Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

We are presently seeing more and more books on CAM for specific conditions – this volume is in line with that trend as its focus is on CAM for cardiovascular diseases. Reading it left me somewhat confused.

In Chapter 1, the two editors give the impression that the book is rigorously evidence based. They even outline the grading system to be employed: from C (expert opinion) to A (well-designed clinical trials). The reader is therefore surprised to find that most authors do not apply it. The chapter on herbal medicine uses a ‘class 1, 2, 3’ system, which may or may not correspond with grades A to C, but most other chapters use no ratings at all. While this would be easily forgivable, the fact that several chapters seem to be totally non-systematic, often failing to mention the best available evidence, is not. Many errors and misprints finally sealed my disappointment with this book – a real pity as some chapters, for instance the one on herb–drug interactions, are authoritative. My conclusion: not a book that I want to recommend to FACT readers.