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...

Something really big is happening in healthcare at the moment. These revolutions usually occur once in a generation. Endoscopy revolutionised the diagnosis and treatment of a long list of problems including the prevention of bowel cancer and radically shortening the...

Banning fluoride in drinking water is another obsession of the nominee (at the time of writing) for US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. (RFK) and his allies - RFK even had Donald Trump jump on the bandwagon during the election campaign. The main assertion is that...

Many of your patients will be consuming all the news they can get about the United States and the policies and views of President Trump and his allies. Anecdotally we’re hearing from practices that patients are asking questions based on what they hear from people like...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...