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
What I write about on this blog is inspired by a variety of things, including published research and political issues that arise in the area of food or health generally. Another source of inspiration is the clients who consult me in practice. And yesterday, I spoke to more than one person over the course of […]
Food and Medical Politics
There’s an increasing vogue in medicine to treat essentially healthy people. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is people with ‘raised’ cholesterol. You could be healthy, fit and active, of healthy weight, a non-smoker, eating a healthy diet, but that won’t necessarily mean you won’t wind up on a drug to reduce your cholesterol. […]
Brain and Behaviour
Earlier this week one of my blogs looked at some recent research which links walking with improved ‘connectivity’ in the brain. This finding, appears to have particular significance for the ‘ageing brain’, as walking appeared to mitigate changes in brain activity that can come with ageing and may impair experience of life. One simple reason […]
Food and Medical Politics
There’s been a lot of reporting of a study that came out on Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine [1], and it’s going to be the focus of today’s blog. Here, in brief, is the design of the study: almost 5000 men and women who had had a heart attack previously were randomised […]
Brain and Behaviour
Many individuals look forward to living to a ripe old age, with the caveat being that they remain in a decent state of health. Ideally, our later years should be vibrant, and not too tinged with signs of physical or mental decay. There are several lifestyle factors that can help ensure healthy ageing, including diet, […]
Specific conditions
Higher vitamin D levels and/or increased exposure to sunlight has been associated with a reduced risk of a wide variety of conditions including cardiovascular disease, auto-immune disease (disease where the immune system reacts against the body’s own tissues such as in multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes) and several forms of cancer. However, […]
Healthy Eating
My blog focused yesterday on a study reported at the American Chemical Society annual meeting, which links the eating of berries with the potential for brain ‘de-ageing’. Another study reported at this meeting that caught my attention, partly as a result of the fact that it was widely reported in the press, was one that […]
Brain and Behaviour
I eat a reasonably varied diet, I think, but there are a few ‘stock items’ that recur in my overall food intake. One example of this is a commonly-eaten breakfast of Greek (10 per cent fat) yoghurt, berries and nuts. The last couple of mornings I’ve had the pleasure of some freshly shelled walnuts. And […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Type 2 diabetes is a condition which appears to be very much on the rise in terms of prevalence. This, inevitably, has led some to seek to find what factors might cause and also help prevent this condition. Earlier this month one of my blogs focused on some research which linked consumption of foods that […]
Men's Health
I remember learning in medical school that one third of cases of infertility are exclusively down to the man, a third down to the woman, and a third were due to issues with both. If true, that means that two thirds of cases of infertility involve male infertility, which I think is a higher percentage […]