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.
Brain and Behaviour
Last week saw the publication of a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry which has found that the eating disorder bulimia nervosa is 5 times more common in cities than in more rural areas [1]. The authors of this study suggested that this difference may be due to the relative anonymity of a big […]
Brain and Behaviour
The contracted days and climatic changes that come at this time of year can us not only cold, but short on sunlight too. Getting adequate exposure to the sun’s rays is important for maintaining mood, and it’s action on the skin is also the main way the body meets its needs for vitamin D ” […]
Brain and Behaviour
I learned this week that life expectancy in the UK has reached an all-time high. Yet, while quantity of life is important to most of us, so is quality of life. What the life expectancy statistics don’t tell us about is health issues that can come as part and parcel of the ageing process that […]
Brain and Behaviour
The home page of drbriffa.com asks: Ever noticed how health advice, especially natural health advice, can seem to flick-flack from one extreme to another? Well, another example of the way health advice can seemingly blow in the wind came about this week when pregnant women were advised to be on ‘oily fish alert’. For some […]
Brain and Behaviour
Today’s big health story is the National Institute of Clinical Excellence’s (NICE) final decision to restrict the prescribing of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. Basically, NICE has said that there’s not enough evidence of cost-effectiveness to support the use of such drugs in individuals in the early stages of this condition. Patient groups, including the Alzheimer’s […]
Brain and Behaviour
A study published this week in the British Medical Journal has analysed the relationship between breast-feeding and subsequent intelligence. Breast-feeding was associated with enhanced intelligence, but this study found that this benefit was associated not with the breast-feeding itself, but by other factors including the mother’s intelligence. No doubt, the results of this study will […]
Brain and Behaviour
In the news this week a story has been just circulating about the fact that men aged 40 ” 49 (that includes me) are many times more likely to father autistic children than younger men. We’re unlikely to know what the mechanism is here, but what is good about this story is that it at […]
Brain and Behaviour
Is it me, or has there been a lot of press recently about what can be done to help preserve our mental faculties as we age? Just this week, for instance, saw the publication of a study in the American Journal of Medicine which found that individuals drinking fruit or vegetable juice three or more […]
Brain and Behaviour
In a column last month I explored the link between dementia and a substance called homocysteine, and suggested that higher intakes of certain nutrients may lower the levels of this blood constituent and help keep our wits about us as we age. October also saw the publication of a study in the Archives of Neurology […]
Brain and Behaviour
The rising popularity of cosmetic surgery in the UK and a proliferation of body makeover shows on TV point to our increasing preoccupation in allaying the visible signs of ageing. While it seems that many of us have a desire to protect ourselves from any external evidence of ageing, my experience is that there is […]