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.
The thyroid is a gland in the neck that regulates metabolism. Low thyroid function (hypothyroidism) can lead to diverse symptoms including weight gain, fatigue, sensitivity to cold, dry skin, dry hair, hair loss and constipation. In conventional medicine, the diagnosis of low thyroid function is usually made with a blood test. Here’s the classic picture: [...]
Last Saturday the Times here in the UK published a piece I wrote about ‘intermittent fasting’. This topic has been getting a lot of press of late (the Daily Mail, for instance, carried a piece earlier this week too). I’m pleased to see that intermittent fasting is getting some attention, and there’s some challenge to [...]
Woman’s Hour is an hour-long radio show on the BBC’s Radio 4 station. On Tuesday, I was invited onto the show to discuss weight loss. The item centred around the plight of Sue Lyons – an obese lady who has (like millions of others) failed to control her weight through ‘dieting’. Sue recounts a commonly-heard [...]
There is a ton of research which links higher levels of vitamin D (and/or increased sun exposure) with reduced risk of a range of conditions including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, several forms of cancer and heart disease. These studies are voluminous, and tend to be quite consistent, but they still can’t tell us for sure that [...]
Matt Edmundson emailed me awhile back relaying the story of what happened when he read and applied the principles laid out in my book Waist Disposal. His daughter, it turns out, used to call him ‘baggy belly’, but not anymore! After Escape the Diet Trap was released, Matt kindly asked to interview me about the [...]
What should we eat before exercise, the impact food has on cholesterol is irrelevant, lower-carb diet best for women with PCOS. For RSS feeds, click onhere.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a condition characterized by the presence of cysts in the ovaries. It can lead to problems with infertility as well as higher-than-normal levels of ‘male’ hormones called ‘androgens’ including testosterone. One other common feature in individuals with PCOS is ‘insulin resistance’ – impaired ability for insulin to do its job [...]
Water does not prevent dehydration (according to the EU), why a diet that does not cause weight gain is not necessarily healthy, mammography very unlikely to save a woman’s life. For RSS feeds, click on http://www.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/8966 and then the ‘RSS feeds’ button to the right. For help regarding the playing, downloading and subscribing of the [...]
Many years ago (more than I care to remember), I was giving a lecture about health, and more in passing that anything else, mentioned just how ineffective many conventional medical approaches are, including cancer screening. After the lecture I was approached by a woman who took at least some exception to my claim that cancer [...]
I’ve written several times on this site about the practice of mammography. In short, here’s what I believe to be true: mammography is marketed to women as a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ – it’s effective for picking up breast cancers earlier than they would be otherwise, saves lives, and women would be mad not to [...]
