ART has been a triumph: it has given us all more better options But infertility treatment is more than

ART has been a triumph: it has given us all more, better options But infertility treatment is more than a science. We have to ask what the treatment may be doing to our emotional health and if our “miracle” doctors can help us to manage difficult feelings.It’s not that we don’t want doctors to be gods (often we do), but we want them to be thinking gods who will tend both to our bodies and minds. In the face of infertility, we cannot always rely on ourselves for a dose of realism. Then again, if my consultant had offered less intervention and insisted on a slower pace, would it have made a jot of difference to my choices? I honestly don’t know.Inconceivable Conceptions: the Psychology of Infertility, a one-day conference, is on 20 May; contact The Group-Analytic Practice (020-7935 3103; .uk).

He died the next day.”There are at least one million deaths from malaria annually and the WHO estimates that 200,000 of these might be avoided if the medicines were “effective, of good quality and used correctly”.In the US, pharmaceutical manufacturers agreed in 2003 voluntarily to report cases of counterfeiting to the Federal Drug Agency within five days of discovery. If a patient came to harm as a result of a counterfeit product, the company’s good reputation is in danger of disappearing.”Professor White said counterfeiting “undoubtedly led to deaths”. In Cambodia 70 per cent of the antimalarial drug artesunate sold in shops and markets – which accounts for 90 per cent of the total supply in the country – was fake.Professor White said: “I was on the north-west border of Thailand with Cambodia two weeks ago and a man came into the clinic with severe malaria and the tablets he had with him were fake. It recommended compulsory reporting but between 1999 and 2002 the WHO received only 84 reports and since 2002 it has received none.At the International Conference of Drug Regulatory Authorities in Madrid in February last year, the WHO said “the drugs industry had a great deal of data but was very reluctant to make them available”.The Pharmaceutical Security Institute, set up by drug manufacturers in the US and Europe to combat counterfeiting, said in an e-mail to the researchers: “It is necessary to keep fake drug information confidential for commercial reasons … Everyone knows about the problems of heroin and crack cocaine, and even about counterfeit CDs, but they don’t know about the problem of fake drugs.”The reluctance of companies to report cases of counterfeiting was highlighted by the WHO in 1999.

Given the gravity of the situation we think it should be taken up by governments and pursued with vigour. In a market economy it is clearly wrong for them to do anything that might damage their products.”Our solution is to take the responsibility away from the companies. “We believe this is absolutely safe and definitely beneficial to people’s health,” says Sue Croft of Consumers for Health Choice.. If you’re drunk and want to look sober, a large dose of vitamin C will prevent drunken behaviour, according to a 1986 study, “Alcohol and Alcoholism”.* To maintain your healthA 1,000mg daily dose is regarded as safe by the Food Standards Agency, and adequate to keep sufficient vitamin C in the plasma and tissues. Taking four 1,000mg tablets orally for three days could be worthwhile as well.* For a hangoverTaking 1,000mg daily in the week before a booze-up reduces stress on the liver. Nor can he overcome the fact that proper clinical trials are still desperately needed. Considering its overall safety, there appears to be no good reason why anyone with a chronic or acute health problem should not try, at the very least, a couple of week’s regime of two or three 1,000mg tablets of Vitamin C a day.Need to Know: So how much should you take?* For a coldThree 1,000mg doses a day, according to the campaign group Consumers for Health Choice.* For fluAlthough it’s more serious, the viral load is similar, according to research, and taking up to 20,000mg a day could be beneficial.* For shinglesResearch has shown that this painful post-viral condition can be pretty well cured by an injection of 3,000mg of vitamin C.