The Whole Story – Alternative Medicine on Trial? (Toby Murcott, ISBN:1-403-9450-04)

I’ve just finished reading ‘The Whole Story’ written by Toby Murcott. I first read about this book in the ‘Shiatsu Society News’ magazine from Spring 2005. It had a great cover and title which made me want to investigate it further.  

“Essential reading. A balanced, sympathetic and long overdue look at the relationship between science and complementary medicine.”BBC Focus magazine

The book explores CAM ( Complemetary, Alternative Medicine) from a  medical science stand point, in a way which is easy to read and understand. I liked the  fact that he was led into CAM by his cat who was given a bleak diagnosis by his vet. Toby decided to try CAM on his cat who then thrived far past the diagnosis given by the vet. 

It explores a number of CAMs, including Shiatsu and Acupuncture.  In Chapter 4 Toby states ” No dissection or imaging method to date has found traces of meridians, acupuncture points or energy channels running through the body. Anatomists have looked and every time they have found nothing. Meridians, the cornerstone of Acupuncture and Shiatsu, are just not there. None of which proves that meridians will never be found.” He then goes on to discuss the way in which meridians are being looked for could be the wrong approach.

The Editor of the Shiatsu Society news stated that ” Chinese research has found meridians as a thinning of the connective tissue where meridians lie.” (p.25, spring 2005).

The book does focus on Western research, it would have been interesting to have a section looking at Eastern research/practice and their findings as a contrast.

The book is thought provoking and puts forward good examples of CAM working in union with Orthodox medicine. It then looks objectively at the research that has been conducted to prove this which is very far and few between. In a way the book encourages us to look at CAMs more objectively. It is definately worth reading and gives a good overview of both sides of the arguement. I, like the reviewer in the Shiatsu Society news, felt a little disappointed with the end of the book, it tends to patter out without any conclusions being made.

However, I really did like this ” Chronic conditions and slow degenerative diseases are on the increase. With no cures in sight, palliative care is becoming a bigger part of medicine. Complementary practitioners appear to be comfortable with helping people live with disease rather than attempting to cure it. Many I spoke to talked of the pleasure they get from enabling someone to get on with their lives a little better even though they know the problem will never go away” (p161).

http://digg.com/users/ShiatsuTracy/news/dugg

An interesting website given in the book is:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html

This enables you to look at bodies on line that have been dissected, a great tool if you want to get a better understanding of how the body works.