Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
I believe that lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise have potentially profound impact on health and wellbeing, and this is certainly reflected in the voluminous recommendations that come at us regarding what we should and shouldn’t be doing in these areas. However, I also take the view that another key lifestyle factor ” sleep […]
Children's Health
This week, I have had babies on the brain. I think this might have something to do with the fact that I spent a large part of the weekend with a very good friend who is heavily pregnant with her first child. We spent a little time talking about her plans for the birth. The […]
Food and Medical Politics
Last week I had the radio on in the background and listened to an interview with Margaret Haywood, who was formerly a UK-based nurse, but has recently been ‘struck off’ as a result of apparent breaches of the nursing code of practice. Ms Haywood had participated in some undercover filming on behalf of the BBC […]
Food and Medical Politics
Many individuals will be familiar with the almost-constant recommendations that come at us with regard to what we should be eating to reduce our risk of heart disease. A central theme in this advice, though not everyone would agree with it, is that the diet should be low in fat and high in carbohydrate. Sometimes, […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
This week’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association contains a commentary entitled ‘Can Diabetes Be Cured’ [1]. It caught my eye, partly because I have some interest in diabetes as a condition, but also because the word ‘cure’ is not usually applied to a condition like diabetes. The conventional wisdom is that […]
Children's Health
I would generally advise anyone wishing to avoid developing diabetes to keep their diet relatively low in foods that tend to cause considerable disruption to blood sugar levels. These would include many starchy carbohydrates including most forms of bread, potato, rice, pasta and breakfast cereals. It would also include foods that contain added sugar. Eating […]
Food and Medical Politics
The painkilling drug rofecoxib (Vioxx) was originally licensed in the USA in 1999. It proved quite a success for its manufacturer, the drug company Merck, until it emerged that the drug was associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular events (heart attacks and strokes). Merck withdrew the drug in 2004, but not before there […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Statin drugs are the most commonly-used medications for reducing cholesterol levels. They do seem to help prevent cardiovascular disease, though whether they do this through their cholesterol reducing effects is a moot point. And despite them being billed as the wonder-drugs of the age, I think it’s worth bearing in mind that these drugs are […]
Cholesterol and Statins
While I don’t believe that what represents an ideal diet is the same for everyone, I do favour diets that are generally rich in protein and relatively low in carbohydrate/ And one reason for this concerns that fact that such diets do tend to outperform high-carb, low-fat diets when it comes to fat loss and […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Infertility is estimated to affect up to 15 per cent of couples. And while the underlying issue here can be with either the woman or the man (or both), one relatively common cause of infertility relates to a problem with ovulation (the normal release of an egg from the ovary about every month). Sometimes, problems […]