Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health
A health-focused blog that makes sense of science, and offers accurate, trustworthy and practical advice about all aspects of healthy living.
Most individuals believe that physical activity is beneficial, but many at the same time may find themselves leading quite sedentary lives. The time that exercise can take can be a perceived barrier for some who believe there’s simply ‘not enough hours in the day’. I don’t judge this point of view because I can fall [...]
It’s often said that the ‘gold standard’ test of a medical intervention is the ‘randomised controlled trial’. If it was a drug being tested, this normally means randomly assigning half of a group of people to the drug, while the other half gets a placebo. In ‘double-blind’ studies neither the researchers nor the study subjects [...]
A commenter on this website yesterday made me aware of a Q and A session hosted by website netmums featuring nutritionist Fiona Hunter and sponsored by the bread manufacturer Warburton. If you’re a reasonably regular follower of this blog then you may know that I have featured Warburtons twice in recent times. First of all, [...]
I saw a patient this week who occasionally feels light-headed, particularly when he stands up quickly. This symptom – referred to as ‘postural hypotension’ in medicine – usually signals that someone’s blood pressure is on the low side, and drops even lower on standing. Sure enough, his blood pressure was low (100/70 mmHg). Most doctors [...]
Higher levels of vitamin D are associated with a reduced risk of a variety of health issues including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and several forms of cancer. This research may be of some interest, but its nature (so-called ‘epidemiological’ studies) can’t tell us whether or not vitamin D actually protects against these conditions. It [...]
Last month one of my blogs focused on a rash of stories bigging up the supposed nutritional properties of bread. It turns out that this ‘news’ had been based on ‘research’ published in the Nutrition Bulletin – a publication of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF). I challenged the notion that bread provides some essential role [...]
It’s early October, and here in the UK there’s a distinct sense that the days are becoming ever-shorter and the nights are drawing in. This change in lighting condition can, for some, spell a distinct downturn in general levels or energy and wellbeing. Others can be prone to food cravings in the winter. Still others [...]
There’s a widespread view in the scientific and medical communities that saturated fat is bad for the heart. In particular, this form of fat (found in, among other things, meat, eggs, dairy products, coconut and palm oil) is said to raise levels of cholesterol, which in turns increases our risk of heart disease by promoting [...]
There’s an interesting study published in the British Medical Journal this week which concerns the relationship between use of drugs known as benzodiazepines and risk of dementia in elderly individuals [1]. Benzodiazepines are drugs which are usually used to treat anxiety and/or insomnia (diazepam – trade name Valium – is an example). In this study, [...]
