Statins are widely used to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Like a lot of drugs, statins come with some side effects. Myopathy, in the form of muscle weakness, pain and cramps is one of the most important adverse effects. A group of researchers from Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands may…
Apparently tomatoes are the 4th most mentioned trigger for gout flare-ups after seafood, alcohol and red meat. This is according to a group of researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand. They have published a new paper in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders that may have found a biological basis to substantiate the claim. The…
A recent study published in Medical Acupuncture has shown that electroacupuncture can significantly reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. After the treatment, plasma levels of norepinephrine, renin and aldosterone were all significantly decreased and this is thought to be related to the beneficial effects of the electroacupuncture.
“Almost anything can be done if one proceeds slowly enough. Often we are discouraged by the enormity of a task or the length of a journey and become impatient with the difficulties we face. We lose faith in ourselves. Patience reminds us that what is in front of us is just this moment, just this…
For some time, I’ve been puzzled about what constitutes a healthy diet. Surely I can’t be the only one? We’re fed so much conflicting and fluctuating advice that it’s difficult to know what to believe…and that’s without even delving into the plethora of commercial weight-losing fad diets out there! I think we can all appreciate…
Last month a group of researchers from Tufts University published a fascinating article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Their objective was to determine how changes in intake of protein foods, glycemic load (GL) of carbohydrates, and the interrelationship between the two influence long-term weight gains. The GL of food is a number that estimates how much the food will…
Most of us have us have used paracetamol at some point in our lives, whether to bring down a fever, for a headache, joint pain or some other painful condition. In fact, if we have a look in our medicine cabinets we’ll probably find a box…or two! Machado et al. from George Institute for Global Health…
Neuropathic pain is a chronic pain condition caused by a damaged or dysfunctional nervous system. It is characterised by shooting and burning pain that lasts long after the initial onset. Common causes of neuropathic pain include: alcoholism amputation back, leg and hip problems chemotherapy diabetes facial nerve problems HIV or AIDS multiple sclerosis shingles spine surgery…
A group of German researchers recently published the results of a study looking into the benefits of meditation on people with chronic neck pain. The article was published in The Journal of Pain. They studied about 90 people who had neck pain for an average of 11 years. The average age of the participants was…
Scarlett McNally, a Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon, and her colleagues have spent 2 years analysing more than 200 separate pieces of research. The effect that regular exercise could have on our health is amazing. Exercise could: prevent type 2 diabetes reduce the risk of getting breast cancer by 25% decrease the risk of bowel cancer by 45% reduce the…