Hailed ‘METEOR’ statin trial results not as stellar as we are led to believe
Back in December, I wrote a blog post which focused on the habit drug companies have of causing the medical profession and the public at large to forget what medicine is for [1]. The point I made is that much of medical research is not focused on health itself, but what are known as ‘surrogate’ [...]
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Despite recent research, I reckon pizza remains a roundly unhealthy food
A major thrust in nutritional science over the past few years has been to dissect the chemicals contained in food to, supposedly, glean the likely health effects of that food. This approach works to a point. It might, for instance, be useful for say determining that one fruit or vegetable is more nutrient-dense than another. [...]
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Vitamin D linked with blood pressure reduction
In recent years evidence has been amassing which has linked vitamin D with protection from a variety of ills including osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, low mood and several forms of cancer. Recently, US-based researchers have produced research which suggests that this nutrient has the capacity to ward off high blood pressure (hypertension too). A part of [...]
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The ‘quality’ press has the capacity to churn out ‘bad press’ too, it seems
This week I was out and about and couldn’t help noticing the headline on one of the national newspapers here in the UK proclaiming ‘Ready meals increase cancer risk in women’. My interest was piqued, so I took a look. The story reported on a study published this week in the journal Diabetes Care. This [...]
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God bless Allen Carr and my big brother Joe
Allen Carr died on 29th November 2006 of lung cancer. Though I never met him, this man touched my life in a very special way. It was reading his book ‘The Easy Way to Stop Smoking’ that led me to kick the habit exactly 20 years ago to this day. I started smoking when I [...]
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Is purple grape juice really the answer to all our ills?
I was interested recently to read the results of the study which assessed the ‘antioxidant’ potential of several types of fruit juices and fruit drinks [1]. Of the 13 types of fruit juice tested, red grape juice came out on top with regard to antioxidant action, which appears to be related to its rich content [...]
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Nuts shown to reduce the glycaemic index (GI) of foods eaten with them
On Wednesday my blog post focused on sugary soft drinks, and the link between their consumption with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Part of the problem with such drinks is that, particularly when drunk quickly, they can lead to considerable surges in blood sugar. As a result the body is generally compelled to secrete considerable [...]
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Why soft drinks, and research funded by the companies that manufacture them, need to be handled with caution
Along with saturated fat and salt, sugar is a dietary constituent which is often targeted as unhealthy and to be avoided. And rightly so, seeing as sugar consumption has been linked with an increased risk of a range of ills, most notably obesity. Some of the research that has examined the health effects of sugar [...]
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Metal fatigue – iron deficiency found to slow brain function in women
While medical practice generally turns a blind eye to the value of nutrition in health, it has at least embraced the importance of certain specific nutrients including iron. Iron is important for the manufacture of haemoglobin ” the protein in the red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen around the body and delivering it to [...]
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Should medical treatments need to be scientifically proven?
Last Tuesday evening I attended a debate organised by the Guild of Health Writers. The debate centred on the motion that ‘A treatment should have to be scientifically proven to be available on the NHS. The motion had two proposers and two opposers. The proposers were Dr Evan Harris (LibDem MP) and Dr Jonathan Ledermann [...]
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