I was recently asked for my comments on a Daily Mail article that made a claim that probiotics may not actually work. They did so on the basis of a recently published study in the Journal of Gastroenterology, which took a deep dive into all the available evidence to provide a conclusion on whether these […]
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All my posts from 2017 to the present day
2023 (3)
2022 (8)October 4, 2023 - “No Proof Probiotics Work”: The Confusion Caused by Evidence-Based Medicine’s Futile Hunt for the One True Effect (0)April 6, 2023 - Does Magnesium Supplementation Reduce Oxalate Absorption? Soluble vs Insoluble (and Partially Soluble) Oxalate Salts, and Why It Matters (3)Should I take Magnesium supplements to block absorption of oxalates in food? What constitutes a low-oxalate diet? How long does it take to solve oxalate issues? Can we restore them once remediation is complete? How best to block their absorption? Once oxalate issues are confirmed, there are plenty of questions we are likely to have, […]
2021 (8)October 31, 2022 - Fluoride in UK Tap Water: Arguments For/Against Fluoridation and Missing Data on Dental Decay (0)What is fluoride? Fluoride is a mineral complex, whereby the mineral is combined with fluorine. Fluorine is a halogen, belonging to the same family as bromine, chlorine and iodine. Its simultaneous listing as an industrial pollutant and an additive to municipal water supplies has fuelled dispute over its role in human health. Such controversy has […]
2020 (11)December 21, 2021 - Countering COVID Logic – Context, Cognitive Dissonance and Why We Should All Read ‘Influence’ (1)Find yourself wracked with uncertainty and feel like nothing makes sense? What if you felt such uncertainty because the headlines were sculpted by behavioural scientists to elicit this exact response? And why would the Government offer up such incoherent babble if they were not utterly desperate? The round-the-clock fearmongering features multiple lines of attack and […]November 9, 2021 - The Science of Lowering Estrogen For Weight Loss: How Receptor Action Determines Fat Storage (0)Through the estrogen receptors that are so densely situated in fat cells, estrogen promotes fat storage in sites beneath the skin. It does so by shutting down the cell’s adrenaline receptors (this will be important later), receptors that would normally sense the ‘request’ for circulating energy and release fatty acids into the bloodstream. However, this […]October 18, 2021 - COVID-19 in 2021 (Part III): 21 Papers That are Being Ignored (0)(This is Part Three of a three-part series. Click here for Part One and here for Part Two). 1. Apolone et al – did COVID spread for six months before we noticed? Published in November 2020, this was one of the first papers to make policy makers feel really, really awkward. It used stored samples […]October 18, 2021 - Covid-19 in 2021 (Part II): Assessing ‘The Science’ (0)(This is Part Two of a three-part series. Click here for Part One and here for Part Three). One thing that most of us can agree on in these polarized times is that decisions should be made on the basis of scientific evidence rather than superstition or preferences of multinational corporations. And thus, ‘follow the […]October 18, 2021 - COVID-19 in 2021 (Part I): An End Within Sight? (2)(This is Part One of a three-part series. Click here for Part Two and here for Part Three). There once was a time when we could assess the evidence, make conclusions and then discuss how best to integrate these findings into policy. This has not been the case in the last 18 months, and this […]July 27, 2021 - Perspectives: On Conspiracy Theories, Censorship and Segregation (5)PERSPECTIVE A On segregation We all know that excluding the anti-vaxxers from society is a good thing and that, although segregation has got a bad rap, we know it’s the right thing to do because it’s backed by science. And sure, some people will point out that scientists also backed the Jim Crow laws, those […]May 5, 2021 - Natural Treatment for H Pylori: How Do Eradication Rates Compare Against Triple Therapy? (9) H Pylori is one of the most recently discovered organisms; as far as the medical literature is concerned, it has only just celebrated its 38th birthday. And while it can (and indeed does) live peacefully in many, H Pylori issues represent one of the most common hidden obstacles that stops individuals from responding to […]
2019 (4)December 9, 2020 - What are the Studies Saying? Actual Risk, Relative Risk and NNT (0) “Don’t hate the playa, hate the maths”. It’s fair to say that medical statistics is not a particularly sexy subject. But if you’re being served something and asked to swallow it, it can pay to read the label… And the quickest and easiest way to read the ‘label’ on scientific studies is to grab […]August 13, 2020 - Mushrooms – Do You Need to Avoid Them on an Anti-Candida Protocol? (2)Do you really need to avoid mushrooms when taking anti-candida measures? For most people, no. Many people have been told that a) their gut issues/health problems are due to overgrowth of candida and that b) this calls for a strict ‘no sugar, no yeast’ plan. This likely became common wisdom after the ground-breaking book The […]July 3, 2020 - Ketogenic Diet FAQs (0)Ketosis is an alternative means of fueling the body and one where ketones act as the primary fuel for the central nervous system (your brain). The switch to this alternative fueling state occurs when carbohydrate availability drops and fats remain plentiful; this is important because fats need carbohydrates in order to enter the energy-production pathway […]June 17, 2020 - Research Says that High-Fat Meals Cause Endotoxemia and Brain Fog… Except It Didn’t (2)From treating non-responsive epilepsy or through maintaining performance at high altitude, the benefits of ketogenic diets have been known for many decades. However, it is in the last few years that interest in this approach has skyrocketed and has induced the usual responses in the world of natural health; advocates proclaim that it is The […]May 13, 2020 - Zinc is Great, Unless it’s Not: Benefits, Side Effects and Personalization (0)Interest in zinc has progressively built since the 90s, where it’s role in supporting immunity and enhancing hormonal status began to be recognized. Focus has increased gradually in this time to reach a fever pitch during the COVID-19 chaos, as worried individuals look for proven methods to increase resistance against respiratory infections. Along with elderberry […]April 13, 2020 - MCAS and Sleep: How Mast Cells Mediators can Drive Insomnia (32)Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is the label given to individuals who experience unexplained inflammatory events that are mediated by mast cells and affect several body systems at once. Accordingly, it is often summarized as constant allergy-type symptoms in the absence of an allergen. Histamine is a chemical that mediates the most visible and rapidly-occurring symptoms […]April 8, 2020 - Mast Cell Activation Syndrome: Don’t Shoot the Messenger (10)Mast cells are frontline immune cells that are found in rich quantities in any of the body’s surfaces that are exposed to the environment, explaining why they can have such a key part in inflammatory processes of the airways, the intestinal wall and skin. Since being discovered by Paul Ehrlich in 1878, focus has largely […]April 3, 2020 - Saliva Testing: Is it as Reliable as Blood Tests? (0)Nutritional therapy has come a long way since the era of Abram Hoffer and Linus Pauling, counter-revolutionaries whose work countered establishment paradigms and stimulated change in across a large host of medical disciplines. Arguably, the driving force in developments has been the wider range of metabolic testing available to practitioners; the information provided has permitted […]April 2, 2020 - COVID-19 Focus: Personalizing Immune Strategies, pt II (0) Part One of this article touched on the available research done on the role of the immune system in fighting off coronavirus, an factor that has gone largely unexplored during the crisis. There have been enough articles on natural herbs and supplements to boost immune function, some excellent and some questionable, and I have […]April 2, 2020 - COVID-19 Focus: Personalizing Immune Strategies, pt I (0)Coronaviruses have recently grabbed the attention of the public for obvious reasons. Such sub-types of viruses are not novel and have been largely unproblematic for humans, with the previous exceptions being a mutant strain that resulted in the outbreak of SARS in 2003 and another that has sustained the MERS outbreak in recent years. Many […]March 8, 2020 - Coronavirus – A Hysteria-free Look at the Facts (0)In early December 2019, doctors in the Wuhan province of China reported that they had identified a novel virus in a cluster of patients. They linked them to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale market nearby. They identified this virus as a mutant strain in the series of coronaviruses, so-called because part of the molecule resembles a […]
2018 (1)June 12, 2019 - Biotin and Thyroid Testing: Does high-dose supplementation change blood levels? (2)Biotin and Thyroid Testing: whats the fuss? Back in 2016, a paper was released which showed abnormal thyroid results in a cohort of young patients. All six enrolled in the study were taking high doses of biotin as a result of a metabolic disorder. It was found that their T3 and T4 levels were measured […]April 26, 2019 - How Useful is the VCS test? (0)In introduction to the VCS test The Visual Contrast Sensitivity test, hereby referred to as the VCS test, is a 10-minute test that aims to determine how well you can tell between shades of grey. This is different to an ‘eye test’, which tests for visual acuity, and instead is testing a function conducted by […]
2017 (7)March 26, 2018 - Metabolic Dysregulation: When What Should Work, Doesn’t (3) There’s nothing like having chronic fatigue to make it clear what’s wrong with healthcare. And there’s a lot wrong with Western healthcare. What plagues nutritional therapy is hobbytritionists trotting out phrases like ‘Milkthistle is good for the liver’, ‘Rhodiola is good for depression’, etc. Such declarations need qualifying. Milkthistle should be good for the […]September 29, 2017 - React Badly to Everything? Iron and Ferritin Issues? Introducing the NRF2 response (5)Although I have spent years talking about glutathione, I find myself talking more about the NRF2 system lately. So here is a short article to explain what it is, and why it may be important to you. To do so, we will need to explain some basics on detoxification and the importance of glutathione. Quick […]May 27, 2017 - The Paradigms That People with CFS Should Consider (2)Varied Diet The Masai tribe, due to their near-absence of chronic disease, have often been held up as a standard to aim for. So too the Inuit, who too have traditionally maintained exemplary health. And while they are separated by language, genetics and geography, they share a lot of similarities. One such similarity is the […]May 11, 2017 - Intermittent Fasting: Theoretically Great, Normally Problematic (2)As a therapeutic intervention, fasting pre-dates all medical literature. Hippocrates wrote enthusiastically about the benefits of this approach, as did Plato and Paracelsus. Fasting centres were abundant in many countries in the early 20th century before pharmaceuticals became the order of the day. The benefits of fasting include improved autophagy (clearance of cellular debris) (1), […]April 22, 2017 - Getting into Ketosis – VIDEO (0)Ketosis can be fantastic at alleviating adrenal stress and managing hypoglycaemic episodes. However, the transition can be stressful…January 28, 2017 - Oxalates FAQs (53) Why are oxalates a problem? Oxalates serve no purpose in the body. However, they can cause serious problems and tend to do so in four ways: via crystal formation and subsequent interaction with immune cells, cause pronounced inflammation. This can result in irritation at the brain, dry skin, joint pain, bladder issues, etc. […]January 28, 2017 - Why am I Flushing from Niacin? Histamine and Two Other Causes (26)Niacin, also known as Vitamin B3, is the name given to a family of nutrients. While some less common forms (such as NADH) exist, most supplements come in the form of nicotinic acid, inositol hexaniacinate and niacinamide. It is nicotinic acid that we are talking about when it comes to the infamous ‘niacin flush’. Nicotinic […]January 28, 2017 - Soluble vs Insoluble Oxalates: What’s the Difference? (25)While oxalates can be formed in a number of ways (eg. when amino acid processing runs in a distorted manner, following the administration of excessive Vitamin C or from the conversion of fungal toxins in the gut), the most common pathway into the body is from dietary oxalates. It is this process that we will […]