Complementary and Integrative Therapies for Cardiovascular Disease

Many CAM options relate to cardiovascular disease. It is thus important to inform cardiovascular specialists about this subject. Not many books have attempted to do this, and the present volume is aimed at filling this gap.

It is written by ‘noted experts’ in the CAM field. All of the authors are from the USA and few are what I would call ‘noted experts’, i.e. people who have themselves contributed to CAM research and are known outside their own country. The book is essentially organised according to CAM modalities and covers many of the relevant CAM options. Like many multi-author books it suffers badly from heterogeneity. Some chapters are authoritative and provide what cardiovascular specialists are looking for: concise and factual information. Other chapters are less evidence based and some are deeply flawed.

In the preface the editors state that rigorous placebo-controlled studies in CAM are ‘essentially lacking in most situations.’ First, I would not insist on placebo-controlled trials and second, this statement does not exempt authors from mentioning studies where they do exist. Sadly this is not always the case. What is worse, the cited evidence is sometimes twisted to the point where I no longer recognise it. For instance, to state that homoeopathic Arnica has been shown in systematic reviews to be ‘useful’ is not my reading of these papers. Other chapters are not up to date. For instance, the acupuncture section is partly based on our overview from 5 years ago and recent important evidence is ignored.

All in all it is a very mixed picture that emerges and thus I find it hard to recommend this book. Perhaps some FACT readers might look at it in the library.