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.
Crohn’s disease is one of the two main ‘inflammatory bowel diseases’ (the other being ‘ulcerative colitis’). The condition is generally believed to be ‘auto-immune’ in nature – which means the body’s immune system is reacting against its own tissues (in this case, the bowel wall). Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the gut, and [...]
‘Phytosterols’ are compounds that can impair the absorption of cholesterol from the gut. In this way, ‘sterols’ (as their name is often abbreviated to) can reduce cholesterol levels in the bloodstream, which conventional wisdom dictates is always a good thing. Sterols are added to ‘functional foods’ including special margarines that promise cholesterol-reducing and, therefore, health-enhancing [...]
Urinary tract infections are quite-common in women, though they can affect men too. Normally, the cause of these infections appears to be organisms (such as E. coli) making their way up the urethra (the pipe taking urine from the bladder to the outside) into the bladder where they can ‘set up camp’ on the bladder [...]
A round-up of all this week’s blog posts (including exercise and the brain, iodine deficiency and thyroid function and the hazards of modern medicine, as well as an answer to a listener’s question regarding how to treat iron deficiency in pregnancy.
Celiac disease is a condition that is characterised by intolerance to the protein gluten found in grains such as wheat, oats, rye and barley. Sensitivity to gluten can cause ‘flattening’ of the finger-like projections in the bowel, which essentially reduce its surface area. The dramatically reduced surface area caused by the condition tends to cause [...]
The thyroid gland is the ‘master regulator’ of the body’s metabolism. Should its function falter (hypothyroidism) it can give rise to a wide range of symptoms including dry skin, dry hair, fatigue, weight gain, sensitivity to cold, cold extremities and low mood or depression. Standard blood tests for thyroid function include thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) [...]
The adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys, and are the chief glands in the body responsible for the body’s response to stress. In short, when our brain senses stress it signals the adrenal glands to produce hormones such as adrenaline (ephinephrine) and cortisol. These hormones allow the body to respond to stress. Once [...]
I was talking with a lady on Monday who told me that she had a ‘gluten intolerance’. Many doctors would assume this meant that the women had coeliac disease (a sensitivity to gluten in foodstuffs like wheat, rye and barley that causes bowel changes, bowel and abdominal symptoms, and may lead to malnourishment if left [...]
It’s a widely recognised idea in nutrition that moderate drinking is ‘healthy’. This advice is based on evidence which links moderate drinking with improved health outcomes (notably a reduced risk of death from heart disease) compared to not drinking at all. However, I remember more than 10 years ago sitting in a presentation given by [...]
