Five ways to say thank you this Christmas
2024 has proven to be another busy and challenging year for practice teams across Australia. As you know, Christmas is the perfect time to show your appreciation to your hard-working practice team, large or small. Of course, this already happens at practices in many...
Linking partner violence and reproductive coercion
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) every 10 minutes a woman or girl dies at the hands of an intimate partner or close relative. That's six every hour; more than 140 every day, worldwide. Intimate partner violence (IPV) and reproductive...
Time-restricted eating and type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetes affects 1.2 million Australians and accounts for 85–90% of all diabetes cases. As is well known, type 2 diabetes is the cause of many complications, many of which are potentially disabling and life shortening. Diet is a core intervention alongside...
Research shows issues with behaviour control, planning and focus are similar across neurodevelopmental conditions
We often associate impairment in executive function with conditions like ADHD, with an image of a young person who struggles to focus or sustain attention, acts impulsively and finds it hard to juggle competing tasks. However, such impairments in what’s called...
Are standing desks a waste of money?
The broad harms of a sedentary lifestyle include increased risks of weight gain, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and premature death. In response to this, there’s been a surge in popularity over recent years of lifestyle interventions that aim to lower how long we sit...
New class of long-acting medicine a game changer for high cholesterol patients
According to the Heart Foundation, 42% of Australian adults are living with high cholesterol, which is most common in people aged 55 to 64 years of age. If diagnosed, many of these people will be taking a cholesterol lowering medicines daily. Although this comes with...
The four main viruses currently active in the community
While COVID and Influenza rates have been declining, there are currently four main viruses circulating around the community which explains why people are getting sick. These viruses are adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza and rhinovirus. According to Dr...
Vaping teens twice as likely to have mental health issues
Vaping has surged among young Australians in recent years, especially adolescents in their early teens. Adolescence is also when many mental health challenges, such as depression and anxiety begin to emerge. While previous research, mostly from the US, has suggested a...
Antidepressants prescribed for pain in older patients not effective
Chronic pain is relatively common among older adults, often associated with long-term conditions like arthritis. University of Sydney research has found people over 65 are being prescribed antidepressants as pain treatment based on international guidelines that use...
GPs need support for postpartum contraception provision
Contraception for mothers of newborn babies can often be overlooked amidst the focus on the health of the newborn baby and the significant adjustments required following the birth of the child. A Monash University-led study has found that early access to contraception...
Understanding the effect of cumulative surgeries on older people’s cognition
As surgical technologies advance, more older people will be considered candidates for surgery, but this expansion may have unintended consequences. A University of Sydney led study has revealed multiple surgeries on older patients can have an effect on memory,...
Proactive deprescribing beneficial for older patients
As we get older, we tend to accumulate medications that have been prescribed over the course of adulthood, often leading to polypharmacy (defined as taking five or more medications concurrently). Research in 2017 found that almost a million Australians over the age of...