Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine

The books is good, but it is actually a shame, that book such as this still remains relevant.

Homeopathy, naturopathy, hebal, ayurveda medicines are considered legit by significant population in my Country, so much so that there is a government department to promote these systems.

Trick or Treatment

The first chapter, 'How do you Determine the Truth' is an important read for everyone, to serve as a warning that it is pretty easy for us to deceive ourselves and the world at large. Its disconcerting to read about, practices such as bloodletting which seem cruel and stupid now, but not very long ago were considered to be the best treatment for most of the diseases. The best of us are susceptible for biases and seeing patterns where there are none and that is why we need to create robust systems to differentiate between Trick or Treatment.

The best bits in this book are about, the history of the scientific method itself and how it came about. The tales of men who stood up against the widely accepted truth of their times and convinced community of medical practitioners and public at large. This is an important story through centuries which has finally led us to the gold standard of double blind randomized placebo controlled trials towards determining actual efficacy of medicine without a doubt.

For someone like me who has always considered acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic and herbal medicine as quackery, the rest of the chapters felt repeat of what I always felt strongly about - but still it was good to admire the extent to which these alternative medicines have been debunked. Also, for someone who is on the edge, this book should be a clincher.

But, for a reader who is a a firm believer in any of these practices, my suggestion would be to keep an open mind while going through the evidence presented - it might just make you ask more questions.

In these times when Corona vaccine trials are going on, this book makes you appreciate, the critical importance of the trials and why they should not be rushed.

You may purchase the book from affiliate link here: Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine