Dr John Briffa's blog, A Good Look at Good Health — writing on food, cholesterol, weight, energy and the science behind everyday health, from the drbriffa.com archive. Filter by topic, browse by category, or search the library.
Cholesterol and Statins
At the risk of repeating myself, today I’d like to share with you the results of a study which has found a link between low cholesterol levels and heightened risk of cancer. After all, it was only last Friday that I reported on a recently published study which found precisely the same thing. The study […]
Food and Medical Politics
When judging the effects of any factor on health, there is a tendency by scientists and the medical profession to focus on it’s effect on defined conditions. For example, we hear a lot about the supposed ability of a raised blood cholesterol to increase the risk of heart disease or the link between cigarette smoking […]
Food and Medical Politics
Back in January I wrote about the long-awaited results of the so-called ENHANCE trial in which two cholesterol reducing drugs (ezetimibe and simvastatin) were pitted against just one (simvastatin) in terms of their ability to slow the progression of the gumming up of the arteries known as atherosclerosis. Even though the dual-therapy was more effective […]
Food and Medical Politics
Back in February of this year, one of my blogposts focused on the fact that the UK Health Secretary was making noises about expanding water fluoridation, despite the fact that the evidence suggests that this practice is far from ‘evidence-based’. The title of this post was: UK health minister calls for mass medication through water […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Diabetes UK is the UK’s largest and most prominent diabetes charity. Have a look here and you will se the charity proudly proclaiming that: We stand up for the interests of people with diabetes by campaigning for better standards of care. However, I’m doubtful that Diabetes UK is fulfilling its brief in this respect, seeing […]
Food and Medical Politics
Go to any medical educational meeting, and you’ll usually find individuals giving Powerpoint presentations that, when you boil down to it, sell the merits of a drug or device. Such presentations are usually delivered by doctors who are sometimes known as ‘key opinion leaders’ or ‘KOLs’. Being doctors, one might imagine that these doctors give […]
Brain and Behaviour
Late last month one of my posts focused on the eating of fish during pregnancy. On the one hand this may be a good idea on the basis that the omega-3 fats certain fish can supply may have benefits for the developing foetus. On the other hand, fish (particularly tuna, marlin and swordfish) can be […]
Food and Medical Politics
Good medical practice is about many things, one of the most important of which I reckon is simply listening. I can’t tell you the number of times individuals have told me they said something potentially important to their doctor, only for it to be either dismissed or simply ignored. Some patients end up being castigated […]
Food and Medical Politics
Regular readers of this site will know I tend to give my blog posts quite literal and descriptive titles: Why is the dietary advice given to diabetics so often so woefully inadequate?�, that sort of thing. So, I promised to write about sunlight and beta-carotene today (which I will, give me a moment�), but thought […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s the summer, though in London where I was over the weekend the summer was not doing what summer’s are supposed to do: it was grey and wet all weekend long. And a good thing too, seeing as I decided to spend much of the weekend refuting the notion that MMR is vindicated with regard […]