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Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All | 
 enlarge | Author: Rose Shapiro
Publisher: Harvill Secker
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £6.04
You Save: £6.95 (54%)
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 23705
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 1846550289
Dewey Decimal Number: 615.5
EAN: 9781846550287
ASIN: 1846550289
Publication Date: February 7, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 An incisive examination of alternative and complementary therapies November 25, 2008
JA Foxton (Worcester, England)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I read this book in parallel with 'Trick or Treatment?' by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. For those with the time to do likewise, I would highly recommend both books. Although there is inevitably some overlap between them there is enough difference in approach to warrant reading both of them.
For those who are only inclined to read one book on this topic, my preference was for 'Trick or Treatment?' This is because it is such a well structured book. Ultimately it will be a matter of personal taste as to which book someone prefers and I will give a couple of possible reasons for choosing 'Suckers' instead.
Rose Shapiro brings a deliciously cynical sense of humour to her writing. In addition, for anyone who is interested in osteopathy, this book contains a much fuller treatment than Singh and Ernst's book. In the latter, osteopathy gets a single page of coverage in the appendix.
This book is a useful antidote to the irrationality to which people are prone. When people are ill they are particularly vulnerable. Anything which diminishes the likelihood of vulnerable people being exploited, if not actually harmed, has to be applauded.
It works for me November 20, 2008
Peter Wade (Colchester England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It works for me
Alternative or complementary medicine as it is now called has crept up on us like organic food and the anti smoking lobby. When I was young the only alternative medicine that I had ever heard of was osteopathy which seems to have been round for ages. Even my mum used to visit the osteo from time to time.
I regularly do yoga and meditation and have had great results with back pain and spiritual healing. They all work for me. A recent television programme found that mediation was a verifiable medical fact in that it can change the structure of the brain. I notice the author don't cover yoga or mediation.
I looked up Hopi candles on the Internet and there were a fair number who said it was hokum but there were equally a large number who swore by it.
I love it when people tell you "I am very sceptical you know" They then tell you about conspiracy theories and how all politicians and bent. They stand there in all their designer brands, driving BMW or Volvos. We are all subject to consumerism and almost none of us are that different unless were are eccentric.
These same sceptics will then believe all the cons put up by alternative or complementary therapy. It is like organic it has an air of respectability about it by saying it is ancient or comes from some far off remote place.If you go to Hind Body spirit fair you will see a fair amount of obscure therapies such as auras, fortune telling and a a variety of others that defy description. They are well attended by a lot of middle aged middle class women who it seems are the largest consumers of this stuff.
Those who want to believe in alternative medicine can and do. I believe in yoga, mediation and spiritual healing only because it works for me I don't personally give a toss if anyone else does.
I will not be personally offended if I am told it is all a con. Those who believe in it feel as though they have to vehemently defend it. take it or leave it.
If your beliefs cannot be subject to some rigorous questioning then perhaps they are a bit shaky. Just admit they are your beliefs not that they have to be true.
Great book worth a read.
A thoughtful demolition of modern day quacks. November 19, 2008
J. DARBY (UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What you think of this book will probably depend on where you stand on CAM so any review can only be subjective.
For me, this a well thought out and painstakingly researched demolition of alternative therapy. Shapiro points out that the one thing that nearly all the alternative 'medicines' have in common is their belief in balance within the body, when your body is out of balance you become ill. The trouble with this theory is that it pre-dates mans understanding of the body and the effect of infection upon it ie; germs!
Despite the nature of the subject, the book is written in a humorous manner. Indeed, the section on Marilyn Monroes bathwater had me laughing out loud. (You'll have to buy the book for more on that one!)
Shapiro's conclusion is that CAM works at best at placebo level and because of the extra attention practioners give to their patients. This however does not justify the wild, unscientific and often contradictory claims made on its behalf. At worst CAM gives false hope, diverts patients from real treatment and costs an awful lot of money.
I think you know where I stand.
Absolutely brilliant and revealing book August 15, 2008
Dr. C. Becker (Edinburgh, Scotland)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Suckers is an easy read and very well researched. I must admit that I rarely read "popular science" books, since I find them brushing over details and ultimately getting facts wrong. This book however, has the facts and backgrounds of a whole host of "alternative" "treatments" down to a T, teaches you how to recognise a quack by the language they use and will ultimately save you money, because you will not fall for their promises. I just got a copy for my mum.
Did you know that "Traditional Chinese Medicine" is barely over 50 years old?
Did you know the origins of chiropractise and osteopathy?
This book is an essential read for the parent who constantly needs to defend their decision not to use a naturopath and for the health professional who has preserved their ethics and is not offering unproven treatments to satisfy the modern trend for supposedly ancient healing methods.
Refreshing May 26, 2008
Eric Ambleside (North Yorkshire)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
It was a delight to read this book and see the emperor's new clothes of 'alternative' medicine exposed for the con they really are. There are many, many examples within this text of alleged "therapies" revealed as howling cons. Quite why people are mug enough to fall for some of this stuff eludes me. The credulity of some people is truly astonishing, and most amazing of all is that they manage to not spot that they are paying through the nose for this stuff. The alternative therapy apologists complain about "big pharma" and the medical establishment, yet rake in millions for cures that in some cases amount to little more than water with rocks dipped in them.
Particularly interesting are the chapters on the "respectable" alternative therapies, particularly chiropractic and osteopathy. These two have done a fine job of making themselves look serious and official with fancy looking training schemes and regulatory bodies, but when you realise where their roots lie it becomes obvious that they are little more than nice massages and a little everyday rubbing and stretching at best. Unfortunately, in the case of chiropractic, there seems to be sound evidence they can be deadly as well. The histories of these pseudo-medicines are apparently fairly accurately reported by Shapiro, and can be verified elsewhere.
Homeopathy gets its ritual and thoroughly deserved spanking (has there ever been such a con outside of organised religion?) as does that silly old fool Prince Charles, particularly for his horribly self-indulgent and potentially outright dangerous foundation dedicated to merging unproven and plain bonkers money-making alternative junk into proper medicine.
Entertaining and educational, this book provides an excellent general grounding and contains some excellent links to further more detailed material.
Not to say that modern medicine is perfect: the time that some complementary practitioners spend on their patients, sometimes triggering enhanced placebo responses, is something the NHS really should learn from. However, most of this junk has no clinical effect, so hopefully before long mumbo-jumbo like Reiki, Kinesiology and Homeopathy will at least be banished from the NHS and millions of pounds diverted to treatments that actually do something.
"Suckers" should be commended as a great service to common sense.
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