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.
Nutrients and Supplements
Scanning some on-line newspapers today my eye was caught by reports of a couple of studies concerning vitamin D and cancer. The link between this nutrient and this condition is not new ” there is a huge stack of evidence now which shows as association between higher levels of vitamin D in the body and […]
Nutrients and Supplements
Back in May, one of my blogs focused on some evidence which suggests that vitamin D has the capacity to improve a range of measures of physical function, including fitness, muscular strength, balance and reaction time. Strange though this may seem, there indeed appears to be evidence that simply sitting the sun may be all […]
Nutrients and Supplements
Back in December, one of my blogs focused on research which sought to determine the intakes of vitamin D required to maintain certain concentrations of this nutrient in the body [1]. This particular study found that to maintain a vitamin D level of 80 nmol/L (32 ng/ml) about 1600 IU is required. You can read […]
Children's Health
Probiotic supplements contain gut bacterial organisms believed to exert beneficial effects. As expected, much of the focus to date has been on the effects such supplements can have within the gut. For example, probiotics have been test in and been found to be useful for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). See here for more about this. […]
Healthy Eating
Cardiovascular conditions such as heart disease and stroke are a major cause of disability and death. For years we’ve been led to believe that fat is the major dietary offender here, but in reality the science shows that naturally occurring fats are not the issue. In fact, some fats (principally so-called omega-3 fats) actually help […]
Healthy Eating
There’s an interesting editorial in the BMJ today about the treatment of chronic (long-term) heartburn/reflux (gastro-oesophageal reflux disease) [1]. The piece makes the point that surgery has some merit here, are starting with a relatively lukewarm appraisal of the usual medical management of this condition. The mainstay drugs here are the ‘proton pump inhibitors’ which […]
Food and Medical Politics
Over the last couple of years or so I have developed quite an interest in vitamin D. It seems like a week doesn’t go by when some study or other has unearthed a potential new benefit for this substance, or some research turns up results that strengthen and support previous work. The evidence as it […]
Brain and Behaviour
Yesterday in practice I saw a female patient who, among other things, was troubled by the fact that she craved sugar like you wouldn’t believe. It is my experience in practice that many individuals with sugar cravings view it as a sign of weakness on their part. However, food can have powerful addictive qualities, and […]
Nutrients and Supplements
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that continues to claim significant numbers of lives around the World. Before the advent of antibiotics, many tuberculosis sufferers were shipped off to ‘sanitoriums’: often rurally-located facilities where individuals would typically spend a year or more to rest, eat well, and hopefully overcome their illness. While rest and a healthy […]
Nutrients and Supplements
I was interested to read yesterday a report regarding a recommendation coming out of the Skin Cancer Foundation in the USA. The Foundation has recommended that adults increase their intake of vitamin D from 400 IU (the recommended daily amount) to 1000 IU. This is good news, I think, because there’s abundant and continuing to […]