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.
Last Friday’s blog featured a study presented recently at an American Diabetes Association symposium. It found that in a group of individuals with type 2 diabetes, a low-carb diet led to statistically significant reductions in weight, as well as blood sugar and triglyceride levels compared to a low-fat diet. In this blog, I also attempted [...]
While in conventional medicine skin conditions are generally seen as a problem in the, err, skin, in natural medicine they are generally seen a sign of something deeper within the body. Eczema, for instance, is often found to be related to internal imbalances which may include factors such as food sensitivity and a lack of [...]
While some doubt the benefits of controlling carbohydrate intake, the fact of the matter is that there is now abundant scientific evidence that this approach is generally effective for the purposes of weight loss, while at the same time helping to improve biochemical markers of chronic disease such as blood sugar levels and levels of [...]
A major thrust in nutritional science over the past few years has been to dissect the chemicals contained in food to, supposedly, glean the likely health effects of that food. This approach works to a point. It might, for instance, be useful for say determining that one fruit or vegetable is more nutrient-dense than another. [...]
On Wednesday my blog post focused on sugary soft drinks, and the link between their consumption with obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Part of the problem with such drinks is that, particularly when drunk quickly, they can lead to considerable surges in blood sugar. As a result the body is generally compelled to secrete considerable [...]
Today sees the publication of a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in which the effectiveness of four diets were assessed over a year-long period [1]. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine ascribed women to eat either the Atkins’ diet (low carb), Zone diet (carb, protein and fat in the ratio [...]
In my practice from time to time I m consulted by women who complain of excess hairiness. Many of them tell a story of finding hairs sprouting in places where they weren’t there before such as their chins and around their nipples. This condition ” the medical term for which is ‘hirsutism’ ” is often [...]
