Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Diabetes is a condition characterised by raised levels of glucose in the bloodstream. In time, diabetes can lead to damage to tissues that can result in complications such as visual deterioration and blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage. One manifestation of nerve damage is ‘peripheral neuropathy’. This usually affects the feet and lower legs, and […]
Healthy Eating
One of the reasons I first became interested in nutrition was to deal with some health issues I had of my own. Throughout my time at medical school and once I was practising as a doctor I was, generally speaking, quite lethargic compared to how I feel now. I had, like a lot of people, […]
Nutrients and Supplements
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 […]
Brain and Behaviour
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.
Healthy Eating
The conventional view is that obesity is the result of eating too much and/or not being active enough. I don’t quite subscribe to this view myself, as I see body weight as the result of a complex interplay between a variety of factors including the form calories come in the diet and hormonal factors. One […]
Brain and Behaviour
In February, I wrote a blog that reported on some research, which found that regular walking had improved the structure and function of the brains of older adults. One way that exercise might enhance brain function is by stimulating the production of so-called ‘brain derived neurotropic factors’ which, among other things, facilitate communication between nerve […]
Food and Medical Politics
Although I have a particular interest in nutrition and other self-help approaches to health, I’m not of the mind that all of conventional medicine is useless. I do, for instance, have a healthy respect for many aspects of surgery which can often seem to do things that no amount of healthy living can. I’m also […]
Exercise and Activity
Does sunlight cause malignant melanoma, the benefits of ‘high intensity intermittent exercise’, and why a diagnosis of celiac disease (gluten sensitivity) can be a blessing in disguise. For technical help regarding the playing, downloading and subscribing to this podcast, please click here.
Exercise and Activity
‘Aerobic’ exercises such as walking, running and cycling can undoubtedly have benefits for health and wellbeing, but as I’ve written about more than once, there is scant evidence these forms of activity do much in terms of weight loss. One reason for this is the fact that these activities, unless quite-intense and extended in duration, […]
Sunlight
It’s a glorious warm and sunny day today in London, UK. A shadow was cast, though, by this story which appeared today in one of the UK’s national newspapers. It concerns the tragic death of a 21-year-old lady from malignant melanoma. We’re told that that the victim ‘hated the sun’ and did her utmost to […]