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.
I read today that from later this summer, survival rates for the patients of surgeons in the UK will be made available to patients. The idea is, then, that patients can choose who treats them. According to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt: The Health Secretary said: “Transparency and participation must be the operating principles of the [...]
I spied this ‘editorial’ in the Daily Mail this week (we’ll come to why editorial is in quotes in a moment). It’s about a poll that shows, apparently, a significant number of young children are refusing to wear sunscreen. One in three, apparently, will seek to get out in the sun at every available opportunity. [...]
Back in November I wrote about the drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu), and specifically the fact that its manufacturer (Roche) has steadfastly refused to give up data on the drug that would allow independent researchers to assess its effectiveness and safety. The British Medical Journal if waging a campaign for Roche to cough up the relevant information, [...]
Ezetimibe is a drug that lowers cholesterol levels by blocking its absorption from the gut. The drug is available under the brand name Zetia. Doctors can also prescribe ezetimibe in combination with the statin drug simvastatin. This combination medication is sold under the name Vytorin. Both Zetia and Vytorin have racked up billions of dollars [...]
I regularly see patients who, rather sheepishly, tell me that they have ‘googled’ their symptoms to try and work out what might be wrong with them. They often add something like ‘I know shouldn’t have”. Finding useful health advice on the internet can be a bit of a lottery, but I personally have no issue [...]
Cardiovascular diseases (such as heart disease and cerebrovascular disease which can give rise to heart attack and stroke respectively) represent the most common cause of death in Western countries. Not surprisingly, health agencies and the medical profession focus on them a lot. In recent years, there has been a vogue for assessing cardiovascular disease risk [...]
I’m sometimes uncomfortable about the way we doctors deal with our patients. I am a doctor, and I’m wary about apparently criticising other doctors in a way that comes across as though I regard myself as somehow virtuous and without flaw. I am human, like everyone else, and I’m clearly fallible. However, I also struggle [...]
Two weeks ago I wrote about a review of the evidence for the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe [1]. The authors of the review brought, quite rightfully, our attention to the fact that ezetimibe has never been tested on its own and its health impact compared to placebo. They also admitted, that when ezetimibe is combined with [...]
In my work as a doctor I see a quite-steady stream of individuals who are concerned about their cholesterol-levels. Usually, these people are male, quite young (often in their 40s) and have been diagnosed with ‘raised cholesterol’. They are also often fit, healthy, non-smoking and free of diabetes and high blood pressure. Despite the fact [...]
