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.
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Type 2 diabetes rates are on the up, and there is real concern within the medical community that we are seeing something of a ‘diabesity’ epidemic that has considerable personal and social consequences. The usual focus regarding the prevention of type 2 diabetes is ‘diet and exercise’. But, other less well-recognised factors appear to influence […]
Cholesterol and Statins
The aorta is the major blood vessels that carries blood from the heart to other parts of the body (except the lungs). Sometimes, individuals can be born with a narrowing of this vessel – a condition known as ‘coarctation of the aorta’. This defect can be repaired surgically. Those with this condition have been noted […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Type 2 diabetes is a condition characterised by raised levels of glucose in the bloodstream, and its diagnosis is generally made when blood glucose levels are higher than 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dL) 2 hours after a oral glucose load (of 75 g). However, blood sugar control is a spectrum: between what are thought to be […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Those keen to optimise their cardiovascular health and reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke may well, in addition to ‘eating right’, take steps to ‘take exercise’ and be physically fit. Usually, the prescribed exercise here come in the form of ‘cardiovascular’ or ‘aerobic’ forms such as walking, jogging, cycling or rowing. Such activities […]
Healthy Eating
Elderly people tend to be less physically able than younger ones. Walking speed, for instance, and the speed with which they rise from a chair, tend to decline in later life. There can be many reasons for this, including loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia). But the strength of functionality of muscles (irrespective of their size) […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Many readers will be familiar with cholesterol reducing ‘functional foods’ such as margarines and yoghurt drinks. These foods and ‘enriched’ with ‘stanols’ or ‘sterols’: substances that have a similar chemical structure to cholesterol, and help inhibit its absorption from the digestive tract into the bloodstream, These substances do indeed have some capacity to reduce cholesterol […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Type 2 diabetes is a condition characterised by generally elevated levels of blood sugar (glucose), usually as a result of ‘insulin resistance’ (insulin not doing its blood sugar-lowering job very well). Between a state of health and type 2 diabetes, the medical profession has defined a state known as ‘impaired glucose tolerance’ (IGT). Here, insulin […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Last month, one of my blog posts featured a letter written by a group of doctors, expressing their concerns about the mooted expansion of statin therapy. The letter detailed six major objections to the plan, including the mass-medicalization of millions of healthy individuals, the unreliability of the evidence regarding the adverse effects of statins, and […]
Healthy Eating
At the tail end of 2012, I wrote a blog post about the impact of emphasising fruit and vegetables in the diet. ‘Filling up of fruit and veg’ is often recommended as a weight loss tactic. But, as I explained in the blog post, I’m not sure this is good advice at all. I argued […]
Cholesterol and Statins
The debate about the safety of statins continues to rage, with some researchers claiming that they are essentially no more harmful that placebo. In reality, though, the evidence on which these claims are based is flawed for several reasons. Here are just some of those reasons: 1. Commercial sponsors of clinical trials may not be […]