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.
For centuries, salt has been revered as a flavour-enhancer and food preservative across the globe. Our appetite for salt has not diminished either: many of us add salt during cooking or at the table, and salt has a ubuiquitous presence in pretty much every processed food. Some salt in the diet appears to be important [...]
Diabetes is not the most sexy of conditions, but it’s an important one. Characterised by raised levels of sugar in the blood stream, it can ultimately lead to diverse problems including blindness, gangrene, kidney disease, nerve damage and impotence, and is the third leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease and cancer. What is more, [...]
My big brother Joe has a famously bad memory. At a relatively youthful 38, he often forgets conversations I have had with him only a few days before. Regularly, he regales me with stories and anecdotes that I find very amusing, but only the first time round. A couple of months ago, I was recounting [...]
Most of us will not be relishing the near-arctic temperatures we have had of late. Colder climes are often of particular concern to those who tend to suffer with abnormally cold hands and feet. From a traditional perspective, treatment options for those prone to a sluggish circulation are pretty limited: the stock advice given to [...]
The dietary excesses of the festive season can leave us feeling somewhat blurred around the edges and in need of a serious overhaul. Many natural health practitioners see the build-up of internal ‘toxicity’ from the diet and elsewhere as a common feature in a wide range of undesirable symptoms and conditions including weight gain, lethargy, [...]
Indigestion is thought to affect about a third of the UK population. Acid-suppressing medications, of both the over-the-counter and prescription variety, are some of the most commonly used drugs of all. However, experience shows that indigestion can often be effectively combated without drugs. Just this month, the medical journal Gut published a study which suggests [...]
It is a commonly held belief that women reach their sexual peak later in life than men. This may indeed be true, but a recent study published in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility has found that women generally experience a reduction in their sexual responsiveness as they age. While some of this gradually declining [...]
Most of us put our trust and faith in fluoride to help prevent tooth decay. It is a common ingredient in toothpaste and mouthwashes, and several countries, including parts of the UK, even add fluoride to the water supply. Even last month, a study was published which reported that adding fluoride to table salt had [...]
Last month saw the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer withdraw its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipobay (cerivastatin) from the World market. The drug has been linked with a number of deaths caused by a condition characterised by muscle break-down known as ‘rhabdomyolysis’. In addition, there have been more than a thousand reports of muscle weakness associated with the [...]
It is well known that women living in the East are less likely to suffer from menopausal symptoms than those in the West. For instance, while hot flushes affect about 20 p.c. of Chinese and Japanese menopausal women, 70 ” 80 p.c. of European women experience significant problems with this symptom. Some scientists believe that [...]
