Cholesterol and Statins
Generally speaking, doctors have almost unbridled enthusiasm for cholesterol-reducing drugs including statins. We doctors have generally been educated to believe that cholesterol at essentially normal levels causes heart disease, and bringing levels down is of paramount importance to health. Here in the UK, doctors are even remunerated by the Government to get their patients’ cholesterol […]
Exercise and Activity
There’s a quite widely-held view that the solution to obesity is simple – we just need to eat less and exercise more. Despite the sense that seems to surround this notion, the reality is that such strategies generally fail to deliver significant weight loss benefits in the long term. I have written before about the […]
Uncategorized
Imagine this scenario: someone with type 2 diabetes and deemed to be at high risk of heart disease is consulting a doctor. What do you think the chances are of this individual ending up on multiple medications? High, I’d say. In all likelihood someone like this is going to be recommended to take at least […]
Brain and Behaviour
I’ve written before about the fact that many people in the area of obesity research have the opinion that obesity is simply the result of eating more calories than the body burns through metabolism and activity. My position, and that of a growing number of researchers, is that there’s more to obesity than calorie balance, […]
Healthy Eating
If I were to try and condense what I regard as good nutritional advice into a soundbite, I’d say ‘Eat like a caveman (or cavewoman)’. The idea here being to emulate the diet we as a species evolved on, and are best adapted to. There is, I think, abundant research that strongly supports this as […]
Healthy Eating
Yesterday my blog focused on some recent research which showed cholesterol levels had little or no relationship with what is known as ‘ischaemic stroke’ – essentially ‘heart attacks of the brain’. On the other hand, a strong relationship was found between this most common form of stroke and levels of blood fats known as triglycerides. […]
Brain and Behaviour
We’ll probably all be familiar with the idea that raised cholesterol levels cause heart disease. The idea here is that high levels of cholesterol cause fatty deposits on the inside of the arteries around the heart. If one or more of vessels should block off completely, the heart muscle is starved of blood and, if […]
Specific conditions
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) […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Previously in this blog I have covered some of the evidence linking vitamin D with positive health outcomes, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and several forms of cancer. Vitamin D has also been linked with diabetes, in that some studies have found those with higher levels of vitamin D to be a reduced […]
Exercise and Activity
Earlier this month I wrote a blog about a study which found that supplementation with protein (whey protein) and the amino acid leucine resulted in increased muscle mass and muscle strength over an 8-week period. I was particularly interested in this because I sometimes recommend whey protein supplementation to individuals looking to maximise muscle gains […]