Professor Regan goes behind the pharmacy counter to find out if the millions we spend every year on products from cold remedies to herbal medicines are worth it.
Drawing on her own experience both as a doctor and as a breast cancer patient, Professor Regan discovers the real secret behind branded painkillers, reveals if homeopathy is a complete waste of money, investigates the ultimate cure for the common cold and tries out a test that could save your life.
As a doctor who has delivered hundreds of babies, Professor Regan knows a bit about pain relief. She knows that both generic and branded painkillers often contain exactly the same drugs – aspirin, paracetamol or ibuprofen. So she is amazed when an investigation into the power of branded drugs reveals they may really have an edge over the generic.
Professor Regan also turns her eye on alternative remedies, from homeopathy to herbal medicines. She designs her very own successful sleep remedy, gets to the truth behind homeopathic medicine, and uncovers which herbal remedies have clinical evidence that really stands up. Along the way, she discovers just how powerful the placebo effect can be.
iPlayer (Thanks Katherine)
Watched this last night… I loved the test done on the rugby players with the iced water, though it left me ambivalent about whether the placebo effect was worth paying the extra money for. I guess it only works if you didn’t watch the show.
It shows just how important the placebo effect can be, and on the flipside just how being in a mental rut can create psychosomatic illnesses.
I knew a girl on my art course who had nothing physically wrong with her, but because she was a compulsive hypochondriac eventually she developed the physical syptoms she’d started off by imagining she had. Months down the line she ended up walking on crutches and eventually bed ridden even though the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong at the outset. She practically convinced herself to be ill over a period of about 6 months. And all that stemmed from her mental state.
Apologies for the double post, I think there’s a bit of a time delay on the blog today!
Sent this in as it contains one of the most jaw-droppingly wild claims about homeopathy I have heard in a long time – homeopathy is ahead of science!!!!!! Prof Regan’s face was an absolute picture as she struggled to contain her reaction. The sight of the homeopaths preparing their diluted solutions was hilarious and put me in mind of the bizarre practices of some religions or witch doctors.
Saw a similar Horizon documentary featuring James Randi in which they did a double blind test on homeopathy and the results were more or less the same as a placebo. It said that homeopathic dilution is the literal equivalent of a drop in the ocean.
As Tim Minchin says in “Storm” it’s strange how water’s memory of an infiniessimally small amount of medicine is infinite, yet it fails to remember all the poo it’s had in it. Don’t they say every glass of water you drink has been through the urinary tract of a dinosaur at least 3 times?
I feel the Tim Minchin song ‘If You Open Your Mind Too Much’ is appropiate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFO6ZhUW38w
wouldn’t it be great if we could get derren on prescription.