Snake Oil Science: make a woo read this today

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Snake Oil Science by R. Barker Bausell.

A calm dissection of the 'science' that backs up the claims of woo.

As I have said of homeopathy, "I never knew there was so little in it", but it turns out that almost every sCAM therapy that has been subject to well-controlled trial turns out to be no better than placebo.

In other words, sCAM = placebo in almost all cases.

It's in hardback, so if you can't get a woo to read it you could also usefully hit them over the head with it.

[JJM]

It is sitting, here, waiting to be read. Another review of it:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=4

[Blue Wode]

Another good review here:
http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/bausell.html

…and these two books will be available soon:

Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools Of Us All
http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289

Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3703713/-/Product.html?searchstring=trick+or+treatment&searchsource=0

:)

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Another good review here:
http://www.skepdic.com/refuge/bausell.html

…and these two books will be available soon:

Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools Of Us All
http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=1846550289

Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial
http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/3703713/-/Product.html?searchstring=trick+or+treatment&searchsource=0

:)

Cracking! Ernst is in the blurb on the back of the Snake Oil book and makes references to his with Simon Singh so I was wondering when it was coming out.

[mrich]

Snake Oil Science is an awesome book, and I highly recommend it. My brother (also a physician) gave it to me for Squidmas and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on Bausell's own research into acupuncture. My favorite section described the lengths that he and a colleague went to in their quest to design the "perfect" placebo for acupuncture.

[Blue Wode]

There was an interesting two-page article about R. Barker Bausell in the Baltimore Sun a few days ago:

Researcher criticizes alternative medicine
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-to.hs.alternative24jan24,0,1454755.story?page=1

But, unfortunately…

...his book is making only a few ripples as it bumps up against the juggernaut that has become alternative medicine, which is backed by a U.S. government agency with an annual budget of more than $121 million, has a foothold in hallowed medical schools such as Harvard and Columbia, and attracts tens of millions of followers nationwide who spend billions on it.

Bausell gets no book tour. He has heard from few colleagues who have read his tome. A favorable review in The New York Times has barely registered.


And, of course, the article evoked quite a few woo-type comments:
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/baltimore-sun/T7RLE0T9J7S9NCU2E

[mrich]

There was an interesting two-page article about R. Barker Bausell in the Baltimore Sun a few days ago:


Thanks very much for posting that link!

[Blue Wode]

When it comes to skeptical books on sCAM, we’re being spoilt for choice this year. Here’s another book that’s in the pipeline:

Healing, Hype, or Harm?: Scientists Investigate Complementary or Alternative Medicine. Edited by Edzard Ernst.

The scientists writing this book are not 'against' complementary or alternative medicine (CAM), but they are very much 'for' evidence-based medicine and single standards. They aim to counter-balance the many uncritical books on CAM and to stimulate intelligent, well-informed public debate. TOPICS INCLUDE: What is CAM? Why is it so popular? Patient choice; Reclaiming compassion; Teaching CAM at university; Research on CAM; CAM in court; Ethics and CAM; Politics and CAM; Homeopathy in context; Concepts of holism in medicine; Placebo, deceit and CAM; Healing but not curing; CAM and the media.

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Hype-Harm-Investigate-Complementary/dp/1845401182




:)

[Blue Wode]

Rose Shapiro’s book, and another one, Counterknowledge by Damian Thompson, are reviewed in today’s Telegraph under this dubious title

Keep taking the alternative medicine
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/02/11/botho111.xml

Tim Lott, the reviewer, concludes the piece with this:
It is an unpalatable truth for rationalists like Shapiro and Thompson that not all lies are harmful.


Really? Perhaps he should take some time out to read this…
http://whatstheharm.net/index.html

…which was given some well-deserved extra publicity by Skeptico yesterday:
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2008/02/whats-the-harm.html