Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
Last week one of my blogs focused on story regarding the spiralling costs of medication for diabetes. I suggested that one reason for this is that many diabetics are advised to eat a diet rich in starchy carbohydrate, yet these foods generally are very disruptive to blood sugar levels. Yes, that’s right – diabetics who […]
Cholesterol and Statins
I don’t mind referring to scientific research where relevant, but I’m not of the mind that only things that have been ‘scientifically proven’ have merit. One reason for this is that there’s plenty of things that we might do in practice that appear to consistently help people, but have not been subjected to systematic study. […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
I saw this story on the BBC website this morning. It concerns the costs of treating those with diabetes. Apparently, the cost of drugs for managing diabetes is rising (a lot), and now accounts for 7 per cent of the total amount spent on prescribing in the UK. Between 2000 and 2008 prescriptions for diabetic […]
Food and Medical Politics
There’s a study doing the rounds that is being reported as evidence that “Atkins was wrong”. Apparently, according to those reporting the study, it shows that eating more meat generally causes increased weight gain over time [1]. To see a typical way in which this study is being reported, see here. Sitting on a plane […]
Food and Medical Politics
Rosiglitazone is a drug used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Back in 2007 it emerged that this drug posed significant risks to the heart health of those who took it. These facts only emerged, however, as the result of independent analysis of data that rosiglitazone’s manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had been forced to publish […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Statins are drugs that reduce cholesterol. They also reduce risk of heart disease and stroke. That does not mean, though, that they do they via their cholesterol-reducing effect. There are several lines of evidence which actually suggest otherwise. For example, statins can have clinical benefit before they reduce cholesterol levels. They also have been purported […]
Food and Medical Politics
Common sense dictates that fats found naturally in the diet that we’ve been eating for hundreds of thousands of years and have therefore evolved to eat and unlikely to be detrimental to health. For instance, saturated fat (a primal foodstuff if there ever was one) turns out not to have the heart-stopping properties we’ve been […]
Food and Medical Politics
A month or so ago I wrote a piece about regarding the fact that in medicine, less can be more. It is certainly the case that some conventional medical approaches have downsides that outweigh any upside. Some are worth than useless. Modern medicine, with its learned personnel, sophisticated testing and machines that go bing, has […]
Food and Medical Politics
It’s almost a year to the day that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the planet was in the throes of an influenza ‘pandemic’. The advice was delivered by Dr Margaret Chan, the director general of the WHO. Her announcement triggered large-scale ‘panic-buying’ of flu vaccines and anti-viral drugs such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and […]
Cholesterol and Statins
A study published last week in the British Medical Journal has linked irregular toothbrushing with an increased risk of heart disease: individuals who rarely or never brushed their teeth were found to be at a 70 per cent increased risk of ‘cardiovascular events’ (e.g. heart attacks and strokes) compared to regular brushers [1]. Why? Well, […]