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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.

Podcast – 23rd September 2011 Brain and Behaviour

Podcast – 23rd September 2011

Why I’m letting the latest big debate in nutrition wash over me, why getting hungry is a disaster for healthy eating, and a new study finds gaping holes in the cholesterol hypothesis. For RSS feeds, click on http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/8966 and then the ‘RSS feeds’ button to the right. For help regarding the playing, downloading and subscribing […]

September 23, 2011· 1 min read· Dr Briffa
Review highlights the value of exercise for the prevention of dementia and brain ageing Brain and Behaviour

Review highlights the value of exercise for the prevention of dementia and brain ageing

I’ve written before that my experience is that individuals believe their physical health and wellbeing is generally much more controllable than their mental function. Many believe, for example, that lifestyle modification can keep, say, heart disease or type 2 diabetes at bay, but that their risk of dementia is essentially in the lap of the […]

September 9, 2011· 3 min read· Dr Briffa
Podcast – 19th August 2011 Brain and Behaviour

Podcast – 19th August 2011

Alcohol disrupts sleep and how to drink less without trying, a little exercise goes a long way, and can drinking cold water and wearing shorts aid weight control? For RSS feeds, click on http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/8966 and then the ‘RSS feeds’ button to the right. For help regarding the playing, downloading and subscribing of the podcasts, click […]

August 19, 2011· 1 min read· Dr Briffa
Alcohol disrupts sleep, and how to drink less (without trying) Brain and Behaviour

Alcohol disrupts sleep, and how to drink less (without trying)

I was talking with someone yesterday who is generally fit and well, but has a bit of a ‘sleep issue’. He sometimes fails to get off to sleep easily. But even when he does, he tends to wake several times during the night, and can often have difficulty getting back to sleep again. It’s sometimes […]

August 19, 2011· 4 min read· Dr Briffa
Mental illness is not ‘all in the mind’ Brain and Behaviour

Mental illness is not ‘all in the mind’

Psychiatry is a profession supposedly there to help people with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. That’s the idea anyway. I say this because, in reality, it’s not the most effective of disciplines, I think. The drugs often don’t work too well, and usually come with significant side effects too. If I […]

August 11, 2011· 3 min read· Dr Briffa
Podcast – 22nd July 2011 Brain and Behaviour

Podcast – 22nd July 2011

The curious case of the advertorial for Flora pro.activ, vitamin D and diabetes, dealing with body images problems. For RSS feeds, click on http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/8966 and then the ‘RSS feeds’ button to the right. For help regarding the playing, downloading and subscribing of the podcasts, click here.

July 22, 2011· 1 min read· Dr Briffa
Dropping self-criticism seems to help people drop pounds too Brain and Behaviour

Dropping self-criticism seems to help people drop pounds too

Most people don’t like getting harsh criticism from others. The reality is, though, many of us can be our own worst critics. This is particularly the case with regard to weight and body image. Some of us can consciously and unconsciously spend a lot of time feeling a range of negative emotions about our size […]

July 20, 2011· 3 min read· Dr Briffa
Podcast – 8th July 2011 Brain and Behaviour

Podcast – 8th July 2011

Dehydration messes up brain function, high cholesterol associated with reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and what Britain’s number 1 tennis player has to learn about nutrition from the World’s number 1. For RSS feeds, click on http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/8966 and then the ‘RSS feeds’ button to the right. For help regarding the playing, downloading and […]

July 8, 2011· 1 min read· Dr Briffa
Why sleepiness is not always caused by a lack of sleep Brain and Behaviour

Why sleepiness is not always caused by a lack of sleep

I came across this story earlier this week. It concerns a study presented at a Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Minneapolis in the US. The details are somewhat sketchy from the report, but here’s what I think the researchers did and what their findings were. 262 teenagers with an average age of 17 were rated […]

June 22, 2011· 3 min read· Dr Briffa