Here’s a particularly shocking example of the kind of irresponsible and evidence-free, so-called health journalism found in sensational tabloids like the Daily Mail. It’s a story claiming that coconut oil can cure Alzheimer’s. This is the worst sort of quack claim giving false hope to vulnerable people. Oh whoops I am the journalist who wrote […]
Possible Alzheimer’s treatment? Try patient power
November 27, 2012 by 1 Comment
Ever been on a high-fat/low carb Atkins-type diet? Upside of rapid weight loss; downside of constipation and bad breath. How about if you could get the benefits without having to endure the rigours of the diet? That’s the promise of some fascinating research that I’ve written about in the Daily Mail today. Professor Kieran Clarke,an […]
Alzheimer’s: another reason to be sceptical about statins
November 5, 2012 by 7 Comments
The front page of the Daily Express on Friday led with a new warning about statins – combining them with certain blood pressure pills could raise your risk of muscle pains, lung disorders and kidney damage. Hmm yes well. Even as a cholesterol/statin sceptic I thought that was remarkably over-hyped – statin side effects are massively […]
Heroes and Villains. Fat and insulin swapping places
October 18, 2012 by 3 Comments
Like the movies, medicine has its roster of heroes and villains – fat for instance is a hard-core offender while insulin is a valued member of the community. But they could be swapping places. The campaign to rehabilitate fat has been gathering support for some years but putting insulin in the dock is a startling […]
The dream that has become a nightmare
October 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Millions of us have a problem sleeping; it’s one of the top reasons for GP visits. Unfortunately for insomniacs the way it is generally treated provides a vivid case history of why our current system of evidence based medicine needs a radical overhaul. The dream of improving medicine with system that would separate good […]
Can fasting for two days each week stop dementia?
August 10, 2012 by 1 Comment
This is an article I wrote about fasting in the Daily Mail back in February. It features top American fasting researcher Dr Mark Mattson who was just about to publish a review of the evidence that, in animals at least, cutting right back on calories a couple of days a week can protect brain cells. […]
Easier ways to stay slim and healthy
August 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Horizon program I blogged about yesterday explored some cutting edge ideas about what really makes us fat – the big surprise was that a major player is one of the genes that controls insulin. It also tested a radical new idea that fasting could be an effective way of turning off that gene. Both […]
If this helps Alzheimer’s it will be ignored
June 28, 2012 by 1 Comment
What’s the best way to cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s? One bit of advice you see regularly is to keep your mind active – do things like crosswords and so on. But here’s a new way that raises a lot of interesting questions about the current narrow focus of Alzheimer’s research. A new study has […]
Alzheimer’s Funding boost 2
April 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The second alarming event (the first was here) concerns an announcement that never happened. Two years ago a high quality randomised trial showed that taking high doses of B vitamins significantly reduced brain shrinkage in patients who were beginning to have problems with memory and general thinking. Given that Alzheimer’s is such a huge problem and […]
Alzheimer’s funding boost 1
April 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The announcement last month (March 25th) the Alzheimer’s funding was to be doubled by 2015 is to be welcomed. But what is the money going to be spent on? Two separate developments don’t inspire confidence that it will always be the most safe and effective treatments. The first concerns the latest developments with the drug […]
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