The decision to use protein supplements is based more on marketing claims than anything else. They offer few real performance benefits that an athlete’s normal diet isn’t already delivering.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Health Check – Analysis and Comment
We humans think we sit on top of the food chain, but the pediculosis capitis mite – the head louse – sits above us, on the top of our heads.
More people are getting standing desks in response to our increasing knowledge about the harms of sedentary lifestyles. But can you transition to standing at work without causing yourself harm?
Nearly every second person in the world had a headache at least once in the past year. But these can feel very different, depending on which of the nearly 200 types of headache you have.
“Hangry” is an amalgam of hungry and angry that describes the distinct grumpiness that some people experience when they haven’t eaten for a while. Ring a bell?
You wake up and feel under the weather. If you’re vomiting or have a fever, the decision to stay at home is probably clear cut. But what if you generally feel unwell but are torn about missing work?
Viruses cause all kinds of infections from relatively mild cases of the flu to deadly outbreaks of Ebola. Clearly, not all viruses are equal and one of these differences is when you can infect others.
We’re told to breakfast like kings but is the first meal of the day really one for champions, or chumps who’ve been taken in by the marketing of ready-to-eat cereal manufacturers?
Most women (85%) and a small number of men have cellulite, usually on the thighs, buttocks and upper arms. It’s a normal pattern of fat for people of all shapes and sizes.
Household pets are often a great source of joy and have positive effects on our mental well-being. For most of us, this outweighs the risk of coming into contact with the bugs they may carry.
Generic medicine contains the same active ingredient in the same dose as the original brand.
The brain is truly a marvel. A seemingly endless library, whose shelves house our most precious memories as well as our lifetime’s knowledge. But is there a point where it reaches capacity?
Until recently, coffee was on the list of habits to break if you really wanted to be healthy. Not anymore.
Sports drinks claiming to contain electrolytes have innundated stores in recent years. So what are electrolytes? Are they good? How can we best get them?
As we move into winter, the cold mornings, dark evenings and rain tend to bring out the best excuses to miss a session at the gym or run around the park.
Most of us know sugar is bad for teeth because it feeds bacteria that cause tooth decay. But fewer of us are aware that equally damaging is repeated exposure to acids in food and drinks.
Most women get them. Some men get them. Few people welcome them. Stretch marks, or stria distensae, are scars that appear when the skin is stretched beyond its elastic limit.
Balding in men is so common it doesn’t raise an eyebrow. But when a woman starts to lose hair, it can be extremely distressing. Will she end up bald, too?
From time to time, we all misplace our keys or forgets someone’s name, at least for a few minutes, and we worry about “getting Alzheimer’s”.
Often the cause of snoring, sleep apnoea is actually a serious condition that can have a big impact on health and the development of chronic diseases.
Australians love Easter but it seems we love Easter eggs more, spending more than A$185 million on chocolate over the holiday break.
The who, how, and what of sex-based laboratory studies may all be a little problematic, so can we generalise from their findings?
Most of us find our first “greys” by the time we turn 30, usually at the temples, then later, across the scalp.
Fever indicates a problem, but is there anything wrong with feeling excessively cold rather than actually being cold?
Exercise alone can be hard, but exercising in the heat is a whole lot harder. Put simply, this is due to the balance between how much heat the body generates and how much it is capable of losing.