Exercise and Activity
I see a lot of different health issues in practice, and these can broadly be divided into what you might call ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ concerns. I see primary concerns as the sort of things that cause individuals to make appointments to see me. Common example include fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma and eczema. On the […]
Healthy Eating
There’s a general view out there, I think, that vegetarian and vegan diets are, on balance, healthier than those that include flesh foods including meat. I personally don’t agree with this view. My beliefs on this are partly based on the evidence that non-vegetarians don’t appear to have their lives curtailed by their consumption of […]
Brain and Behaviour
Just like overweight individuals are often seen as greedy or lazy (that’s not a view I hold myself, I should add), prison inmates and young delinquents are generally seen as ‘bad’. But are they? Could, for instance, their errant behaviour and criminal ways be related to something more physiological than social or psychological? Say if […]
Children's Health
The cold winter months (many of us will be experiencing these right now�) bring with them a risk of vitamin D deficiency ” something which I have written about before (see article from 29th November 2006 pasted below). Low levels of vitamin D may predispose to a variety of conditions including seasonal affective disorder (winter […]
Brain and Behaviour
I not so long ago wrote about the research which has found that hyperactivity in children can seemingly be triggered by certain food additives. However, just like about any health issue one care’s to mention, hyperactivity (or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ” ADHD ” to give it it’s full name) is multifactorial in nature. This […]
Nutrients and Supplements
When I was at medical school and subsequently once I started working as a junior doctor, I encountered a number of patients who complained of ‘hurting all over’. These individuals were almost always of Indian subcontinent heritage, and were usually female. On examination, these patients generally claimed to feel pain wherever you touched them. In […]
Brain and Behaviour
On Monday I reported on a couple of recently published studies which support the notion that fish fats are good for the brain. In particular, these studies assessed the potential impact fish-eating and higher levels of so-called omega-3 fats have on the ageing brain. And hot on the heals of this research has come a […]
Healthy Eating
Earlier this month I focused one of my blogs on the apparently beneficial role of fish/omega-3 consumption during pregnancy [1]. The omega-3 fats found abundantly in certain fish have been linked with a variety of potential benefits including better neurological development of the foetus and reduced risk of post-natal depression. Other research has linked inadequate […]
Brain and Behaviour
I’m often asked about my attitude to nutrient supplementation. Do we ‘need’ to supplement, is how it’s often put to me. My answer is that it is probably entirely possible to get all what we need to prevent overt nutritional deficiency diseases such as scurvy and beri-beri. However, less obvious deficiency states may occur quite […]
Men's Health
Here in the UK the weather has turned distinctly autumnal, and the drop in temperature will no doubt herald an upsurge in the risk infections including those affecting the ‘respiratory tract’. There is some thought in natural medicine that certain nutrients have a particular part to play in ensuring a healthy immune response, and may […]