Suckers

How alternative medicine makes fools of us all.

In the tradition of Fast Food Nation, a feisty, well-argued and very provocative calling to account of a huge and rapidly-expanding industry.

'Alternative' medicine is now used by one in three of us. In the UK we spend an estimated 4.5 billion a year on it and its practitioners are now insinuating themselves into the mainstream. There are methods based on ancient or far-eastern medicine, as well as ones invented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many are promoted as natural treatments. What they have in common is that there is no hard evidence that any of them work.

Treatments like homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic are widely available and considered reputable by many. Ever more bizarre therapies, from naturopathy to nutraceuticals, ear candling to ergogenics, are increasingly favoured. Endorsed by celebrities and embraced by the middle classes, alternative medicine's appeal is based on the spurious rediscovery of ancient wisdom and the supposedly benign quality of nature. Surrounded by an aura of unquestioning respect and promoted through uncritical airtime and column inches, alternative medicine has become a lifestyle choice. Its global market is predicted to be worth $5 trillion by 2050.

Suckers reveals how alternative medicine can jeopardise the health of those it claims to treat, leaches resources from treatments of proven efficacy and is largely unaccountable and unregulated. In short, it is an industry that preys on human vulnerability and makes fools of us all.

Suckers is a calling to account of a social and intellectual fraud; a bracing, funny and popular take on a global delusion.

Rose Shapiro has written for newspapers, magazines and medical journals including the INDEPENDENT, the OBSERVER, TIME OUT, GOOD HOUSEKEPING and the HEALTH SERVICE JOURNAL. She lives in Bristol.

Review: While this book is enlightening on some of the fraudulent activities of an unregulated sector health, it still leaves open the question of what is best for us? Pharmaceutical, is a massive industry currently under threat but natural medicine, are they devalueing natural medicine to retain market share or is there no substance or testing behind the natural medicines to value their worth? If the natural medicine sector where to provide more testing results rather than ancient myths, would it be taken more seriously?Suckers
Random House Australia
Author: Rose Shapiro
ISBN: 9781846550287
RRP: $32.95