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.
Have you ever started out looking for something on-line, got diverted, and then ended up at a completely unplanned and unrelated destination on the internet? I have to admit, for me, it happens a lot. It happened yesterday, in fact, when I was reading a piece about blood pressure treatment, and found myself clicking on [...]
I came across this report recently of a study which found that stopping men sleeping for a night led to them choosing bigger portions of ‘energy-dense’ food at a buffet [1]. Previous work from the same group at Uppsala University in Sweden found that sleep deprivation caused greater activity in the parts of the brain [...]
I came across this report this week, which focuses on research (as yet, unpublished) which, apparently, finds that alcohol has the ability to disrupt ‘rapid eye movement’ (REM) sleep. REM sleep is quite shallow sleep, and is usually the predominant form of sleep in the second half of the night. REM sleep seems to be [...]
There’s an interesting study published in the British Medical Journal this week which concerns the relationship between use of drugs known as benzodiazepines and risk of dementia in elderly individuals [1]. Benzodiazepines are drugs which are usually used to treat anxiety and/or insomnia (diazepam – trade name Valium – is an example). In this study, [...]
I am a big fan of natural sunlight, and evidence links it with a range of potential benefits for the body. Light also has the capacity to effect the brain. The role for light here becomes immediately apparent in the winter, when light can be in short supply and some people find their mood and [...]
Six years ago I decided to dramatically reduce the amount of time I spent watching TV, and this single intervention (I believe) had a dramatic effect on my life. It liberated a significant amount of time that I could devote to perhaps more useful and rewarding pursuits. You may be thinking that I’m referring to [...]
One could argue that our health is the product of factors that can be genetic (inherited) or environmental (including diet and activity). Body weight, for instance, will usually ultimately determined by these two major factors. There is no doubt that some people inherit more of a tendency to be heavier than others. Some people do [...]
Yesterday, I wrote a post about how a lack of sleep might contribute to unhealthy weight gain. Today, I’m following this up on a guide to how to get better sleep. In no particular order, here are some of the strategies which I’ve found consistent success with in terms of improving sleep quality, and most [...]
The last few decades have seen a rise in rates of overweight and obesity. Average duration of sleep has declined in the Western world too. Could the two be connected? Actually, yes. There are a number of mechanisms through which reduced sleep time might be somehow contributing to the obesity ‘epidemic’, and these were summarised [...]
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 [...]
