Diabetes drug for knee osteoarthritis?
Metformin is a commonly used drug in people with type 2 diabetes. It’s cheap and safe. But it’s also known to have effects on the immune system dampening inflammation and maybe even on the brain affecting pain perception. It’s also known that people with knee...
Which arm is best for vaccination?
A new study from the Garvan and Kirby Institutes in Sydney has looked at whether it makes a difference which arm gets your booster shot i.e. subsequent vaccinations to the first one. It turns out the immune response is much more effective if the second shot is given...
How safe are tattoos – really?
Apparently one in four Australians has a tattoo. Not sure how reliable that number is but anecdotally you now see a lot more people with tattoos. Anything from fine line art work to dense tattoos covering large areas. There’s a long history of tattoos going back...
How worried should we be about microplastics?
Microplastics are small particles of plastics under 5mm in size. Some are tiny (less than 0.1 of a micrometre) and are often referred to as nanoplastics. In general, the smaller the particle, the more worried experts tend to be because that’s when they can be...
Acai berries – touted as a wonder food but there may be cheaper equivalent or better alternatives
Acai berries are everywhere. Your gym might offer acai shakes. Your favourite café almost certainly has acai bowls on the menu somewhere. It’s definitely a thing. People love acai and fork out serious money for their daily hit. The Australian Financial Review...
Daylight saving – good or bad for your health?
With Daylight Saving Time (DST) ending recently, it’s timely we look at the available evidence to determine whether it’s good or bad for our health. When was DST introduced? DST was originally introduced during World War I as a wartime measure to conserve fuel and...
Chronic back pain – what works?
Most of us will have an episode of acute back pain in our lives and in some of us, the pain will last for weeks and months. The discomfort is such that you want something done about it and the professionals you see want to help you. Which is why various therapies and...
Gut health: probiotics – save your money
There’s endless fascination with the microbiome – that jungle of bacteria, viruses and fungi which live on our skin, in our airways and in our mouths and bowels. In fact, most of our DNA belongs to these microscopic organisms. The microbiome trains our immune...
Physical signs that dementia may be on its way
A recent study into aspirin to prevent disease has turned up interesting findings in relation to dementia risk. When the trial was over, the researchers got the people in the trial (around 19,000 of them initially, mostly older) to agree to be followed up to monitor...
Aspirin to prevent cancer spread
There’s been some news about a study which suggests that aspirin might prevent cancers spreading to other parts of the body. It’s been suspected for a while that aspirin might have anti-cancer effects. For example, there’s evidence it can prevent or slow the...
What you need to know about salt
Wherever you look in the world, salt intake is higher than it should be. Of all the deaths from heart disease, excess salt intake is a significant cause in more than 1.5 million of them. Salt raises blood pressure and makes the natural increase of blood pressure with...
Salt substitutes: are they for you?
There is growing and strong evidence that substituting potassium for sodium in salt is good for blood pressure and stroke prevention. There are a few people who shouldn’t do this, but I’ll come back to that later. The George Institute in Sydney, well known for its...
