Description

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Alternative medicine is a fifty billion dollar per year industry. But is it all nonsense? The Whole Story rounds up the latest evidence on the placebo effect, the randomized control trial, personalized genetic medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy and more.

About the Author

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TOBY MURCOTT is a leading science writer, journalist and broadcaster. He was for many years the science editor of BBC World Service Radio before becoming the director of Einstein TV, a digital science channel. He currently has a column in The Times newspaper. He did his PhD and postdoctoral research in Biochemistry at Bristol University, UK.

Praise For…

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"Calling on doctors, patients, therapists and researchers as witnesses, Dr Murcott puts complementary medicine on trial. By examining the evidence at hand he highlights the complexities in making healthcare decisions and draws conclusions that have important implications for all forms of medicine." - Professor Marc Cohen, President, Australasian Integrative Medicine Association
"Complementary and alternative medicine is more popular than ever before, and there is no shortage of publications on the subject. This book clearly stands out from the rest. It is a well-researched attempt at cutting through the thick layers of make believe and revealing the truth. Like no other lay book, it promotes analytical thinking, a commodity rarer than gold dust in this area." -Edzard Ernst, Professor of Complementary Medicine, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth
"...[E]legantly presents the challenges of testing therapies from acupuncture to reflexology and in so doing makes an original, thought-provoking and worthwhile contribution to the debate on complementary medicine...An original, thought-provoking and worthwhile contribution to the debate." --Dr Susan Aldridge, author of The Thread of Life and Seeing Red & Feeling Blue
"This book clearly stands out from the rest. It is a well-researched attempt at cutting through the thick layers of make believe and revealing the truth."--Professor Edzard Ernst
"a book you ought to read."--www.popularscience.co.uk
"A fun little book about complementary and alternative therapies"--Bandolier
"A bird's eye view of both the orthodox and complementary medicine worlds. Excellent and thought-provoking."--Institute for Complementary Medicine Journal
"Murcott reveals how much of what we take as scientific fact is imbued with subjectivity, bias, misinterpretation or simply asking the wrong questions."--The Lancet
"This book should be prescribed for bigots on both sides, to be taken thoughtfully, all the way to the last page." --Guardian (Thursday Science Supplement) "Essential reading. A balanced, sympathetic and long overdue look at the relationship between science and complementary medicine." --Focus Magazine"It is probably unwise to label any book as required reading. Nevertheless the temptation to do so with The Whole Story is strong." --Guardian (Saturday Review) "A fine new science and health title." --Midwest Book Review"Brilliantly researched and bravely written." --Science and Public Affairs