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.
Food and Medical Politics
When judging the effects of any factor on health, there is a tendency by scientists and the medical profession to focus on it’s effect on defined conditions. For example, we hear a lot about the supposed ability of a raised blood cholesterol to increase the risk of heart disease or the link between cigarette smoking […]
Nutrients and Supplements
The idea that vitamin C might offer potential in the treatment of cancer has been around for some decades. Perhaps the person whose name is most linked with this concept is the late Linus Pauling. With his death, it seemed that interest in his ideas died a bit of a death too. However, some scientists […]
Healthy Eating
My blog last Friday focused on a recent meta-analysis which demonstrates that garlic has real potential to reduce blood pressure. What is more, in individuals with high blood pressure (hypertension), the levels of reduction achieved with garlic supplementation seemed meaningful, and are likely to translate into real reduction in the risk of problems associated with […]
Healthy Eating
Garlic is an oft-touted natural remedy, particularly with regard to affairs of the heart: regular garlic consumption has been said to improve cardiovascular health. In the past, one mechanism that has been said through which garlic can exert a heart-healthy effect is by some ability to reduce blood pressure. A previous review of the evidence […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
At the end of last year I reported on the findings of the mammoth Women’s Health Initiative trial. The trial was initiated in 1993, and recruited a total of almost 50,000 post-menopausal women and followed them for an average of about 8 years. About 60 per cent of these women were allowed to continue on […]
Men's Health
When men middle-aged or elderly men have some difficulty with urination, their doctor’s attention will usually focus on their prostate ” the gland that encircles the pipe that takes urine from the bladder to the outside (the urethra). An enlarged prostate can impinge on the outflow of urine from the bladder and therefore cause symptoms […]
Exercise and Activity
I noticed an interesting article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) recently. It sought to determine the explanation for the ‘paradox’ seen in Masai tribesmen in Kenya can consume relatively large quantities of animal fat (especially in the form of milk, meat and blood), and have stunningly low rates of heart disease. We […]
Food and Medical Politics
Back in January I wrote about the long-awaited results of the so-called ENHANCE trial in which two cholesterol reducing drugs (ezetimibe and simvastatin) were pitted against just one (simvastatin) in terms of their ability to slow the progression of the gumming up of the arteries known as atherosclerosis. Even though the dual-therapy was more effective […]
Sunlight
The summer weather in the UK has been a bit stop-start, though personally I am delighted that the last couple of days at least have been very much ‘start’ as far as sunshine is concerned. So, perhaps with perfect timing, the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) here in the UK has just highlighted the value of […]
Healthy Eating
It’s perhaps one of the most contentious issues in nutrition: should individuals who want to control their weight eat a diet low in fat, or low in carbohydrate? The ‘conventional’ view is that fat is ‘calorific’ and fattening, so low-fat is the way to go. However, some (e.g. Gary Taubes and the late Robert Atkins) […]