10 realistic and achievable New Year resolutions worth considering
I read a report in the last week regarding New Year resolutions, the thrust of which was that setting the bar too high is more likely to lead to us not keeping to whatever resolutions we have made. In other words, opting for smaller, more manageable changes might be a better long-term strategy. I agree [...]
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A case of oesophageal spasm, and the ‘unproven’ treatment that helped it
A couple of weeks back I was talking with a close family member, and he mentioned that for many years he had been getting digestive discomfort that tended to come after meals. When I asked to point to where his pain was, he indicated that it was in the middle of the abdomen just at [...]
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A random act of kindness
This blog is primarily about health. Pretty much everything I write in it is designed to help individuals make more informed choices about how to improve the quality and quantity of their lives (should they so wish). However, I recognise that not all of live is about health. And so today’s post is a bit [...]
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Can vitamin D help to combat depression and enhance mood?
Those of us who are now in the depths of winter may be suffering not just from the cold, but the relative lack of light too. Shortened days have the ability to depress the mood and precipitate ‘seasonal affective disorder’ (SAD) or ‘winter blues’. Back in October I wrote about this condition, and in particular [...]
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Getting control of food binges is not necessarily just for Christmas
At this time of year many of us will come across messages which warn of the hazards of consuming excessive quantities of food and drink. For example, a week or so ago I read a report which maintained that children can get through 6000-odd calories on Christmas day. And last week I wrote a piece [...]
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On-line advert depicts the fattening effects of carbohydrate
I came across a video today (posted below). It’s an Associated Press news report regarding an anti-soft-drink/soda video made by the New York City Department of Health. It portrays a man drinking the contents of a soda-can. Except that the contents aren’t the fizzy, sugary liquid one is anticipating, but what looks likes globs of [...]
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My vitamin D results are in (take 2)
One of my projects for 2009 has been to optimise my vitamin D levels. My first ever check was in April, which revealed a frankly low vitamin D level of 15 ng/ml (37 mmol/l). I subsequently set about correcting this by taking 3000 IU of vitamin D (in gel caps) a day. In July my [...]
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Why eating a lot of ‘polyunsaturates’ is not necessarily healthy
Conventional nutritional wisdom dictates that we eat a diet rich in ‘polyunsaturated’ fats. At least part of the rationale for this relates to the fact that we are told that these fats help to reduce the risk of heart disease (you will, for instance, often see or hear ‘polyunsaturates’ being referred to in adverts for [...]
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Does Tamiflu actually work (and is it safe)?
Most of us will be familiar with the H1N1 (‘swine flu’) pandemic that never was. At the height of the hysteria here in the UK, individuals could phone up a help-line, answer a few questions, and get sent the drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir). According to a news report here, it turns out that only about 20 [...]
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Losing the taste for sweetness trumps using ‘healthy’ sweeteners, in my book
I am not a fan of refined sugar, generally speaking. But I’m most certainly not a fan of the ‘healthy’ alternatives ” artificial sweeteners ” either. One cause of concern is their safety. For example, aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal, Canderel) has quite a body of research which demonstrates it has real potential to have adverse effects [...]
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