DO I REALLY NEED TO TAKE A DRUG TO REDUCE BLOOD PRESSURE… OR IS A HEALTHY DIET JUST AS GOOD?
Most of us know the feeling of having our arm squeezed tighter and higher by that machine on the doctor’s desk. Hopefully, she or he will measure your blood pressure (BP) a few times each year to ensure it stays within the normal/recommended range. If it’s greater than 140 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury) for …
YOUR GUT TALKS TO YOUR BRAIN
Source: Suganya, Kanmani, and Byung-Soo Koo The human brain is truly fascinating. It is so big – three times the size of the brain of our closest relative, the chimpanzee. Why did it evolve to be so much larger, considering that it was so energy-demanding? And why is it so susceptible to dysfunction, for example …
COLORECTAL CANCER DIAGNOSIS – A LIFE CHANGING EVENT
Colorectal cancer is a type of cancer that affects the colon (large bowel/large intestine) and/or rectum. According to the World Health Organisation, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, accounting for approximately 10% of all cancer cases and is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. While predominantly affecting older adults (50 …
LEGUMES: SUSTAINABLE NUTRITION
The legume family includes beans, peas and lentils. There are so many different varieties, and they can be prepared, eaten and enjoyed in so many different ways, depending on where you live in the world, your cultural heritage, cooking skills and personal food preferences. Our most commonly used word for legumes is “bean” and …
WHAT TO DRINK?
Some health professionals and health activists like to ignore this simple fact – people love to drink Calories, not just water, and have been doing so since the dawn of Homo sapiens. One of our first experiences outside the womb, our first drink, is (hopefully) human milk, the sweetest of all mammalian milks, with ~7% …
GI, SATURATED FAT AND YOUR LIVER
Do you know if you have a fatty liver? If that’s a yes, what can be done to treat it? Thirty years ago, a vivacious redhead by the name of Dr Sandra Cabot wrote a wildly popular book called The Liver Cleansing Diet. I, like many others thought it was all a bit crazy. Mind …
GI AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Today, I did something that I have never done in my whole life. I used artificial intelligence in the form of ChatGPT to help me write an article on the relationship between the GI and cardiovascular disease, this month’s theme for GI News. I registered first in ChatGPT. These were my instructions: In approximately 1000 …
LIVING YOUNGER LONGER
For Australians, Dr Norman Swan, MD, is a trusted voice as the long-time presenter and producer of The Health Report on ABC TV. Living Younger Longer is the title of his latest book, which is worth reading for many reasons. First, his sense of humour draws a laugh on every page. Secondly, he’s scoured the …
DO WE NEED AN INSULIN INDEX OF FOODS?
If you asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have said no because knowledge of the GI and GL appeared to be sufficient to predict the insulin response. My PhD student at the time, Jiansong (Jason) Bao had proved this in an elegant study involving 121 single foods and 13 mixed meals (1). …
DIABETES REMISSION: FACT OR FANTASY?
If you have had a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, can it be reversed or ‘cured’ if you do all the right things? This was a question that scientists at the University of Glasgow asked themselves in 2015 when they began the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT (1)). They recruited people aged 20-65 years who …
