Quacks and chaos

Of all the mind and body-altering drugs and techniques that are available to us today, by far the most powerful is the one that almost all of us ignore. It is, of course, the imaginative power of the mind itself.

Known variously as the placebo effect, the white coat syndrome or hysteria, it is capable of effecting a "cure" without a cause, making our blood pressure rise on sight of a doctor and sometimes paralysing part of our body without any organic problem.

It is the happy hunting ground for both well-intentioned would-be physicians and cynical charlatans, just as, in the past, it has been the haunt of voodoo priests and witch doctors.

Fortunately for us, a small band of dedicated professionals have tried, over the centuries, to bring some rational order into this sphere of our existence and Rose Shapiro is one of the most recent.

In highly accessible language, she looks at a range of alternatives to evidence-based medicine, alternatives that have little or no basis in modern science or objective testing.

Provocatively titled Suckers, the case is set in the first few lines of the preface. The British "annual spend for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) ... is £4.5 billion, a market which has grown by nearly 50 per cent during the last 10 years."

Further evidence of the power of this dubious industry follows. "Fifty thousand ... self-appointed and predominantly unregulated practitioners ... actually outnumber GPs" in Britain.

Shapiro traces how this position of power for CAM arose from a "change of name" in the mid-20th century. What "was called quackery or fringe medicine (then) was renamed alternative medicine." It then became "complementary medicine" and has now become "CAM."

The emerging concept of "integrated medicine" is the point at which Shapiro writes that "things are getting out of hand."

Readers of this review may baulk at her reference to a "free society" where "every individual has the right to choose to do the things that they believe are health-promoting, as long as they don't directly harm anyone else."

But those same readers will surely agree with her critique of "the integrationists, with Prince Charles as their standard bearer ... that in future we will all be treated with a mixture of proven, unproven or disproved therapies ... provided by the state."

With a list of 1,000 "therapies," it is clear that we are in the midst of a chaos of conflicting claims. Most are going to fleece us of our money, in return for the disappearance of symptoms that would resolve naturally.

This book is an invaluable and critical guide to the myriad and dubious aids to health.

Most, by far, of the alternative therapies may help your positive mental attitude, but with a substantial negative effect on your balance of payments.

Some, however, are a clear and serious threat to your health - and your life.