Healthy Eating
It is not uncommon for dietary recommendations to be made on the basis of just one or two of a food’s constituents. However, most things that pass our lips are complex chemical concoctions, which means that judging foodstuffs on just a small portion of what they contain may lead to not altogether accurate assessments of […]
Brain and Behaviour
The dwindling daylight hours that inevitably come at this time of year are usually viewed with some dread by sufferers of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – a condition in which a shortage of sun can provoke anything from dark moods to full-blown depression. In addition to the light relief offered by increased exposure to the […]
Brain and Behaviour
My experience in practice tells me that sometimes it’s not only the symptoms of a condition, but also the stigma attached to it, that can pile on the agony. One issue that I find is particularly prone to elicit some sense of shame is alcoholism. Recently, I read an American report about a range of […]
Children's Health
This is the time of year when our kiddies go back to school, an event which runs the risk that they may come home with unwanted guests in the form of head lice. Conventional treatment for these little critters are based on chemicals such as lindane, malathion and permethrin. Unfortunately, studies have found that head […]
Healthy Eating
It’s funny what sticks in your mind sometimes. While a lot of what I learned a medical school has long evaporated from my grey matter, I do remember the dictum often trotted out by my teachers that gallstone sufferers are typically female, forty and fat. The knowledge that gallstones are more common in those carrying […]
Nutrients and Supplements
Last week, my column focused on nutritionally-oriented alternatives to headache-alleviating analgesics such as aspirin. However, even if more of us eschew aspirin in favour of natural remedies for our thumping heads, I doubt whether this will put too much of a dent in the sales of this particular drug. In recent years, aspirin’s ability to […]
Healthy Eating
Judging by the sheer number of adverts for mind-numbing medications all around us, headaches surely rate as one of the most common everyday ills. Recently, I read a report in which doctors expressed concern that while analgesics may nuke headaches, they also have the capacity for collateral damage in various parts of the body including […]
Healthy Eating
In my practice I see significant numbers of women who find that the presence of cellulite on their buttocks and thighs really gets under their skin. While it may not be their primary concern, many women are keen to do what they can to rid themselves of the puckered, orange-peely dermal distortion that is characteristic […]
Healthy Eating
We’ve had a spate of bad news stories about the health of the nation of late, so it is gratifying to read recent reports that deaths due to some forms of cancer (such as those of the breast and colon) are on the wane. However, these glad tidings are somewhat tempered by data which shows […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s a widely held belief that high cholesterol poses significant hazards to our health, and that trimming the level of this fat in the bloodstream can only help to ensure that life goes on. Food companies seem to have been particularly keen to feed this notion, and offer us an ever-expanding range of spreads, milks, […]