Science can be a funny way to make a living, with the profession full of oddball characters. It seems only right that the bizarre, the absurd and the obsessive in science and medicine should be celebrated…
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Health – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 6376 - 6400 of 8030 articles
Ambulance call-outs to ice users have tripled in two years and harm from ice (also known as crystal meth) has risen higher than the previous peak in 2006 – a period known as [the “ice age”](http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1593168.htm…
A “Perspective” published in the Medical Journal of Australia today calls for patient-delivered partner therapy for chlamydia to be made legal across Australia. This approach could be just the right way…
A proposed law being debated in the New South Wales parliament that aims to recognise the foetus as a person has sparked concerns about encroachments on women’s reproductive rights. But similar laws in…
Women want sex, according to a new book by American journalist and author Daniel Bergner. Embarking on “adventures in the science of female desire”, Bergner interviewed sexologists and sex therapists to…
Obesity, we all know, is one of the greatest public health challenges that Australia faces and so-called “solutions” are ten a penny. But could something as obvious as making a shopping list make a realistic…
While the old adage about having “childbearing hips”, is not usually a compliment, many women consider it an advantage when it comes to childbirth. As midwives, we are used to allaying the concerns of…
The US National Football League (NFL) recently paid US$765 million to settle a lawsuit with former players who claimed repeated head injuries and concussions while playing the sport led to brain degenerative…
The Coalition revealed little of the new government’s health agenda during the election campaign, but Tony Abbott was minister for health and ageing in the Howard government from October 2003 until the…
Commercial baby foods are lower in key nutrients and tend to be sweeter than home-prepared foods, a study published today in the Archives of Disease in Childhood has found. The researchers, based in Glasgow…
The dictionary has many words that could describe health policy in the 2013 federal election campaign – anodyne, soporific and vapid all come to mind. Australia’s health policy problems cannot afford the…
Most developed countries have laws that permit the detention and treatment of individuals with severe mental health problems without their consent. Practices such as restraint and solitary confinement…
Recent German research found that more than 70% of people with cancer supplement their regular hospital treatment with complementary and alternative medicine. More worryingly, many do so without advising…
Childhood obesity prevalence is alarmingly high in many developed countries; in Australia, one in four children is overweight or obese, while in the United States, it’s one in three. But recent American…
Some recent headlines from Australian newspapers: NSW hospitals worst place for Golden Staph; CA-MRSA - the killer in our midst; Superbug onslaught. By now, most people are aware that antibiotic-resistant…
From the time the Scottish physician James Lind showed citrus cured scurvy in 1747, clinical trials have had a reputation for being gold-standard evidence about the safety and effectiveness of medical…
The impending federal election provides a good opportunity to pause and ask ourselves what kind of society we want to live in. The decision we make will impact both our lives and that of our children as…
Health care is a tough nut for governments because it’s the largest source of growth in government spending. Salary costs are the major part of this cost so workforce policy decisions have profound implications…
Anyone, it seems, can create an epidemic. Witness a recent article in the Fairfax papers that provides “startling” news about the large number of Australians with high cholesterol who don’t even know they…
Despite two decades of investment in improving mental health services, the mental health of Australians has not improved. This may be because haven’t been spending money on the right approach and need…
An influential US blog about climate change recently featured the story of a “brain-eating” infectious parasite that has caused 31 deaths in that country in the past decade. “Brain-eating” is just one…
Launching the Coalition’s policy for Efficient Mental Health Research and Services late last week, Tony Abbott said he wished all his policy statements attracted such media attention. Given the Australian…
Diet drinks are no help in the fight against obesity and may actually encourage over-eating, according to a US academic who recently argued this point in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism…
Research and media attention has usually focused on possible negative impacts of video games. But a clear case to support such links is yet to emerge and even people who argue that video games have a negative…
So far in this election campaign, the Coalition has provided dollar promises for worthy projects but no new health policy initiatives. The government has mentioned one policy of note – to remove family…