The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stressful time, with many people stuck at home for extended periods. We know this led to an increase in some unhealthy behaviours, like increased alcohol use and online gambling – and now new findings suggest smoking and nicotine use...
With flu season fast approaching, it’s essential that General Practices are prepared for the upcoming flu season. General practice plays a critical role in ensuring that patients, especially vulnerable patients and practice staff are vaccinated against influenza. The...
A good night’s sleep empowers the body to recover and lets a person wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day. Unfortunately, many people have sleep problems and don’t get the rest they need. Poor sleep can seriously affect a person’s quality of life and increase...
Most people with COVID-19 recover completely within a few weeks of their first symptoms. However, some people may experience longer-term effects from their infection. Long COVID is described by the World Health Organisation as an illness occurring after a COVID-19...
Teenagers spend on average over 4 hours per day on a mobile device. A lot has already been written on the perils of too much screen time – that it’s sapping our willpower and ruining our concentration. Could mobile devices be messing with the brain’s development? In...
Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers have long been looking for the reason why, and it may be due to what’s called ‘cognitive reserve’—brain heft built up through things like education and time...
Dementia has overtaken coronary heart disease as the leading cause of premature death in older Australians. Mild cognitive impairment, or MCI is a condition which affects cognitive abilities like memory and language. Those with MCI may have more difficulty...
In recent years intermittent fasting (IF) has grown in popularity. It’s an eating plan which alternates between states of fasting and windows of eating. Intermittent fasters repeat this pattern, depending on the type of program they’re doing, every day (16:8) or twice...
General Practice is in a difficult place and the biggest changes in decades are about to occur. All practices need to consider if you are doing everything you can to maxmise value for your practice and patients. In a recent General Practice in a Rapidly Changing...
ATAGI, the advisory group on immunisation has recently announced its recommendations about the 5th dose. ATAGI recommendsa 2023 COVID-19 vaccine booster dose for adults in the following groups, if their last COVID-19 vaccine dose or confirmed infection (whichever is...
Something unusual is happening to liver cancer rates globally, especially in developed nations such as Australia. While the incidence of many other cancers tend to be decreasing – as we get a better handle on risk factors like alcohol and tobacco use –...
Australia is a global success story when it comes to reducing rates of smoking – in 1998 nearly 30 per cent of people smoked, while three decades later that figure has been cut to 13 per cent. But in just the past decade, the number of people trying out or using...
