Media woo merchants just don't get it
Do dietary deficiencies of magnesium or vitamin B6 cause Tourette's syndrome? Er, no. If a production company decides they're going to make a program looking into treating Tourette's with magnesium and B6 will the advice that it's all nonsense put them off making the program? Er, no. Apparently the program is called The Food Hospital. I can't bear to look at the link to it because I know I'd only get upset. Somebody from there emailed me out of the blue to ask my opinion and I gave it to her. Turned out a bunch of other experts told her the same thing as me. Has that put off her making the program? (See above if you can't guess the answer.) I spend much of my working life persuading people with severe mental illness to keep taking their medication and to stop smoking. It is really, really unhelpful for me to have popular programs on popular channels raising the possibility that the correct treatment for mental illness might be a...