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Articles on Health Check

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Repeated exposure to high levels of acid can cause tooth erosion. Joshua Hunter/Flickr

Health check: what’s eating your teeth?

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.
Almost 60% of Australian women are predisposed to female pattern hair loss. faungg's photo/Flickr

Health Check: why does women’s hair thin out?

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?
Some people may be turned on knowing their sexual activities are being monitored by experts. Yves Hanoulle/Flickr

Health Check: why some people have sex for science

The who, how, and what of sex-based laboratory studies may all be a little problematic, so can we generalise from their findings?
If you’re not regularly active, extreme exercise and exercise in extreme heat is unwise. lzf/Shutterstock

Health Check: how to exercise safely in the heat

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.
Threadworm infection is common but it’s often asymptomatic. Ayaka Darkly/Flickr

Health check: the low-down on ‘worms’ and how to get rid of them

Intestinal worms (or helminths) are multicellular parasites that live inside the gut. When mature, they can generally be seen with the naked eye. In developing countries with poor sanitation, the most…
Cutting your kilojoule intake by 2,000kJ a day will help you lose 5kg – a clothes size – in three months. Lindsay Széchényi/Flickr

Health Check: ten ways to save 2,000 kilojoules and drop a clothes size

Want to drop a dress or pants size? Then losing five kilograms, or about 5% of your body weight will help that zipper start to close with ease. In case you need another reason, keeping a small amount of…
Children will learn to like vegetables if they’re regularly exposed to them from a young age. Zadorozhnyi Viktor/Shutterstock

Health Check: how to get kids to eat healthy food

Hippocrates said circa 400BC that “food should be our medicine and medicine should be our food”. He would probably turn in his grave if he saw the amount of highly processed, sugary food and drinks marketed…
Daily kilojoule requirements are based on many variables, and no two people are the same across all of these parameters. Sarah Horrigan/Flickr

Health Check: how to work out how much food you should eat

Dietary guidelines broadly recommend a daily intake of 10,000 kilojoules (2,400 calories) for men and 8,000 kilojoules (1,900 calories) for women. But what do these figures mean in the context of the number…
There are up to 400 chemical compounds on human skin that could play a role in attracting mosquitoes. sookie/Flickr

Health Check: why mosquitoes seem to bite some people more

There’s always one in a crowd, a sort of harbinger of the oncoming mosquito onslaught: a person mosquitoes seem to target more than others. What is it about these unlucky chosen few that makes them mosquito…
Typical sports nutrition guidelines advocate eating carbohydrate-rich food before, during and after exercise to maximise performance. jeffreyw/Flickr

Health Check: do you really need carbs to recover from exercise?

Carbohydrate-rich diets are often recommended as part of exercise regimes to promote recovery and maximise performance. But recent research suggesting such foods may not help exercise recovery and their…
The human brain leaves computers behind with its endless capacity for problem solving, innovation and invention. Humphrey King/Flickr

Health Check: four key ways to improve your brain health

The human brain is the most extraordinary and complex object in the known universe, a kilogram and a half of soft tissue that, at its peak, leaves computers behind with its endless capacity for problem…
Avoiding food poisoning could be as simple as using an esky to transport your food to the picnic. oliveromg/Shutterstock

Health Check: how to avoid food poisoning at summer picnics

Warmer temperatures and eating outside go hand-in-hand, but picnics can sometimes lead to nasty surprises. Food poisoning is unsurprisingly more common in summer months. Every Australian experiences food…
Avoiding undercooked chicken meat or liver will help prevent infection. Alexa Clark/Flickr

Health Check: how to avoid getting ill from chicken

Chicken meat is an extremely popular and affordable source of animal protein, and each Australian now consumes approximately 43 kilograms of it every year. But chicken is also uniquely prone to making…

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