Uncategorized
We’re entering the ‘flu season here in the UK. Last year, my local surgery put a banner outside urging us to ‘roll up’ for the ‘flu vaccine. I wrote a blog post which explained why this practice is not nearly as effective or ‘evidence-based’ as one might think. In a previous blog post here I […]
Men's Health
I’ve noticed a general trend over recent years for increasing scepticism regarding statin drugs. There have been murmurings within the medical community, but where this shift is most readily observable is in the general public. It wasn’t so long ago that it was generally difficult for members of the public to access scientific and medical […]
Exercise and Activity
The night before someone runs a marathon, there’s a fair chance they’ll chow down on pasta. The carbohydrate in pasta is supposed to help stock the liver and muscles with glycogen (a form of starch) which can then be used to fuel one’s efforts the following day. Such an approach is said to reduce the […]
Food and Medical Politics
I, for a long time, have been suspicious of artificial sweeteners. At least some of my scepticism has been focused on the sweetening agent aspartame (Nutrasweet, Candarel, Equal). While studies with industry funding give aspartame a clean bill of health, independently-funded work generally does not. And we know that the constituents of aspartame (aspartic acid, […]
Brain and Behaviour
I believe I eat a generally healthy diet, but I’m no angel. One of my weaknesses is my ‘speed eating’ – a tendency to consume food too quickly and a failure to savour it properly. One of the risks of eating this way is that it can bypass some of the body’s natural cues regarding […]
Sunlight
Last Saturday the Times newspaper here in the UK carried a piece I’d written summarising some of the most salient issues regarding vitamin D deficiency and what we might do about it. Here it is… The shortened days at this time of year will for some people usher in a downturn in mood that may […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Yesterday saw the on-line publication of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that concerns statins and is getting more than its fair share of media attention. The study, conducted in Denmark, analysed the rates of death from cancer in individuals taking statins, and compared them to those in individuals not taking […]
Food and Medical Politics
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) is a drug made by the pharmaceutical company Roche and it’s licensed for the treatment of influenza. Not so long ago, the UK Government dished out about a million packets of Tamiflu over the phone, though, it subsequently turned out that only about 20 per cent of those dispensed the drug had the […]
Food and Medical Politics
For some years now there has been quite a raging debate regarding the effectiveness of mammography, and the politics surrounding this screening strategy. I’m polarising things a bit here, but in the two camps on either side of the debate have been: 1. those whose view appears to be that mammography is a no-brainer, and […]
Cholesterol and Statins
I was reading here that there’s a new cholesterol-lowering drug in the pipeline. The Food and Drugs Administration in the US has approved the injectable agent mipomersen for the treatment of ‘homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia – a genetic cause of raised cholesterol levels associated with cardiovascular disease developing early in life. Mipomersen has been shown to […]