinforced something I had already noticed—my outcomes are much better when I work with doctors or healers who seem confident and kind and with whom I have a good rapport.

The author discusses many scientific studies throughout the text, and she provides generous references for each chapter in the Endnotes. An index is also included at the end of the book.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in biopsychosocial medicine, alternative healthcare, the placebo effect, or healing. I think it would be very helpful for both practitioners and patients.

I was provided an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review. Because I have not seen the final published version, I cannot comment on the final editing and formatting.