I believe in...
Health care based on common sense and proper scientific evidence.
 

I'm against...
Much of what gets written about health in the papers. The emphasis is always on scary headlines rather than a cool headed approach that actually delivers the information people need to know.

I also try to resist the increasing medicalisation of society in which normal variations between people are arbitrarily defined as pathological - such as shyness becoming "social phobia" - and risk factors such as marginally high cholesterol and blood pressure are treated as diseases in their own right.

We need to question this or we'll end up with a bankrupt NHS and a society that makes us feel ill whether we are or not.
 

Ask me about...
Any health related problem. GPs should be your first port of call for medical worries, not internet sites trying to sell you dodgy pills and potions.
 

Career highlights
I've been shortlisted for PPA columnist of the year seven times, writing under my pseudonym in the medical trade press. Last year - again under my pseudonym - I was voted Medical Journalist of the Year.

The book I co-authored called A Blokes Diagnose It Yourself Guide to Health was runner up for the British Medical Association's consumer book of the year prize

I'm The Sun's "Medicine Man" so catch my column every Thursday. And yes, the questions are all real.

I'm also medical editor at Men's Health and have started writing a regular column in the magazine.
 

Memorable moments include...
My proudest moment was telling a BUPA doctor live on air that I wouldn't have one of their health screens if they paid me. He'd just offered me one for free.

Under my pseudonymous guise, I offered the FA my services to counsel Gazza.

I also told Buck House I'd be happy to take over as the Queen mum's doc, even offering to do regular home visits. Both declined, though politely.

Johnny Vaughan told me my book was the only medical book he'd ever read that didn't leave him feeling iller when he'd finished it. There was a mass brawl at our launch party, which was ironic.

Erm... I've done a free fall parachute jump, but that was less scary than my first day on the wards. Still pant wettingly terrifying, though.

Nick Cave has trodden on my foot and Mick Hucknall spilled lager over me. Though neither acknowledged either event. Er... that's it.