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.
Healthy Eating
Red meat is one of the foods that, on the whole, tends not to get a vote of confidence from health agencies and health professionals. The case against this food is mainly based on the (I think, misguided) belief that eating saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. After this, we have the idea that […]
Healthy Eating
When glucose (a sugar) is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, a healthy pancreas will secrete the hormone insulin in response. One chief effect of insulin is to reduce blood sugar levels by facilitating the transfer of sugar into the body’s cells. This is a critically important function, and without it sugar levels can […]
Brain and Behaviour
I saw an individual in practice yesterday, who told me she’d recently had a bout of low mood that was ‘out of character’ and not for any obvious reason. The issue started around mid-December last year, but had recently appeared to lift. The first thing that occurred is perhaps this lady was suffering from seasonal […]
Food and Medical Politics
Putting fluoride in the municipal water supply is said to prevent dental decay. However, it also causes dental problems in the form of ‘dental fluorosis’, and may well pose hazards deeper within the body too. I recently wrote a blog post about this, and included 50 reasons for opposing fluoridation from the advocacy group Fluoride […]
Brain and Behaviour
The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys, and are the chief glands in the body responsible for the body’s response to stress. In short, when our brain senses stress it signals the adrenal glands to produce hormones such as adrenaline (ephinephrine) and cortisol. These hormones allow the body to respond to stress. Once […]
Nutrients and Supplements
Sunlight and enhanced vitamin D levels are associated with a reduced risk of a wide range of chronic diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS). This condition in characterised by degradation in the fatty coverings of nerves in the brain and spinal column. These fatty coverings are known as ‘myelin sheathes’, and so the process of degradation […]
Food and Medical Politics
The week before last I was talking over breakfast with a delegate on a wellness programme I was delivering with some colleagues. Somehow (I don’t remember quite how) we ended up talking about the evolution versus creationism debate. I am a believer in evolution. The delegate (let’s call him Greg) believes in creationism. Many scientists […]
Food and Medical Politics
Too much sunlight can cause sunburn, and sunburn is a risk factor for skin cancer. So, if sunscreens help prevent sunburn, they should reduce the risk of skin cancer too, right? It turns out, according to a piece appearing last month in the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, that the evidence that sunscreens protect against […]
Exercise and Activity
In my life and work I commonly come across men who are keen on being stronger and more muscular, and will ask about the sort of diet that might help them achieve their ends. Perhaps not surprisingly, I recommend a diet relatively rich in protein, seeing as protein is a major component in muscle. For […]
Brain and Behaviour
In December, one of my blogs focused on research linking walking with relatively protection from dementia in later life. As I pointed out in the blog, so-called ‘epidemiological’ studies of this nature are good for discerning associations between things, but can’t be used to determine that one thing is actually causing another. In other words, […]