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.
Healthy Eating
Whilst I believe that conventional medicine is less effective and more hazardous than its image suggests, I don’t shun it completely. For instance, a few months ago I saw a patients who told me that in his late 40s had developed cataracts (cloudiness in the lenses of the eyes) which had been removed and replaced […]
Healthy Eating
This week saw the publication of my latest book The True You Diet. One of the basic premises of the book is that our nutritional needs vary from person to person. Science and a ton of clinical experience show that while someone may thrive of a diet quite rich in ‘heavy’ foods such as meat […]
Healthy Eating
Perusing this week’s copy of the British Medical Journal, I came across an article about psychological approaches to irritable bowel syndrome. This condition, characterised by symptoms such as abdominal bloating and discomfort, wind and constipation and/or loose bowels is common. Yet, within the conventional medical establishment, this ill seems poorly understood. No wonder then, as […]
Children's Health
Today I was reading about a study presented this week at the American Thoracic Society conference which has found an association between eating apples in pregnancy and relative protection from asthma in childhood. This research found that women eating four or more apples a week were about half as likely to have an asthmatic child […]
Healthy Eating
Healthy eating is not just about choosing healthy foods to eat, but also relates to how they are prepared prior to eating. Vegetables, for instance, can suffer nutritional losses during cooking. A study this week has found, for instance, that boiling broccoli in water for just 10 minutes reduced the content of plant chemicals known […]
Children's Health
Asthma is a condition characterised by episodes of narrowing in the airways (bronchospasm). The condition can be related to one or more of several underlying factors, including food sensitivity. In some individuals, specific foods seem to have the ability to trigger immune responses in the lungs that cause bronchospasm. While any food may do this […]
Healthy Eating
Disease has many potential causes, including damage to the body’s cells reeked by molecules known as ‘free radicals’. The action of free radicals in the body is sometimes referred to as ‘oxidative stress’. One potential effect of oxidative stress is damage to the DNA ” the ‘nuclear material’ in the cells that controls the division […]
Children's Health
This week, I was interested to read about study which attempted to boost the nutritional content of children’s diets using ‘stealth vegetables’. American researchers fed children aged 3-5 a pasta-based meal which was accompanied by one or two sauces. One of these was a regular pasta sauce. The other had pureed broccoli and cauliflower added […]
Healthy Eating
Moderate drinking is often advocated for its health ‘benefits’, specifically with regard to its apparent ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions such as heart attacks and stroke. However, whatever benefits alcohol may have with respect to cardiovascular disease can be diluted through its ability to increase the risk of other conditions such as […]
Brain and Behaviour
Migraines are usually severe, one-sided headaches. My experience in practice is that they can have several underlying causes, though it believed that a common theme in these headaches is spasm and then relaxation in the arteries supplying blood to the brain. The ‘rush of blood to the head’ this brings is thought to have the […]