Ok, this is just a quick note to recommend that anyone in the UK, or anyone who knows how to use proxys, should really be watching this programme.

It’s on BBC  iplayer and it’s called ‘Professor Regan’s Medicine Cabinet’ but don’t let the diet-show packaging fool you, this is actually a quite ruthlessly skeptical show promoting the value of good scientific research and critical thinking on health issues and providing excellent illustrations of just how important blinded clinical trials are.

I really can’t praise this show enough and although I’m sure it will inevitably be accused of being biased against alternative treatments it actually treats them very fairly and certainly doesn’t spare mainstream medicine from it’s critical glare. The shoddy evidence and commercial tactics of drug companies, alternative medicine and a variety of popular mainstream and fringe medical fads are all worthy targets and the scenes with paid up company stooges defending their products against impartial medical academics are worth watching the show for alone. 

I thought this would be fluff TV when my girlfriend turned it on last week but it’s one of the best examples I’ve come across of the scientific method and critical thinking being promoted on mainstream television. Way to go BBC and Professor Regan! And don’t forget… Watch the show!!!