Do doctors treat pensioners with snake oil?

A cheering and optimistic story about dementia at HealthInsightUK.org.When Obhi Chatterjee’s dad was diagnosed, Obhi set about researching the most plausible supplements and diets to help him. The piece tells you what they are and why they might work and also has useful advice for anyone wanting to follow his example. Two of the biggest […]

Ben Goldacre’s new book. Too late, too little

Drug companies exaggerate their successes, hide their failures and generally fail to abide by the rules of evidence based medicine. This ongoing fraud is the subject of the latest book from Guardian columnist Ben Goldacre, better known as merciless scourge of “woo” merchants cynically flogging worthless complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments. An extract from […]

Rattling with pills as you grow older

As you peer into your medical future among the nasties lurking for you will be lots of pills. Fifty percent of people over 65 are on five or more drugs – the medical version of five-a-day – unless of course you have read ‘The 10 Secrets of Healthy Ageing’, my new book written with Patrick […]

Alzheimer’s funding boost 1

The announcement last month (March 25th) the Alzheimer’s funding was to be doubled by 2015 is to be welcomed. But what is the money going to be spent on? Two separate developments don’t inspire confidence that it will always be the most safe and effective treatments. The first concerns the latest developments with the drug […]

Series: Drugged-Up Britain – No. 1

Drugged-Up Britain 1; Aug 2011

No. 1 of 4 articles in Reader’s Digest UK. (August 2011) How did we get to the point where £22m is spent on prescribing drugs—every day? In the first of a four-part special, Jerome Burne launches our campaign to tackle Drugged-Up Britain. When 54-year-old John arrived at a nutritional clinic in south London, he was in a bad […]