The magic feather effect: the science of alternative medicine and the surprising power of belief

Description

Author and journalist Melanie Warner takes readers on a vivid, fascinating journey through the world of alternative medicine. Crossing continents and sides of the debate, visiting prestigious research clinics and ordinary people's homes, she investigates the scientific underpinning for the purportedly magical results of these practices and reveals not only the medical power of beliefs and placebo effects, but also the range, limits, and uses of the surprising system of self-healing that resides inside us.;Donna's Eden: under the influence of an energy healer -- Lost in translation: the enduring practice of acupuncture -- Telltale toothpicks: acupuncture and the randomized, placebo-controlled trial -- The pharmacy within: what does a placebo effect feel like? -- Healing partners: a case of vanishing back pain -- My back is out: the hand therapy of chiropractic -- This feeling in my body: how acupuncture really works -- Brain pain: the modern neuroscientific view of pain -- The illness of disease: energy medicine and a rare disease -- The Zen response: stress reduction and the immune system -- The emotional rescue: a miracle at Lourdes -- All in my head: the German psychosomatics -- Something to believe in: waking up neurons after a spinal cord injury -- Believing is seeing: searching for signs of healing energy -- Why doctors need to be more like alternative healers (and vice versa).