Talk about health

I was watching TV this morning before starting work when I saw the "Resident GP" talking about a survey that had found tea was good for you. It's amazing just how particular GP s can be when discussing surveys on alternative and natural medicines. She mentioned right away that the survey had been funded by the Tea Council of GB, before condescending to agree that tea probably wouldn't do you any harm.

I get really annoyed by the attitude of conventional doctors. I'm sure that had we been concerned about a new drug from the vast multinational drug companies, the same GP would manage to NOT mention that the research had been paid for by the very company that was marketing the drug. Funny that, isn't it?

I think it is too much for TV producers to call only on a conventional representative in these situations. It's about time that they balanced things by inviting an alternative practitioner to give their point of view.

Why should conventional medicine get all the publicity, as if their's is the only voice that matters. What really matters is a balanced view that can be got only by hearing more than one side of an argument. How many recent drug launches have been supported by conventional medicine, only to find a few years later that they are killing unnacceptable numbers of people. In the case of Vioxx it was estimated that it ran to thousands who died from its side effects. How many die from a cup of tea in an average year? And who asked anyone other than the resident GP?

After all, there are new findings almost every day that prove the value of tea drinking, whether green tea, white or black teas. All the report mentioned today was about was that any sort of tea drinking can do you good in the context of a balanced diet. Here, here!