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.
Cholesterol and Statins
Recently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK published a consultation document in which it suggests that the threshold for treating people with statins should be lowered. Currently, doctors are advised to consider treatment for individuals who are calculated to have 20 per cent or more risk of developing cardiovascular disease […]
Food and Medical Politics
There are reports of a study doing the round in the UK press this week that warn us that eating a protein-rich diet is ‘as bad for us a smoking’. See here and here for examples of stories appearing in the ‘respected’ broadsheets the Telegraph and Guardian respectively. Reading the headlines of these pieces gives […]
Exercise and Activity
I sometimes think that some people imagine I live some perfectly healthy existence. While my lifestyle might be tons better than it was when I was a young adult, say, at least some of my lifestyle habits vary a bit depending on things like environment (I travel quite a lot), workload and priorities. There is […]
Cholesterol and Statins
On both sides of the Atlantic moves are afoot which will mean that many more individuals will be considered as good candidates for statin therapy. This will inevitably mean that more individuals are going to have the prospect of statin therapy raised by their doctors. In this situation, doctors can talk about ‘guidelines’ and ‘protocols’, […]
Food and Medical Politics
Back in December, I wrote a blog post about this article on the NHS Choices website. In short, I felt the ‘article’ put a very biased, unbalanced and potentially misleading case for carbohydrate in the diet. The day after writing the blog post, I decided I would make a formal complaint about the article to […]
Weight Loss
On 14th February I was invited to talk to Adrian Goldberg at BBC West Midlands about weight control and a range of other topics raised by himself and listeners. Here’s a recording of the 30-minute item. [buzzsprout episode=’150732′ player=’true’]
Food and Medical Politics
The common perception of mammography is that, by detecting breast cancer earlier than it would otherwise be, it saves women’s lives. However, there is quite some evidence to suggest that many women need to be screen for one life to be saved, and on top of this we have adverse effects such as over-diagnosis (the […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Yesterday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published draft proposals concerning the use of statins for the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Previously, NICE advised doctors to recommend treatment in those with a calculated 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease of 20 per cent or more. Now, NICE is proposing that this threshold will […]
Healthy Eating
I came across this on-line piece today, which highlights a poll conducted by people from a campaign called ‘Seasonal Berries’. It purports to show that a major reason individuals fail to stick to a new ‘healthier’ dietary regime is that they succumb to none-too-healthy snacks, particularly in the mid-late afternoon. I have to say, my […]
Cholesterol and Statins
The ‘Cochrane Collaboration’ is an international collective of researchers whose self-proclaimed role is to provide accurate and robust assessments of health interventions. The group specialises in ‘meta-analyses’: the grouping together of several similar studies on interventions including drug therapies. In 2011, Cochrane researchers assessed the evidence relating to statin use in individuals at low risk […]