Now I've been a maths and science skeptic from way back, when I worked out in year 9 that

a. it was just another excuse to keep children cooped up in cages for another 24 lessons a week ramming the laws of Dr Hook, Lance Boyle, Bert Newton et al into their skulls - a part of the social control program of the time. I still remember that 's' equals half 'at' squared but along with the other 99% of kids who learnt about this equation at Whyalla Technical High School in 1961, I'm still waiting for the opportunity to put it to good use.

b. It's another excuse by the scientific power elite to spend more  time indoctrinating defenceless children. In a previous time the 24 lessons would have been spent on religion. Maths and science, the new religions for latter day saints and saviors of the world!

d. teaching science provides employment for people who love teaching science and don't have the aptitude to do much else.

Have you noticed that the level of good health in the community is inversely proportional to the amount of money spent on medical research. So much for science.

f. all the science and maths education going on in schools was just universities getting schools to do their dirty work for them. For people with an interest and aptitude in maths, people who want to enter careers where you use this stuff, the science taught in high school could be sucked up in a couple of terms at uni.

The introduction of the decimal currency, calculators and computers should just about have reduced maths and science education to a couple of lessons a week, for those who showed aptitude. I bet there's not much demand for log books these days, or slide rules.

And now I reckon I could confidently bet London to a brick that 99% of people reading this newsletter would fail their year 11 maths and science exam papers. In fact if you want to take up the challenge I'll send you a copy of my year 11 maths exams. You can make the choice between Maths I and Maths II. Just don't expect me to mark them.

Free the children I say. Let them spend more time outside running around, forcing air into their lungs, solving the big problems presented by tennis and golf! Let them spend more time inside solving the problems that come with painting a portrait, throwing a pot, tickling the ivories, bashing the skins, plucking strings and tootling the flute, singing, dancing and learning how to have fun, cooking a hot roast and running up a hem. Let them spend more time debating, acting and making things with their hands. Not fashionable is it in this country, making things with your hands? That's why it's all done in China.

Making things with your hands doesn't seem to require much intelligence - until you have to call your plumber to fix your cistern. He rocks up in a BMW and talks about his race horses. This is justice being dealt out to those of us who were suckered into believing that doing things with our hands was beneath our dignity, a prostitution of our intellect which without having to deal with manual problems was left free for loftier thoughts. Precision turning, joinery, not fashionable to teach these skills in schools any more is it? Fingers and hands aren't connected to the brain?

But for now I say good luck to all those people who love it, have an aptitude for it and use it every day. For me, I'd prefer to spend time working on my tennis and golf. Maybe Hook's law could have helped me with my slice! Maybe a better appreciation of 's' and 1/2 'at' would have stopped me from trying to belt the cover off the ball at every tee shot. Doubtful. Maybe I should have jusat stuck to the Desiderata.

The reply to the first part of the question was 'lifestyle, and being overweight' - the extra adiposity blocks the airway. This is true and applies to 80% of people with sleep apnoea. For the others it is probably still lifestyle even though they may be close to their ideal weight - stress and an inability to relax would be the usual suspects. Another, I understand is a small jaw. So to be fair, it is a useful gadget for some people.

He didn't reply to the second part of the question: -

a. either because he had a short term memory problem, or

b. he wasn't game to say that it didn't treat the cause, just masked over the symptom. Ironically the gadget involves either a mask being placed over your nose or two bits of plastic hose up your nostrils.

So much for science. It's easier to flog off a gadget for a couple of grand; it's easier to buy a gadget for a couple of grand than it is to get yourself back into good shape. This is just another example of junk science parading as junk medical science and perverting the course of good health in this country.

Resmed are making a fortune. They're laughing all the way to the New york Stock Exchange. Their shares are going gangbusters.

In the meantime I'm still waiting to read that medical science has developed a pill to keep you aerobically fit, strong and flexible. When that happens I might change my tune.

But it's a safe bet that when the history of medicine is finally written the junk medical era will appear no bigger than a pixel on a very wide plasma screen. It'll be exposed as the real alternative medicine - the alternative to keeping yourself fit and healthy.

But, thankfully, we're right at the beginning of the end of the junk medical age, as more and more people come to the conclusion that pills, cremes, syrups and gadgets that mask symptoms have only a minor part to play in keeping one's self fit and healthy. At times they may be necessary but certainly not always sufficient to restore poor health to good, to stimulate the body's own recuperative power.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tune and when you find the majic bullet give me a hoy.

John Miller