Food and Medical Politics
Mammography has traditionally been presented to women as a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ – essentially you’d have to be lacking a brain not to submit to regular breast cancer screening. Over the last few years, though, there has been the publication of several scientific articles which highlight the fact that mammography simply does not deliver […]
Nutrients and Supplements
There’s a lot of reasons why someone may complain of undue fatigue, but there’s a few things that tend to recur. One thing worth looking out for, especially in women, is iron deficiency. Monthly blood loss is a major risk factor for this, obviously, especially if coupled with a diet low in properly iron-rich foods […]
Food and Medical Politics
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is the UK’s largest and best-known ‘heart’ charity and, on the surface at least, appears devoted to doing what it can to reduce the burden of ‘cardiovascular’ issues such as heart attacks and strokes. The BHF website offers a number of stories of people which appear to highlight pertinent issues […]
Brain and Behaviour
Vitamin D is less a vitamin and more a hormone, and higher levels of this substance are linked with a reduced risk of many conditions including multiple sclerosis, heart disease and several forms of cancer. In some studies, vitamin D has been tested as a treatment, and at least some evidence points to it having […]
Cholesterol and Statins
Statins reduce cholesterol, and this is said to be the primary mechanism through which they reduce the risk of ‘cardiovascular’ events such as heart attacks and strokes. When used in clinical practice, statins can be given to people with or without prior history of cardiovascular disease. Giving statins to people with a history of cardiovascular […]
Women's Health
The thyroid is a gland in the neck that regulates metabolism. Low thyroid function (hypothyroidism) can lead to diverse symptoms including weight gain, fatigue, sensitivity to cold, dry skin, dry hair, hair loss and constipation. In conventional medicine, the diagnosis of low thyroid function is usually made with a blood test. Here’s the classic picture: […]
Healthy Eating
Last Saturday the Times here in the UK published a piece I wrote about ‘intermittent fasting’. This topic has been getting a lot of press of late (the Daily Mail, for instance, carried a piece earlier this week too). I’m pleased to see that intermittent fasting is getting some attention, and there’s some challenge to […]
Food and Medical Politics
Woman’s Hour is an hour-long radio show on the BBC’s Radio 4 station. On Tuesday, I was invited onto the show to discuss weight loss. The item centred around the plight of Sue Lyons – an obese lady who has (like millions of others) failed to control her weight through ‘dieting’. Sue recounts a commonly-heard […]
Sunlight
There is a ton of research which links higher levels of vitamin D (and/or increased sun exposure) with reduced risk of a range of conditions including diabetes, multiple sclerosis, several forms of cancer and heart disease. These studies are voluminous, and tend to be quite consistent, but they still can’t tell us for sure that […]
Healthy Eating
Matt Edmundson emailed me awhile back relaying the story of what happened when he read and applied the principles laid out in my book Waist Disposal. His daughter, it turns out, used to call him ‘baggy belly’, but not anymore! After Escape the Diet Trap was released, Matt kindly asked to interview me about the […]