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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

As the new year begins, it’s the perfect time to review your continuing professional development (CPD) progress and plan ahead for the months to come. Our friends at Cubiko have recently launched My CPD Outcomes, a new feature developed in partnership with the RACGP,...

There has been a popular notion, promoted by books on the topic, that you should tailor your diet to your blood type. On face value it’s not a bad idea because our blood types are decided by our genes and these same genes are also known in some cases to be associated...

An astounding 45% of our behaviours are habits. We couldn’t get through life with routine behaviours we don’t have to think about, like how we load the dishwasher, or the route we take to mum and dad’s for dinner. Mind you that probably triggers another habit which is...