Dr Briffa's Blog – A Good Look at Good Health: Recent Episodes
Dr John Briffa
A health-focused blog that makes sense of science, and offers accurate, trustworthy and practical advice about all aspects of healthy living.
I recently read an interesting editorial in the Journal of American College of Cardiology about the relative benefits of walking and running [1]. The editorial is partly a comment on a paper published in the same edition of the journal which found that running for 5-10 minutes a day is associated with a 45 per […]
The post Walking versus running first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
The supposed ‘gold standard’ method of medical research is the ‘randomised controlled trial’. What this means in drug therapy research is that a group of individuals are randomly assigned to the treatment being studied or placebo, and the outcomes and effects compared. In the ‘best’ trials, neither the study participant not the investigators know who […]
The post Article reveals unseen cause of bias that risks compromising the evidence-base for statins and other drugs first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
When men middle-aged or elderly men have some difficulty with urination, their doctor’s attention will usually focus on their prostate – the gland that encircles the pipe that takes urine from the bladder to the outside known as the urethra. An enlarged prostate can impinge on the outflow of urine from the bladder and therefore […]
The post Not all men with symptoms of an enlarged prostate have an enlarged prostate. What’s going on? first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
I have written more than once about Professor Sir Rory Collins. He leads the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists collaboration in Oxford, UK. Periodically, this group takes (private) statin study data and churns out bold pronouncements on the (supposed) great effectiveness and safety of these drugs. Professor Collins recently tried to get the BMJ to retract two […]
The post How accurate are Professor Collins’ claims about the rates of muscle problems with statins? first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
I came across this story today, which talks about the device that counts the number of bites of food individuals take over the course of the day. The idea appears to be there being aware of this can help individuals to keep within some sort of recommended calorie limit for the day. However, as someone […]
The post Why the device that counts the number of bites of food we take in a day is unlikely benefit health or weight first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Cholesterol in the bloodstream is carried within protein-rich packages known as ‘lipoproteins’. These come in two main types, so-called ‘low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol’ (LDL-C) and ‘high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol’ (HDL-C). Conventional wisdom has it that LDL-C is responsible for dumping cholesterol on the inside of arteries, and is dubbed ‘bad cholesterol’ as a result. On the other hand, HDL-cholesterol […]
The post Evidence links higher cholesterol with lower risk of death in older individuals first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia, and its cause is likely to be ‘multifactorial’ and even vary considerably between individuals. However, on thing that appears to be true is that a key driving process in the condition is inflammation (which, by the way, seems to be true for ‘chronic’ conditions). One potential anti-inflammatory agent […]
The post Can getting more sun help protect against dementia? first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Professor Sir Rory Collins is one of the most strident advocates of statin therapy, and also leads a ‘research group’ known as the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists collaboration (CTT). Professor Collins and his colleagues hold a huge database of from statin studies, and quite-often ‘crunch the numbers’ and pronounce statins to be highly effective and very […]
The post Has Professor Collins’ call for BMJ ‘statin’ papers to be retracted backfired spectacularly? first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
On the face of it, health checks can seem like a bit of ‘no brainer’. If you accept an invite from your doctor to attend for a ‘health MOT’ (the MOT is the annual test of car road-worthiness in the UK), then the thought is this will help ‘catch something early’, and allow earlier and […]
The post The UK Government encourages health checks, but the evidence suggests they do no good at all first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Higher levels of so-called ‘HDL-cholesterol’ is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular issues including heart disease and stroke. This finding has led to the widespread view that raising HDL levels has benefits for health, particularly with regard to cardiovascular risk. There are three main classes of agents that are known to boost HDL levels: the […]
The post More evidence that ‘modifying’ cholesterol does not necessarily have broad benefits for health first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Type 2 diabetes rates are on the up, and there is real concern within the medical community that we are seeing something of a ‘diabesity’ epidemic that has considerable personal and social consequences. The usual focus regarding the prevention of type 2 diabetes is ‘diet and exercise’. But, other less well-recognised factors appear to influence […]
The post Is shift work a risk factor for type 2 diabetes? first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
The aorta is the major blood vessels that carries blood from the heart to other parts of the body (except the lungs). Sometimes, individuals can be born with a narrowing of this vessel – a condition known as ‘coarctation of the aorta’. This defect can be repaired surgically. Those with this condition have been noted […]
The post Can we assume the reductions in cholesterol translate into benefits for health? first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition characterised by raised levels of glucose in the bloodstream, and its diagnosis is generally made when blood glucose levels are higher than 11.1 mmol/l (200 mg/dL) 2 hours after a oral glucose load (of 75 g). However, blood sugar control is a spectrum: between what are thought to be […]
The post Article questions the validity of labelling and treating people with ‘pre-diabetes’ first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Those keen to optimise their cardiovascular health and reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke may well, in addition to ‘eating right’, take steps to ‘take exercise’ and be physically fit. Usually, the prescribed exercise here come in the form of ‘cardiovascular’ or ‘aerobic’ forms such as walking, jogging, cycling or rowing. Such activities […]
The post Review highlights to potential for statins to negate the benefits of exercise first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.
Elderly people tend to be less physically able than younger ones. Walking speed, for instance, and the speed with which they rise from a chair, tend to decline in later life. There can be many reasons for this, including loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia). But the strength of functionality of muscles (irrespective of their size) […]
The post Magnesium supplementation found to improve physical function in older women first appeared on Dr Briffa's Blog - A Good Look at Good Health.