This is the book many practitioners of alternative medicine are dreading. Simon Singh, the bestselling popular science author, and Edzard Ernst, the world’s first professor of alternative medicine, uncover the truth about what really works, what doesn’t work – and what is potentially life threatening for you in the world of alternative medicine.

NHS doctors wouldn’t dream of writing out a prescription for a drug that hadn’t been thoroughly tested, was unproven and where the side effects were unknown. Yet many are more than happy to send patients to alternative practitioners where none of the same tests are applied. Professor Edzard Ernst and Dr Simon Singh take a scientific look at alternative medicine, using the best available evidence to find out what alternative medicine can, can’t and really shouldn’t do. The result is this book – a real eye-opener for anyone who thought alternative medicine generates more good than harm!

This book concerns us all. 50% of Britons are turning to alternative medicine to treat a whole host of illnesses, and the number of users is on the increase. Europeans spend £400 million per year on herbal remedies, while the global spend on all alternative medicines is £40 billion; this is the fastest-growing area of medical spending, yet it remains scandalously unregulated and unquestioned. Singh and Ernst focus in detail on homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic therapy and herbal medicines, but also give a comprehensive overview of all other alternative treatments available, explaining whether each one works and whether it is safe or not.

For more than 200 years, clinical trials have been carried out and provided scientific answers, yet there is an astonishing reluctance to accept scientific evidence within the alternative medicine community. Singh and Ernst look at the trials that have taken place, and discuss the results to give you a real insight into alternative medicine.

Whether you are an ardent follower, sceptic or just plain baffled by the subject, Trick or Treatment? is a groundbreaking guide which finally lays to rest the doubts and contradictions you’ve come across in the past. It’s the definitive book on the subject, and is set to cause a massive debate.

Dr Simon Singh is a bestselling popular science author (The Big Bang, The Code Book and Fermat’s Last Theorem) and has spent the last decade as a science journalist, trying to explain complicated ideas in a way that the general reader can grasp. He has a Ph.D. in particle physics and started his career as a director and producer on BBC science programmes such as Horizon and Tomorrow’s World.

Professor Edzard Ernst is Britain’s, and the world’s, first professor of alternative medicine, who has spent over a decade trying to work out which treatments do or do not work. He has been a clinical doctor, and studied and practiced homeopathy and many other alternative therapies in the past. He has a world-class reputation for successfully applying science to test the value of alternative therapies.