Don't dismiss this advice, though: it stems from research by Fabrizio Benedetti at the University of Turin, who is investigating the placebo effect. Placebos are pills and potions with no active ingredients yet they can produce miraculous recoveries when patients are told that some new wonder-drug is being prescribed.

Benedetti believes that placebos act by stimulating the body's own pain defences, called endorphins. He proved his theory by using the drug naxolone, an 'endorphin blocker', to 'switch off' the placebo effect.

But what gets the endorphins flowing? It can't be any physical ingredient in the placebo, so it must be the 'feel-good factor'. The patient's perceptions matter hugely: red dummy pills make better painkillers than blue, yellow or green ones, while American students get more relaxed on blue placebo sed atives than pink ones. Good doctors know that a warm, caring manner is more important than anything they can prescribe from the pharmacist. Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary and alternative medicine at Exeter University, says a cold and formal medic is less likely to cure anyone - a fact better understood by private practitioners of alternative therapies such as acupuncture and osteopathy than by the harassed and sometimes arrogant medical men who work in NHS hospitals.

There is one particularly powerful and simple technique which relaxes the face muscles and brings cheerful thoughts unbidden to the mind - and it is also a sure way of generating endorphins. You guessed it - wear a smile!

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