Snake oil science : the truth about complementary and alternative medicine / R. Barker Bausell.

The rise of complementary and alternative therapies
A brief history of placebos
Natural impediments to making valid inferences
Impediments that prevent physicians and therapists from making valid inferences
Impediments that prevent poorly trained scientists from making valid inferences
Why randomized placebo control groups are necessary in CAM research
Judging the credibility and plausibility of scientific evidence
Some personal research involving acupuncture
How we know that the placebo effect exists
A biochemical explanation for the placebo effect
What high-quality trials reveal about CAM
What high-quality systematic reviews reveal about CAM
How CAM therapies are hypothesized to work
Tying up a few loose ends.