The answer is yes, there is a connection between the gut, your brain and chronic pain. Around 2 billion people are living with chronic pain worldwide.[1]Â For most people living with chronic pain, it is often considered a symptom of another condition. Usually, unfortunately, this leaves it inadequately treated. In my early years of practice, I saw many fibromyalgia patients, … [Read more...]
Chocolate: harnessing the health benefits without being fooled.
Chocolate is healthy, right? As you might be gathering from some of the articles on this site, it’s not so cut and dry. This article will look at how chocolate, or some of its ingredients, got its reputation as being healthy and how some of the fantastic research can be misleading. As if I didn’t alienate myself with the article about alcohol. Let’s begin our journey by … [Read more...]
Is alcohol good for my health or not?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the answer is a resounding no, alcohol doesn't seem to be good for your health at all. At least based on new emerging research in 2022. This new research is counter to the narrative that seems to have permeated over the last decade. In fact, even whilst putting this together, I was surprised just how much the research is … [Read more...]
Is fibre the missing link to improve your diet?
Most likely, the answer is yes, fibre is one of the missing links in your diet and this is what we’re going to explore in this article. Nutritional research is often affected by region. This deviation is down to the fact that different areas eat different diets. For example, we’ve found in other articles that diets in developed countries can have levels of zinc higher … [Read more...]
Introducing Cortisol, the stress hormone.
“I think stress is affecting my hormones.” And it’s so true. But not in the way many people may think. It’s not just your sex hormones like oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone that are causing reactions in your body but others such as insulin and the hormone we are looking at today, cortisol. Introducing cortisol, the hormone that allows your body to deal with stress … [Read more...]
“Can probiotics help strengthen my immune system?”
The answer is yes, probiotics can help your immune system. And in this article, we’re going to try and get up to date with the various ways that different probiotics might be able to build your immune response. Helping allergic and viral conditions such as the common cold and COVID-19 in the process. If you are a regular reader on the site, you’ll have read before how … [Read more...]
“I think I need to give my liver some love.”
The liver weighs around 1.5kgs and comprises on average around 2% of an adult’s body weight.[1] It’s fair to say that the liver’s role is potentially as undervalued as it is misunderstood. It might seem strange to hear that I think the liver is misunderstood but depending on how many coffees I’ve had, my patients will note my mini-rants around the notion of how … [Read more...]
Everyone tells me to reduce my stress. I don’t even know where to start?
I’ve been making a sincere effort to reduce referring to “stress” when talking with patients. Why? You might think it’s obvious two minutes into a new doom scrolling session on Twitter, but as soon I enter into the discussion with patients, I’ve just started to feel as if it’s a moot point. Here’s often how the conversation goes. “So, talk to me about your … [Read more...]