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.
Earlier this month I wrote about a study in which the effect of sleep deprivation on appetite ratings in response to images of food was tested [1]. Overall, subjective feelings of hunger were significantly greater after the night of sleep deprivation. The study subjects underwent brain scanning too (functional magnetic resonance imaging). After a night [...]
Woman’s Hour is an hour-long radio show on the BBC’s Radio 4 station. On Tuesday, I was invited onto the show to discuss weight loss. The item centred around the plight of Sue Lyons – an obese lady who has (like millions of others) failed to control her weight through ‘dieting’. Sue recounts a commonly-heard [...]
There is a ton of research which links higher levels of vitamin D (and/or increased sun exposure) with reduced risk of a range of conditions including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, several forms of cancer and heart disease. These studies are voluminous, and tend to be quite consistent, but they still can’t tell us for sure that [...]
Matt Edmundson emailed me awhile back relaying the story of what happened when he read and applied the principles laid out in my book Waist Disposal. His daughter, it turns out, used to call him ‘baggy belly’, but not anymore! After Escape the Diet Trap was released, Matt kindly asked to interview me about the [...]
The shorter days and general lack of sunlight in the winter can leave some of us prone to low mood and lack of vitality or even full-blown depression in the form of ‘seasonal affective disorder’ (SAD). A reasonable and often-effective strategy for overcoming these issues is light therapy, delivered by devices which simulate sunlight. However, [...]
I don’t believe that the best way for people to lose weight is to consciously restrict how much they eat. I have no issue with people eating less, I just believe that, for the best results, it needs to be done in a way that is both easy and sustainable. For the most part an [...]
Whether a drug is available on the National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK is essentially decided by an organisation known as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE makes its decisions on drugs based on the cost per ‘quality adjusted life year‘ (QALY). A year in perfect health is 1 [...]
I do a lot of work with groups in within businesses and organisations designed to help people lead healthier, more balanced and sustainable lives, and improve their energy, vitality and effectiveness as they do this. Early on during a programme, I’ll usually ask people what they’d like to get out of it, and non-uncommonly delegates [...]
