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, […]
Brain and Behaviour
While, in my experience, many individuals believe they have quite a degree of control over their physical function as they age, I’m not sure the same can be said for our general attitude to the functioning of the brain. My sense is most individuals believe that how well they maintain their mental faculties as they […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Diabetes is a condition characterised by raised levels of sugar in the blood stream. It comes in two main forms: type 1 and type 2. Type 2 is by far the most common, and is generally related to ‘insulin resistance’ – a failure of the body to respond adequately to the blood sugar-lowering effects of […]
Exercise and Activity
While aerobic exercise such as walking, running and cycling appears not to be great for weight loss, I am enthusiastic about it for likely benefits for both body and brain. But there are limits. While exercise may be broadly healthy, more is not necessarily better. For example, practically every amateur runner I have ever met […]
Exercise and Activity
Earlier this month one of my posts focused on a study which tested the effect of exercise on weight loss in women. This year-long study found that, on average, the women needed to exercise for 77 hours to lose a kg of fat. Now, if I said I had pretty-much foolproof way of getting a […]
Exercise and Activity
Although I am an advocate of exercise, I have more than once felt the urge to express the view that it’s not a particularly effective tool for weight loss. The view is partly based on my experience (the experience of a friend of mind that he recounted over dinner and you can read here is […]
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, […]
Children's Health
I think it’s true that our preconceived ideas about something can make us somewhat rigid in our thinking and generally unable to consider other possibilities. By way of example, I’d like to recount an experience I had shortly after delivering a presentation in Edam in the Netherlands. During the presentation, I had been detailing some […]
Exercise and Activity
Despite repeated calls for us to be more active in order to counter rising rates of overweight and obesity, the evidence suggests that activity has, generally speaking, very modest effects on body weight. I wrote quite recently about this here and here. Generally, two main reasons for why exercise does not promote significant weight loss […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
There are a myriad of ways to lose weight, but I lean generally towards diets relatively low in carbohydrate and rich in fat. This is on the basis that such diets consistently out-perform diets explicitly low in fat in terms of weight loss. Also, such diets tend to, generally speaking, bring about desirable changes in […]