Author: Dr Briffa

Food and Medical Politics

BMJ article explores the cosy relationship that drug companies often have with doctors considered ‘key opinion leaders’

Go to any medical educational meeting, and you’ll usually find individuals giving Powerpoint presentations that, when you boil down to it, sell the merits of a drug or device. Such presentations are usually delivered by doctors who are sometimes known as ‘key opinion leaders’ or ‘KOLs’. Being doctors, one might imagine that these doctors give […]

June 23, 2008· 4 min read

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Brain and Behaviour

Artificial Sweetener Fails to Fool the Brain

The implicit advantage that artificial sweeteners have over sugar is that, being virtually devoid of calories, they’re a better option for those wanting to control their weight. However, as I described in a recent blog post here, there is no good evidence that artificial sweeteners promote weight loss compared to sugar. Plus, there is actually […]

June 20, 2008· 3 min read

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Healthy Eating

Coffee-drinking associated with a reduced risk of death in women

Generally, people tend to have quite firmly established ideas about weather a food is healthy or not. And they may even have some idea about which conditions a food is supposed to protect against or promote. So, for instance, when asked to comment on red meat, most people will express the view that this food […]

June 18, 2008· 4 min read

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Sunlight

BMJ editorial casts doubt on the notion that sunlight causes malignant melanoma

I am a big believer in the therapeutic properties of sunlight, at least some of which is related to its ability to stimulate vitamin D production in the skin. Sunlight exposure and/or heightened vitamin D levels have been associated with a range of health benefits including a reduced risk of several forms of cancer and […]

June 16, 2008· 3 min read

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Brain and Behaviour

FDA acknowledges that the jury is still out on whether mercury amalgam fillings can be hazardous to health

Late last month one of my posts focused on the eating of fish during pregnancy. On the one hand this may be a good idea on the basis that the omega-3 fats certain fish can supply may have benefits for the developing foetus. On the other hand, fish (particularly tuna, marlin and swordfish) can be […]

June 13, 2008· 4 min read

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Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome

Study suggests that low-carb diets can bring long term benefits for type 2 diabetics

The body likes to keep its internal environment quite stable, and this includes the amount of sugar circulating in the bloodstream. The chief blood sugar lowering hormone is insulin. In diabetes, there can be a problem here leading for blood sugar levels to be higher than is healthy. Diabetics either don’t have enough insulin, or […]

June 11, 2008· 5 min read

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Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome

Pesticide exposure linked with increased risk of diabetes

When it comes to impact environmental chemicals such as pesticides have on health, there is generally two schools of thought. One of these is that there’s no evidence of harm, and there is therefore nothing to be concerned about. Others, though, are more circumspect bearing in mind the very alien-to-nature nature of these compounds and […]

June 9, 2008· 2 min read

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Food and Medical Politics

Health professionals ignore their patients at their, and their patients’, peril

Good medical practice is about many things, one of the most important of which I reckon is simply listening. I can’t tell you the number of times individuals have told me they said something potentially important to their doctor, only for it to be either dismissed or simply ignored. Some patients end up being castigated […]

June 6, 2008· 7 min read

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Food and Medical Politics

Last of the summer whine

Regular readers of this site will know I tend to give my blog posts quite literal and descriptive titles: Why is the dietary advice given to diabetics so often so woefully inadequate?�, that sort of thing. So, I promised to write about sunlight and beta-carotene today (which I will, give me a moment�), but thought […]

June 4, 2008· 4 min read

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Food and Medical Politics

I was going to write about beta-carotene and sunburn but…

It’s the summer, though in London where I was over the weekend the summer was not doing what summer’s are supposed to do: it was grey and wet all weekend long. And a good thing too, seeing as I decided to spend much of the weekend refuting the notion that MMR is vindicated with regard […]

June 2, 2008· 6 min read

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