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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Diabetes is a condition characterised by higher-than-normal levels of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream. One problem here is that there is more tendency for glucose to react with proteins and fats in the body (through a process known as glycation) that can damage tissues. The complications of diabetes, including nerve, vessel, eye and kidney damage, […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
I noticed a few reports last week (an example here) regarding a study that was presented at a diabetes conference. Apparently, the research shows that individuals taking naps in the afternoon is associated with a significantly enhanced risk of developing diabetes. When such studies are reported there’s a tendency for journalists (and sometimes the originators […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Statins are the most commonly used cholesterol-reducing drugs. There is evidence that taking them reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, though it certainly isn’t assured that this is because they reduce cholesterol levels. For more on this see here. While statins may indeed have benefits for health, they are not without risk. The cholesterol-producing enzyme […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Conventional nutritional wisdom dictates that heart disease risk can be influenced through our intake of fat. Specifically, saturated fat (found in foods such as meat, dairy products, eggs and coconut) promotes heart disease, while certain foods (for example, omega-3 fats found in oily fish) do the reverse. I do think there’s a good deal of […]
Brain and Behaviour
For a beverage that doesn’t enjoy the healthiest of reputations, coffee has been the subject of quite a few studies that link its consumption with benefits for health. Specifically, there has been several studies now that link coffee drinking with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (e.g. heart disease) or diabetes. Now there is some […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Most people understand and appreciate that physical activity is generally a good thing for health and wellbeing. The reality is, though, that many of us are quite sedentary. And a big reason for this relates to time, and specifically our sometimes perception that that there are, really, not enough hours in the day. However, there […]