Kevin Witham Blog » Interesting

Watch the Research

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:49:38 +0000

The British Medical Journal has again raised concerns recently that some drug test results go unreported and are deliberately hidden allowing companies to make unfounded claims. Data can often be unpublished, missing or is extremely slow to be published. This says the BMJ could put patients at risk. Indeed, one US study from Yale university found that fewer than half the 635 National Institutes Of Health funded trials were published in a peer-reviewed medical journal in 30 months. Peer reviewed work is considered essential to ensure mistakes are not made. Furthermore, a lot of research goes out of its way to prove an hypothesis rather then trying to disprove it- the latter provides more information and positive bias can be a problem in the design of many studies. There have been a number of drugs over the years which have been withdrawn and many have been found to have increased toxicity compared to the original test results.

Don’t assume all things you buy are vigorously tested or indeed safe.

Kevin, 16 February 2012

Want to lose weight?

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:44:58 +0000

Always at this time of year many people are looking at ways to reduce weight and improve fitness. Unfortunately, it is also that time of year when many foolish diets and detox plans are released. You will have heard me say how important it is for your health to focus on the quality of the food that you eat rather then quantity or calorie counting. Now the Harvard School of Public Health has found that the biggest impact on people losing weight is indeed to focus on the quality of what you eat, especially the carbohydrates, rather then how much you consume. It was found in this study that the biggest factor was to reduce sweetened drinks, refined grains, white bread and rice and low fibre cereals. Increasing natural foods such as whole grains, vegetables, nuts, yoghurt and avoiding processed foods was seen to lower weight. Furthermore, those who slept between 6-8 hours a night gained less weight compared to those sleeping less than 6 hours or over 8 hours. This study tracked 100,000 people over 20 years. Losing weight- well you know, eat well and move often.

Science is also clear that you can’t detox the body through faddy diets and products- this is reviewed this month in the British Society of Biology. Of course, the best way is to reduce the numbers of toxins going in and exercise and sleep well!

Kevin, 20 December 2011

And the Aspirin

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:01:35 +0000

According to recent Dutch research taking aspirin is not worth the risk for healthy middle-aged women trying to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Indeed, very few women would benefit and regular aspirin can cause irritation of the stomach, bowel and cause heart burn and nausea. Most doctors agree that taking aspirin if you have already suffered a heart attack is worth it but this recent study published in the European Heart Journal and based on 28000 women further adds to the recent controversy. Two large review papers this year also found little effect on outcomes using aspirin as a preventative measure in healthy adults. There’s better ways to prevent many chronic diseases- taking drugs when healthy may not be one of them.

Kevin, 9 December 2011.