SCAM: So-Called Alternative Medicine (Societas) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

I originally wrote a preliminary review of this to address a couple key problems but now that I've finished the book, some additional points need to be address.Overall, it's an admirable and important effort but this appears to be a self-published first draft, that dearly needs professional editing and proofreading.First off: excellent topic and good treatment of alt medicine, but those footnotes totally unsuitable for a print book. While Dr. Ernst is very diligent in citing his sources the use strictly of URLs makes the footnotes practically worthless. One notable example, on pg. 3, contains approximately 170 characters including one sequence of:"/ref=sr_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&/qid=1499948538&sr=1-4&keywords" --...and that's only one line of this total URL sequence!.With rare exceptions, there are no actual book or article titles (at one point, p. 173, he actually apologizes -- or apologises, to use the British form -- for having to give a title and date) so all one can do is guess at what it probably is if you want to Google it. I do this with student papers all the time since they are notorious for getting a character wrong in their URLs...and, just like a phone number, one wrong digit and you got nuthin'. (That excerpt above happens to be one of three such interminable URLs on that page.)Imagine reading that "a recent study too account of..." but when you want to know what "recent" is -- 2017? 2013? -- all you find is some gibberish in \the form of a URL at the bottom of the page with no date or title (162)Since nearly all the sources (99%) are online works, this is a real hindrance to using this book for further research. My urgent suggestion for the next edition is to give us the book/article title and a "tiny URL". If this was an online work, the URLs would be just fine--and perhaps that's what Ernst started with. But in a print book, the reader needs more conventional citations.Strawman arguments: Sadly, Prof. Ernst is guilty of the very fallacy (albeit well-deserved) that he accuses alt med practitioners of. He criticizes chiropractors for "assuming ALL disease comes from subluxations of the spine." (my emphasis, p. 132.) But. lunatic fringe excepted, clearly this is not a claim of any chiropractors I've ever heard of. Similar strawman attempts are made on 100, 150, 156, 175 and elsewhere. The solution to this is fairly simple though, Dr. Ernst: just edit the "must's," "all's" and other overstatements to more reasonable generalizations. It's easy to knock down an alt med claim that insists that something is "always the case"; you do our own case a disservice by overstating your objections.Assuming the premise. It does no good to criticize alt med for professing what they believe. For example, "The chiropractic profession has been reminded time and time again that their claim...is unsubstantiated." (102). Sure the claim in question is dreadfully wrong, but "reminding" someone that what they believe is bogus doesn't really help anyone. It's like "reminding" a true-believing psychic that their powers are non-existent.Finally, it would be a good idea, to stop cynically accusing alt med practitioners of wanting to make "a tidy profit" (35) from their efforts.To be sure, outing the out-and-out fakes -- psychic surgeons, televangelist tent revival healers getting their info from a control booth, spoon-benders and the like -- is important and useful. But it's counter-productive to propose that "legitimate" alt med practitioners are somehow different than conventional medical practices in wanting to maximize (or optimize) profits.So, in your next edition: tone down the overstatements, provide real footnotes and have a decent copyeditor go over the text. In fact, feel free to call on me Dr Ernst. No charge. This information is much too important to leave at the mercy of detractors looking for an excuse to gainsay your efforts.

An excellent read for EVERYONE having been to or contemplating going to an “alternative” practitioner. You wouldn’t buy a car without reading a car-review done by experts in the field, WHY trust your health and money to procedures based in sketchy, hyperbolic and incredible testimonials....let Dr Ernst’s decades of dedicated research into all these alternatives be your GPS. Be informed first!

The author spent years researching alternative medicine. Read the evidence against it. I loved this book! It’s easy to read and understand for the lay person.

Edzard Ernst is a well known UK anti homeopathy activist. This book will be enjoyed by homeopathy skeptics, not by people who have been helped by this form of treatment. Many more books about homeopathy, written by experienced practicing (some for decades) homeopaths, are available on Amazon.

A must read!

I found some of the chapters in this otherwise excellent book flowed less well than other work Ernst has written, and I think the book would have benefitted from the input of a good line editor (e.g. on the first page of Chapter one “it is” is double written as a typo). But then that can be said of so many books. Good editors are expensive and a rarity. However, this is a minor detail and that means I have awarded the book five stars nonetheless for the following reasons.This book gives its readers a good grounding in understanding the facts about so called alternative medicine (SCAM). The book does not set out simply to explore the arguments for and against SCAM. Instead it does do that but then it also does something far more powerful, scholarly and informative. Namely, it lets you know about the expert systematic reviews and double-blind trials that have already proved the clear majority of it ineffective as anything other than a placebo. In other words, the book is a powerhouse of top references to support the rational argument against the irrational use of SCAM.So called alternative medicine is a scam. Fools and their money are easily parted. Ernst does not appear to think his book capable of converting most of the fools and con artists who deploy SCAM on the public. The book may, however, stop other people from being fooled by them. His aim is to make the world a better and safer place.This book is extremely useful for those just starting out to try to find out more about the difference between scientifically proven versus ineffective (and as Ernst reveals oftentimes harmful) quack cures. Moreover, SCAM reveals also the details of how its author has been harassed at his university by dishonest pseudo-scholars and quacks who did so - because unable to argue fully, honestly and properly with the bombshell new data he had on them - they attempted maliciously to discredit him personally in order to hide the facts. This area of the book appeals to me as a fellow victim of such failed attempts by university academics, no less, harassing me and others for my own published research into Darwin's and Wallace's plagiarism. In my case, the harassment has been so persistent that one, among several of the offenders, was fired by Edinburgh University for his disreputable, fallacious and malicious pseudo-scholarly libellous conduct in persistently harassing those associated with my original research discoveries. He now obsessively edits a pseudo-scholarly, full of errors and falsehoods, Wikipedia page about me and another, full of falsehoods, about Patrick Matthew and my published research in the field. In addition, he has written endless fallacious, nut-job poison pen, criminal harassment cyberstalking, emails to senior academics at my university and elsewhere.I think it important to gather as many examples of such disreputable and disgusting conduct - and how universities and other organisations and individuals encourage, facilitate and otherwise respond to it - as possible. Hence, SCAM provides essential data on this topic also.

Do you want to know where you can find the evidence that alternative treatments are effective? Do you want to know more about how alternative healers think? Are you interested in the difference between a cult and an alternative therapy movement. Do you want to learn how alternative healers keep gullible people coming back for more (useless) treatments? Read this book. Professor Ernst can give you the answers you were looking for. He explains everything with style, elegance and a sense of humour!

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Prof Edzard tells it how it is.

Discusses Scam in detail and explains what they are and the claims made for them..it costs lots of money for treatment that you may not need

El peor libro de E. Ernst. Bastante caro para tratarse de la re-edición de algunas notas de opinión que se pueden encontrar en su post. Evita la discusión científica y se centra en el ad-hominem o a inventar un conseso apelando a que no hy evidecia "reliable". Para colmo, acude al cherry picking autocitandose cuando puede. Parece que le afectó la edad.