Healthy Eating
With its emphasis on fresh fruits and veggies, fish and olive oil, the Mediterranean diet is generally regarded as an altogether healthy feeding regime, and one that seems to be particularly effective in the warding off heart disease. While I am generally enthusiastic about this is way of eating, I am not so keen on […]
Healthy Eating
The colossal problems we seem to be having with overweight and obesity in the UK are never far from my mind. As a general rule, I encourage those seeking to attain or maintain a healthy weight to put their focus on enhancing the quality of the diet, rather than reducing its quantity. However, it is […]
Nutrients and Supplements
If the adverts at the back of mens’ magazines are anything to go by, we male folk are quite commonly concerned about the reduced turgidity of our erections and a fall in the amount of hair on our heads. While women are spared the former issue, they are not entirely immune to the latter: I […]
Food and Medical Politics
There was seemingly bad news for the supplement-takers recently on the publication of a study in the Lancet which found that supplementing with ‘antioxidant’ nutrients (such beta-carotene, vitamins A, C and E and selenium) appeared not to reduce the risk of cancer in the digestive tract. However, worse was to come when the study authors […]
Herbal Medicine
The distinct chill we’ve had in the air of late will inevitably herald the usual seasonal influx of cold and flu. Lest we forget that such wintry infections are on their way, the Government recently launched a high profile media campaign urging those at high risk of flu to get vaccinated against it. However, the […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
With its incidence predicted to double over the next decade, diabetes has attracted more medical and media attention of late. Last month, for instance, reports in the press appeared after doctors recommended more regular blood sugar levels checks for diabetics. Diabetes sufferers have also been urged to have more frequent assessment of a blood component […]
Healthy Eating
It is not uncommon for dietary recommendations to be made on the basis of just one or two of a food’s constituents. However, most things that pass our lips are complex chemical concoctions, which means that judging foodstuffs on just a small portion of what they contain may lead to not altogether accurate assessments of […]
Brain and Behaviour
The dwindling daylight hours that inevitably come at this time of year are usually viewed with some dread by sufferers of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – a condition in which a shortage of sun can provoke anything from dark moods to full-blown depression. In addition to the light relief offered by increased exposure to the […]
Observer Archive
In previous columns I have been overflowing with enthusiasm for the benefits to be had from drinking water. Many individuals find that keeping fluid levels topped up can stave off feelings of fatigue and lethargy, and research has linked increased water consumption with a reduced risk of a range of conditions including heart disease and […]
Brain and Behaviour
My experience in practice tells me that sometimes it’s not only the symptoms of a condition, but also the stigma attached to it, that can pile on the agony. One issue that I find is particularly prone to elicit some sense of shame is alcoholism. Recently, I read an American report about a range of […]