Doctors working in an environment of armed conflict face situations where patients have overwhelming injuries. There is often limited access to medical resources to provide treatment. And the doctors themselves…
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Health – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 7926 - 7950 of 8050 articles
Thanks to the genetic revolution and the internet, we can now see a way to map genetic diseases and reduce the burden of inherited conditions. Each year more than 3 million children born with a serious…
The World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has classed mobile phones as Group 2B or “possibly carcinogenic” in a new report. In this Q+A Rodney…
Could our obsession with cleanliness in our homes be working against us? Advertisers fetishise germ-free kitchens and bathrooms where the threat of “harmful bacteria” is always lurking but can be eradicated…
Read the argument for the proposed legislation No one can deny that improved medical treatments and equity of access to them are essential to improving our community’s quality of life. Unfortunately, the…
Alternative medicines and therapies are not only costly and largely ineffective, they may harm the individuals who use them and, indirectly, harm the institutions that promote and teach these very dubious…
Read the argument against the proposed legislation Patents are only to be for granted inventions - that’s the intent of the Patents Act 1990, it has been the law for nearly 400 years, and it’s also what…
Piping hot cups of coffee. A fat laden fried breakfast. Going for a run. Or maybe just going back to bed. There are plenty of claims about how you can cure a hangover. So, what’s the reality? If you’ve…
The rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs” is a critical global health issue. Paradoxically, while there is a compelling need for new antibiotics, their development has slowed…
Could it be a case of third time lucky for the Gillard Government’s plan for means testing of private health insurance? Any legislation will require the support of four of the six cross-benchers. The Government…
In an age of electronic banking and on-line shopping, Australians might be surprised when they go into a hospital to see that paper records still exist in an otherwise high-tech health care system. Perhaps…
Coal seam gas is indeed a potential disaster if present attitudes and lack of regulatory control prevail. An important part of public health is to enact precautions based on potential impacts. The CSG…
Health insurer NIB will ask its customers to rate the performance of allied health practitioners including dentists, chiropractors and optometrists on a new website – whitecoat.com.au – which will launch…
There are several myths regarding what constitutes “porn addiction”. Some argue that, like alcohol problems, porn addiction is a disease. Once trapped, the consumer of porn will hit rock bottom with no…
Getting men to talk about their “tackle” – those bits below the belt – is no easy feat. And the fact men aren’t talking about their reproductive health means they are putting their health and quality of…
Today the Gillard Government released an independent assessment of Australia’s management of vaccine adverse events. Commissioned by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King, the…
For a policy the tobacco industry claims “won’t work” or that there “is no evidence” to support its implementation, plain packaging has elicited a deafening chorus of conflicting arguments as to why it…
The question of prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer is not whether any individual has ever benefited from a PSA test, to which the answer is yes. The question is whether a PSA test…
When compared with mammograms and pap tests, the PSA test isn’t as effective in detecting early prostate cancer. But for now, at least, it’s the best test we’ve got. And if it means lives will be saved…
Under this proposal, anyone who wanted to buy a tobacco product would need to have a licence. This wouldn’t happen overnight – we would need to identify a starting point to the scheme, which might be five…
If only a cure to world hunger was as easy as dishing out late-night sandwiches to the starving masses, and seeing them gain weight by eating at night. The reality is that it’s not when you eat, but how…
There’s a growing interest in barefoot running, especially in relation to running long distances. Research articles, opinion pieces, and websites have argued both for and against the efficacy of running…
Medical science has changed the human health and lifespan in the last century and now another revolution is coming in health. This revolution will entail closing the chasm between what medical evidence…
State and territory governments are currently considering the impact of the National Injury Insurance Scheme (NIIS) proposed by the Productivity Commission. The draft scheme goes a long way toward improving…
In a recent episode of Channel Seven’s current affairs program Today Tonight, it was claimed that wireless devices in the home – such as cordless phones and routers – can cause a range of negative health…