Brain and Behaviour
Today’s post on drbriffa.com is its 1000th. I’m marking the occasion with a personal account of my health and wellbeing transformation over my life. Many people who don’t know me imagine, given my profession, that I’m a naturally health-conscious and relatively clean-living individual. Actually, that’s not true at all. For long periods in my earlier […]
Food and Medical Politics
Reuters recently reported here that the US Government has added the chemical formaldehyde to its official list of cancer-causing agents. You’ll learn from the Reuters piece that formaldehyde is found in things like some plastics and embalming fluid. But what you won’t learn from the piece is that it can be derived from our diet […]
Healthy Eating
Yesterday I had a email from a friend alerting me to an interesting piece in the Sunday Times. I went out especially to buy a copy. The piece, entitled ‘Farmers, you’ve shrunk mankind’, is based around a presentation given at the Royal Society in London, last week. The lecture was delivered by Dr Marta Lahr […]
Brain and Behaviour
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavour enhancer used liberally in processed foods and Asian cuisine. While MSG is a permitted ingredient in the food supply, there have in the past been questions asked about its potential role in weight gain and obesity. In 2008, I wrote a post about research linking MSG with increased body […]
Brain and Behaviour
Yesterday, my blog was based on a piece that appeared in the UK’s Daily Mail from melanoma specialist that urges us to get more sun (and quite right too). While reading this piece, my eye was caught by another article in the same publication with the headline High Court judge ‘beat up his wife because […]
Healthy Eating
Here in the UK this week the media has been feasting on a recent pronouncement from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) which urges us to strictly limit our consumption of red meat to protect ourselves from bowel cancer. The WCRF’s statement is based on research conducted recently at the Imperial College London, in the […]
Brain and Behaviour
Sleep and insulin resistance, ‘solar power’ for human beings and emotional eating.
Brain and Behaviour
Some individuals have themselves down as ‘emotional eaters’. The idea here is that they sometimes feel driven to eat foods as a result of their emotional state. Usually, this is in response to ‘negative’ states such as stress, anxiety or sadness. In a moment, I’m going to suggest two approaches that, in my experience, can […]
Healthy Eating
‘Phytosterols’ are compounds that can impair the absorption of cholesterol from the gut. In this way, ‘sterols’ (as their name is often abbreviated to) can reduce cholesterol levels in the bloodstream, which conventional wisdom dictates is always a good thing. Sterols are added to ‘functional foods’ including special margarines that promise cholesterol-reducing and, therefore, health-enhancing […]
Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome
The lunch that reminded me why I do what I do, probiotic pessaries for the prevention of urinary tract infections and nutrient supplementation for diabetic neuropathy. For RSS feed for this podcast, click this link.