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
Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, a typical finding in which is the deposition of a protein known as amyloid-ß in the brain. Loss of brain cells is a common feature too. One natural agent that has shown some promise in combating Alzheimer’s disease is fish oil. Fish oil is rich in two main […]
Food and Medical Politics
I have a friend who until recently managed a hotel in the West of England. The restaurant at the hotel is Michelin-starred. My friend talked with me some months ago about calls for restaurants to post the calorie-counts of meals on the menu. He’s not keen on the idea, telling me (I paraphrase): “People don’t […]
Food and Medical Politics
Who decides whether a drug is licensed and remains licensed should problems turn up later? The answer is organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US and its European counterpart, the European Medicines Agency (EMA). These bodies supposedly act in our interests to protect us against, among other things, worthless or […]
Food and Medical Politics
The breakfast cereal company Kellogg’s has been in the news this week (see here for an example). The ‘news’ is that the company is going to start adding vitamin D to some of its choice products including Rice Crispies and Coco Pops. The idea, it is claimed, is designed to counter the growing incidence of […]
Food and Medical Politics
I’ve written several times on this site about the practice of mammography. In short, here’s what I believe to be true: mammography is marketed to women as a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ – it’s effective for picking up breast cancers earlier than they would be otherwise, saves lives, and women would be mad not to […]
Food and Medical Politics
I walked past my local GP surgery the day before yesterday. Outside, they’re flying a banner which reads something like ‘Roll up! Roll up! for your Flu Vaccine’. Flu vaccination seems to be pushed increasingly hard, especially for ‘at risk’ individuals such as the over-65s. Generally, we’re given the impression that having a flu jab […]
Brain and Behaviour
Conflicts of interest in ‘expert panels’, the downside of mammography, why do shift-workers have an increased risk of multiple sclerosis? 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.
Brain and Behaviour
When I was a junior doctor, like a lot of junior doctors, I was not thrilled when my bleep would go off in the middle of the night to be called to attend to a sick person. It was not uncommon for this to happen after a full and busy day at work. Sometimes, little […]
Food and Medical Politics
Many governments and health agencies like to push mammography, despite the fact that it does not work so well. Not only does it benefit only a tiny fraction of women who undergo mammography, it can harm women too. One way it can do this is by picking up cancers that would not have bothered women […]
Uncategorized
One of my aims with this site is to expose health-related misinformation. There’s usually no shortage of material here. Many of the things we’re encouraged to do, like eat margarine, cut back on saturated fat, eat ‘healthy’ wholegrains, have no evidence base for them. So, how come we have this sort of ‘education’ rammed down […]