Ben Goldacre is an English medical doctor and author of "Bad Science.
" He's beside himself with indignation at what he sees as the unscientific nonsense that passes for science information in the popular press.
He's particularly concerned about what people are led to believe about their health.
He observes that the public is obsessed about health issues--half of all science stories in the media are medical.
He says we are "bombarded with scary sounding claims and stories.
" But, he claims, these stories we get are from reporters who don't understand scientific evidence.
Take homeopathy, Goldacre's favourite whipping boy.
Samuel Hahnemann devised homeopathy in the late eighteenth century.
He decided that if he could find a substance that could induce symptoms of a disease in a healthy individual then it could be used to treat the same symptoms in a sick person.
His first homeopathic remedy was cinchona bark, which he suggested was a treatment for malaria.
Since giving out chemicals and herbs could be dangerous, Hahnemann decided that the substance should first be diluted.
Today the typical homeopathic dilution is such that the original substance has been diluted so that less than one part per million of the original substance remains.
Or far greater than that, according to Goldacre.
He maintains that with such dilution homeopathic products cannot possibly produce any medical effects.
He rejects the homeopath's assertions that "water has a memory.
" In other words, the active ingredient molecules affect the water and make you feel better.
In fact, Goldacre, says, homeopathic products are nothing more than sugar pills that cannot possibly heal anyone.
They may, of course, cause the placebo effect--make the patient to feel better because he has made a self-fulfilling prophecy that taking the pills will make him feel better.
And that's what really annoys Goldacre--hearing about people who claim to be made better by some unscientific treatment when in fact it's all in their minds.
Of course, most people don't care--they just want to feel better by any available means.
The placebo effect can be truly amazing.
Take, for instance, research that shows that four sugar pills are more effective than two in treatment of gastric ulcers.
Obviously, the placebo effect is about more than the pill - it is about what Goldacre describes as the "cultural meaning of the pill.
" These cultural meanings have an impact on the person's beliefs about their own health, and the ability of the body to heal itself.
Colour is important.
Stimulant medications tend to come in red, orange or yellow pills, while antidepressants and tranquillizers are generally blue, green or purple.
Packaging is also important.
That's why people buy brand name painkillers rather than generic brands--the ingredients may be the same, but the mind decides that the brand name painkillers work better, and so they usually do.
There is also evidence to show that fake knee arthroscopy works just as well as the real thing in reducing pain.
And as can be expected, all the research shows that doctors who have a good beside manner are more effective in helping patients get better.
In many ways, healing takes place when conditions are right in the patient's mind, and the treatment they take is only partly responsible for making those conditions positive.
There are so many people out there who want to help you to become healthy, it's difficult to know where to start.
Walmart wants to sell you vitamin pills, Dr.
Ho wants to clean out your colon, and your doctor insists you need to be probed to check out your prostate or take pills to lower your cholesterol, Coffee Time suggests that organic coffee is better for your than normal coffee.
The Running Room suggests you spend more time exercising to lose weight, while Herbal Magic claim it can be done by using herbs.
Ben Goldacre seems to suggest you can't really believe anything unless science has validated it.
That means organizing trials in which neither the experimenter nor the patients know whether they get the pills with the active ingredient or the placebo, randomly assigning patients to the placebo or active ingredient group, and using valid statistics to evaluate the data.
When it is realized that much of the research in medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine do not always follow these rules, one has to step back and think, "What am I to believe?" It should be obvious that not everything we do to maintain our health can be validated by science.
Many people led healthy lives before the scientific method was even thought of, by simply eating natural foods and behaving sensibly.
We can do the same today.
That means have a healthy skepticism about what both pill sellers and doctors tell us, including Dr.
Ben Goldacre.