Talk about health

I don't know if you read the newspapers or watch TV news programs. I tend to look at the TV news a couple of times a day and read the occasional paper to keep up to date with the world. Some things annoy me about the way things are reported these days - it could be my advancing years.

Calling those things newspapers is a misnomer because what they carry is rarely new. Most of the time they promote CDs and DVDs, never news, to sell their wares. And, TV tends to base their reports on what is happening where they have reporters - not necessarily where anything interesting is going on. So, you get a selective series of items that they grandly call the "Main Stories", but they omit anything covered by other channels, especially sport.

But, something thay all have in common is their superficial take on anything medical. They begin with the sensational headline - the new magic bullet; costly but wonderful new drug; why alternatives don't work and so on. Ten they skirt round the research picking on the phrases that suits their take.

They major on the benefits, perceived or imaginary, of the new drug while managing to forget about potential and real side effects or drawbacks. I must admit it get right up my nose. Why can't they just tell us the truth - all of it, not just a selected part. OK So, a new drug might well help the survival rate for a certain cancer. I think that is the way of progress. But, all drugs have side effects, some of them can be fatal when dealing with life-threatening conditions such as cancer.

The drug companies must have a list of side effects and their frequency. Why not tell us so we can get the thing in perspective. It's no good if a drug helps 30 people while also killing 60 more.

And, why the double standards? If an alternative medicine is thought ( thought, mind you, not proved) to perhaps have been involved in a small number of incidents, the media crucify it, shouting for it's immediate withdrawal. Yet, a drug like Vioxx kills thousands in the US alone and it takes years to get it taken off the market. I suspect it's down to money and power.

I have to admit the press can and do do a good job in exposing charlatans and cheats, fat cats and dodgy politicians. They are like a two headed man, one being logical and thoughtful, the other short-sighted and biased.

It makes me want to shout at the TV and give up buying papers.

That's why I started this blog and my site at http://www.healthexplored.co.uk to let more people have a balanced view of health matters, to explain what I think is going on in a straigtforward way, and let you have your say in it too. So pop over there now and join the newsletter - no charge- and get a gift as well for your trouble.