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 as long as I can remember, the apple has enjoyed iconic status as a symbol of healthy eating. Many of us will have grown up familiar with apple’s fabled ability to keep doctors at bay, and believe there is much goodness to be had by sinking our teeth into a Cox’s orange pippin or [...]
When my parents emigrated to England from Malta, they brought a fair slice of their home country’s culinary ways with them. Maltese cuisine has a hefty Italian influence, and during my childhood I remember my mother regularly knocking up tomato sauces to accompany bowlfuls of spaghetti. Two or three times a week, the family would [...]
When I was at medical school I learnt that blue eyes are associated with an increased risk of succumbing to the blood disorder pernicious anaemia. For years, I have taken comfort from the belief that having brown eyes afforded me some degree of immunity from disease. This month, however, new research has linked brown eyes [...]
For the most part, conventional medical practice has an image of professionalism and credibility. The medical establishment’s apparent adherence to the concept of scientific validity, coupled with plenty of white coats, stethoscopes and machines that go ‘ping’, help to foster the image that we doctors know what we are doing and are worth entrusting your [...]
One nutrient that has managed to firmly entrench itself in mainstream medical practice is iron. Even doctors who view the concept of nutritional supplementation with some scepticism are generally comfortable about firing off prescriptions for this blood-building mineral. Yet, while iron undoubtedly has the ability to do much good in the body, taking it is [...]
Statistics show that the incidence of breast cancer has risen quite sharply over the last few decades, and the disease is now believed to affect about one in ten women at some point in their lives. Fortunately, as rates of breast cancer have grown, so has awareness of the condition: increasing numbers of women, it [...]
For something as natural as the day is long, sunlight seems to get some pretty bad press. This time of year is usually accompanied by a rash of articles and news stories warning us of the perils of the sun’s rays, and experts are quick to draw out attention to the dangers of sunburn and [...]
Despite the best efforts of doctors and scientists, statistics show that some medical conditions continue to grow more common and troublesome. One such ailment is childhood asthma; rates of this condition have roughly doubled over the last decade, and it now affects about one in five children in the UK. With such statistics in mind, [...]
Very few of us have intimate knowledge of the biochemical workings of the body. Yet, one blood constituent practically all of us know something about is the waxy, fat-like substance known as cholesterol. Too much cholesterol whizzing around our blood streams, we are told, can clog our arteries and up our risk of falling prey [...]
Most of us welcome with open arms the warmer weather that comes as spring turns to summer. However, the climatic change at this time of year is not necessarily so relished by those afflicted by the condition hay fever. For some, a rise in the pollen count can signal the start of a miserable constellation [...]
