Posts that won't hurt your brain

The Facebook ban on photographs of women breastfeeding their own children raises some important issues about freedom of choice and the role of social media in setting behavioural standards.

There is no valid reason for any social media network to ban legitimate pictures posted by women of themselves breastfeeding their own children.

Such pictures can help normalise breastfeeding and educate others about how breastfeeding is done in real life.

Continue reading "Facebook’s being a boob over breastfeeding pics" »

A few days ago, a group called the Friends of Science in Medicine wrote to the Vice Chancellors of Australian universities, speaking out against the teaching of complementary and alternative medicine in the curriculum. This group consists of more than 400 Australian professors, academics, researchers and scientists who work in biomedicine. I’m one of them – a very junior one.

The strength of the reactions has been fascinating. In the last 48 hours alone, I’ve been a fascist, an elitist, arrogant, narrow-minded, a shill for sociopathic corporate interests, viciously protective of my orthodoxy and a generally morally reprehensible crusader for the intellectual interests of old, white men.

I wonder how I have the time, to be honest. However, in the middle of all the noise and mutual disdain between both sides of the alternative medicine divide, what I think is the central point is being lost. And that central point is this: Magic is an insufficient basis for university teaching.

Continue reading "Why do our universities teach shonky “magic”?" »

Max, a young and handsome American pit bull, sits on death row in Miami-Dade County’s Animal Services, a victim of possibly the world’s toughest breed-specific dog laws.

The paperwork on his cage labels him “aggressive”, but it’s more out of caution. He’s never bitten anyone.

Max has got 24 hours for a reprieve. His owner is a soldier on duty in Afghanistan who left the dog with his family. They became panicked that they would be fined for harbouring an outlawed breed and handed him to the Animal Services pound.

Continue reading "Dog ownership laws a load of total bullpit" »

Once upon a time, home births were the only option, and mothers and babies frequently died.

Things have changed dramatically since then. Home births are much safer, and much, much rarer. The latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics show in 2009 just 0.3 per cent of women had a planned home birth – a total of 863 births. Two babies died.

But home births are still the source of simmering tension; the powerful Australian Medical Association is dead set against them, a very vocal lobby group is angry at recent changes that make them harder, and parents are left to choose between conflicting views and seemingly conflicting evidence.

Continue reading "Home births are prone to many complications" »

Bronwyn Bishop’s attack in yesterday’s Punch on the Government’s proposed means testing of the private health insurance rebate claims that people earning less than $50,000 will be the worst off. This is completely false.

People earning $50,000 or less will be among the 8 million health insurance policy holders that will not be affected by means testing at all. They won’t lose a dollar. Mrs Bishop should stop scaring pensioners.

Currently all families and individuals who pay private health insurance premiums are eligible for a rebate of at least 30 per cent on the cost of their insurance. It doesn’t matter how much you earn, you still receive the rebate. That money comes from the taxes of every working Australian. At the moment the same people that Bronwyn Bishop claims to care about are subsidising the rebate being paid to millionaires. They’re subsidising her private health insurance rebate and mine.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: Means testing is about fairness" »

Tanya Plibersek has flagged the re-introduction of legislation to means test the private health insurance rebate. This is Labor’s third try. It has been defeated twice.

Peter Slipper has voted twice against this legislation, presumably believing as does the rest of the Opposition, of which he was a part, that it is bad legislation for his constituents. Tony Windsor has voted against it twice and remained consistent but Rob Oakeshott only once. 

On the last vote he caved into Labor. This was interesting because Mr Oakeshott in his seat of Lyne has more people over 50 years, as well as over 60 years, than any other seat in Australia. 57,220 of his constituents are over 50, of which 38,481 are over 60. He has once voted to protect them and vote down the miserable means test but what will he be offered/threatened/cajoled by Gillard this time?

Continue reading "Labor’s mean-spirited attack on our most vulnerable" »

Recent bad press about Aboriginal programs in NSW might make you think that all programs designed to help Aboriginal people are failing. But this is not the case.

A boxing program, “Clean Slate without Prejudice”, has delivered great results since it first began in June 2009. 

An initiative of Redfern Superintendent Luke Freudenstein and Aboriginal leaders, the program involves police training alongside local Aboriginal youth three mornings a week. Accompanying the ducking and jabbing is some good natured ribbing as the police and young Aboriginal people get to know each other.

Continue reading "An Indigenous program that’s boxing clever" »

It was only Day 13 of the New Year, 2012. And on this day, I attended the funeral of the eighth South Australian Aboriginal person to die – the eighth death in our small community this year. And it was only Day 13.

These eight deaths are not of Aboriginal people who have lived to a ripe old age. The funerals were not celebrations of long and productive lives. No, they were all premature deaths, some of them violent, all premature and preventable.

Aboriginal people are always at funerals. We attend out of respect for our people and community. We give our condolences and cry for our loved ones.

Continue reading "Eight funerals in 13 days" »

There was a time when putting ‘healthy choice’ and ‘McDonalds’ in the same sentence was considered an oxymoron. Then it became a marketing campaign. Where there were once burgers, fries and soft drinks, menu boards are now filled with bagels, fruit juices and cafe lattes.

What’s more, the buns no longer have sugar in them (well, not much), the cheese is supposedly made from milk and even the McNuggets are said to contain traces of chicken.

And now KFC - that last bastion of dreadfully unhealthy chain-based junk food - has launched a new advertisement trumpeting its quality credentials - slow motion flour-falling-from-the-air-in-a-Master-Chef-style-kitchen and all. How disappointing.

Continue reading "Junking the junk in junk food" »

Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, a regular column where we pick apart mischievous misrepresentations, balderdash, and outright bunkum. This week, with bulging bellies, blurry brains and labouring livers, we’re taking a look at detox diets.

It’s easy to see the appeal of a detox. You’ve been shovelling twenty kinds of crap into your poor system, you can sense it’s struggling to cope, and you want to turn back the clock.

Like a very Earthly Confession, you want to wipe away your sins with a few Hail Marys, some lemons and dash of cayenne.

Continue reading "ICB: Magic detox diets - just intoxicating marketing?" »

In the 1940s Japanese prostitutes injected themselves with non-medical grade silicone or paraffin, or inserted sponges into their chests because they thought larger breasts would attract the American servicemen.

It’s not clear whether the results of the DIY cosmetic surgery were alluring, but it is clear that it was dangerous, and occasionally fatal.

It’s also clear that increasing numbers of women – and men – are prepared to take on the risks of invasive surgery to look better. The Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery estimates it’s now a billion-dollar-a-year industry, and that’s not counting people seeking cheap new boobs, teeth, or tummies in Asia.

Continue reading "Who you gonna call when cosmetic surgery goes wrong?" »

A storm of controversy has been brewing in the US. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say the storm has been dipped in oil and deep fried.  Twice.

At the centre of the controversy is a series of ads aimed at tackling the growing obesity crisis in American children.

In one of the ads (above) a young girl stares forlornly into the camera and says: “I don’t like going to school because all the other kids pick on me. It hurts my feelings.”

Another opens with the statistic that 75 per cent of parents of overweight children ignore the problem growing before their very eyes. It’s followed by a scene in which an obese boy sits facing his equally obese mother and asks, “Mum, why am I fat?”. The silence that follows his question is deafening.

Continue reading "Don’t sugarcoat it: If your child is obese, it’s your fault" »

Cigarette /sıgə’rєt/ n. a pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other.

The good thing about writing about smoking is that for once I don’t have to watch my words. Nothing I say could possibly offend smokers more than the government’s shock tactics and cigarette packets themselves.

Those of the self-poisoning persuasion are the one section of society you can tear to pieces with impunity. They’ve been told a million times they’re not wanted. I imagine they’re so stressed out by the merciless attack that they need a cigarette.

Continue reading "Everyone loves a quitter" »

I caught up with a group of old workmates just before Christmas and couldn’t believe my eyes.

In the 12 months since our last festive fizz, they’d all shrunk – and by a sizeable amount.

“I’ve lost 16 kilos,” cried one gleefully.

“Ten!” said another.

“More than 20,” said a third.

Continue reading "Think you can’t keep that resolution? Think again." »

It’s the stuff of an edge-of-your-seat thriller: Scientists develop a fatal flu virus, one that could decimate humanity. What happens next?

Well, the fatal virus, a mutated strain of bird flu that can pass between other animals, is here. Scientists have created it in a lab - and it’s not clear what will happen next. Some scientists want to stop all the details of the research from being published for fear of bioterrorism, while others say ‘censorship’ will obstruct the search for a vaccine.

The very existence of the fatal virus, though, is a dramatic development. It echoes the plot of myriad horror flicks where the heroes battle an invisible villain amid gruesome illness and an increasing body count.

Continue reading "Creating death in a test tube" »

Climate talks in Durban, South Africa, have ended. Developing and developed countries both agreed that a deal to slash emissions “with legal force” would begin in 2020. This has been hailed by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet as a ““significant milestone”. But today on The Punch a youth delegate at the conference, Melia Condon, explains that one thing keeps getting left out of discussions about climate change: it will have a serious impact on our health.

Increases in temperature, extreme weather events and sea level rises are not the impacts of climate change we should be most concerned about in the short term.

It is often overlooked that even just a small change to our environment can have a profound impact on human health. Meanwhile, the size of endemic areas and severity of vector, food and water-borne infectious diseases are on the rise. As are tropical storms, floods and droughts that many Australians are all too familiar with and the flow on effects to malnutrition and mental health in some cases.

Continue reading "The world’s running a fever and it’s going to make us sick" »

From August till the end of the year is the season for science awards. Eureka Prizes, Prime Minister’s Prizes, State Awards for Science Excellence, The Unsung Hero of Science Award, The State Scientists of the Year, Nobel Prizes … on it goes; the glittering array of rewards for those who have truly advanced knowledge and improved the lot of mankind.

Predictably, most of the speeches that laud the winners will mention something like the growing number of Australia’s Nobel laureates in science, how this is a time when science is paramount, how our lives are dependent on science and technology and how virtually every benefit we now enjoy - from better health and longer lives to the internet and safer cars - is the product of scientific processes, improved technology and their application.

Why, then, is this era in which we live apparently the most superstitious and anti-science period since the Middle Ages? Pseudoscience and non-science not only abound, they are actively embraced by thousands who subject themselves and (worse) their children to a variety of nonsensical alternative “treatments” that at their best cause no harm, but at their worst cause serious disease, disability or even death.

Continue reading "This is the dawning of the new Age of Superstition" »

Rehabilitation works. Just ask Sally*, who first injected heroin at the of 15.

By 19, she was injecting four times a day and was working as a prostitute to pay for her habit. This continued until she met a social worker who referred her to a drug rehabilitation clinic.

After a tough battle with a few setbacks, Sally is able to live without heroin, and is now completing her second year of a law degree. And this is all thanks to rehabilitation.

Continue reading "It’s tough, it’s expensive, but rehab really works" »

With the Federal Budget adjusted this week in an attempt to drag us back into the black, it’s time to go through government spending with a fine-toothed comb and pull back wherever we can. I’d like to help with this process if I can.

Wading through the bits of the 2011-2012 Budget that actually say actual things in actual English (that is, the bits that don’t say things like “continuing benefits to the bottom-line beyond the forward estimates”, which I assume means “um”) I was struck by some comparative numbers.

One of the numbers was $222 million, which has been earmarked to extend the National School Chaplaincy Program.

Continue reading "Government brushes holey molars for holy rollers" »

When I told my Australian friends that I was moving to Kenya to work as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development many of them told me not to have sex while I was here because of the country’s high HIV prevalence. Some 280 people are infected with HIV every day in Kenya.

The theme for this year’s World AIDS Day is getting to zero, but getting to zero doesn’t mean zero sex.  Along with zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths it also means zero unprotected sex with someone whose HIV status you don’t know.

Knowing your HIV status is the first step in prevention; if you are negative then you can take measures to ensure that you stay negative and if you are positive then you can access treatment, care and support services.

Continue reading "A HIV test, like sex, is best enjoyed with your partner" »

Well, enough people have called me an arsehole on this website, so bugger it. Let’s talk about that part of my anatomy.

Specifically, let’s talk about the colonoscopy I had a couple of years ago. And let’s do so in the spirit of Movember, a charity which raises money for two major men’s health issues – depression and prostate cancer.

Movember ended yesterday. Hopefully that means there’ll be a few less Boonies and Mervs prowling the streets. Last year, Movember raised $70 million globally. This year it’ll be $93 million. Much of that money goes to medical research. Some also goes towards awareness programs. That’s what this article, with it’s admittedly vulgar headline, is all about.

Continue reading "Bugger it, let’s talk about my bottom" »

Yesterday, Mission Australia released the results of their 10th National Survey of Young Australians. Among the most reported of their findings was evidence that more young girls than ever before have a problem with body image.

“All the well-meaning efforts to combat the problem have failed,” said Mission Australia spokesperson, Eleri Morgan-Thomas. “More work needs to be done.”

That should not come as a surprise to anybody. Good body image campaigns have failed because so very few people actually have it. Good body image is a myth.

Continue reading "Good body image is a big fat myth. Let’s change it." »

The Government has hoisted up a large and slightly unwieldy carrot to boost immunisation rates. Families could miss out on around $2100 if the kids don’t get their jabs. The announcement comes in the midst of a whooping cough outbreak, and at a time when clusters of non-vaccinators are allowing preventable diseases to incubate.

The Government’s changes, which will mean those who don’t immunise will not be eligible for three payments of $729 under Family Tax Benefit A, is well intentioned, if clumsy. Under the current system families get an immunisation allowance – even if they are “conscientious objectors” – but this will now be scrapped, while more immunisations will be added to the schedule.

Here’s the likely outcome.

Continue reading "Time to inject some rational thought into anti-vaxxers" »

It’s an anxious moment for many parents; rolling up the sleeve of your precious baby and presenting that perfect skin to the doctor’s needle.

And the sting is the least of your worries; we may be rational and sensible enough to know vaccinating our kids against potentially fatal diseases is right, for them and the community, but that cocktail of antigens going into their arm is a discomforting sight.

What if we’re the one in a million whose baby has an adverse reaction or gets the rarest side-effects?

Continue reading "Irresponsible parents spare the jab, endanger the child" »

FARE is a small organisation with a dream. There is no denying that FARE has taken on a cause of epic proportions – a shape-shifting entity that is hard to define because its boundaries are constantly changing. Alcohol is a central part of Australian culture, and it crosses demographic, geographic and social divides in a way other cultural activities don’t.

Drinking alcohol is for the young and old, the high achievers and under achievers, the wealthy and the destitute. For most Australians, drinking alcohol is a choice that doesn’t devalue their lives. It is more likely to add entertainment, experiential or leisure value.

How do we view Australia’s drinking culture? Is it a glass half empty, or a glass half full?

Continue reading "Trust us, you’ll all drink less one day" »

Mineral water, sparkling wine, sauvignon banc, chardonnay or pinot noir. That was the dilemma I faced last Wednesday night as the guest of FARE, an independent and charitable foundation set up to ten years ago to help prevent the harmful use of alcohol in Australia. 

Don’t be afraid to have a drink tonight, urged our generous host. But while I sipped self-consciously on my mineral water I did start to wonder where this night would end up.

After all, as their slogan proudly says, FARE are committed to “changing the way we drink”.

Continue reading "Between boozer and wowser is a sensible drinker" »

Few Australians navigate their teen years without heaving their guts up after a massive drinking binge. With Schoolies Week almost upon us, the focus will no doubt turn to dangerous levels of alcohol consumption in youngsters. 

I hardly touch the stuff now but as a teenager, mainly to fit in with my friends, I smuggled cheap wine cask bladders into pubs and guzzled them.

The aftermath was never pretty, and luckily it didn’t take long for me to realise blacking out and throwing up were not much fun. I’ve basically been a teetotaller since my early 20s.

Continue reading "Don’t hop on the booze bus this summer" »

Out of nowhere, my friend Robyn contracted pneumonia this week and ended up in hospital, gasping for breath and coughing her lungs up. It was a scary sight, seeing this dynamic, strong chick totally debilitated and struggling for oxygen.

“Anyone who’s thinking about taking up smoking should get a little dose of pneumonia,” she said with a wheeze. “I can’t believe anyone would voluntarily do this to their bodies by sucking on cigarettes.”

I toyed with fags at about 16. It was glamour that got me in: the silky silver packaging and swirling royal blue font of the Stirling Special Mild brand. Most of my friends were into it too. My, how we thought we looked urbane and adult – maybe even old enough to buy drinks at the bar of the local Curramulka Hotel.

Continue reading "I’m absolutely fuming about smoking hypocrisy" »

You have to hand it to the big multinationals. They know how to get us to eat more fatty food and drink more sugar, even when they claim to be committed to our health and well-being and no one has done it better recently than Coca Cola.

Their latest campaign, which encourages people to seek out a can of regular, full strength, eight teaspoons of sugar per 375ml of soft drink that has their name written on the label, is nothing short of brilliant.

And then, once you have your own can, you can also seek out cans that feature your best mate’s name, or your kids can find one with their name… the list goes on.

Continue reading "Fizzy evil sugar bombs from diabetes hell" »

If you’re anything like me, then you’re occasionally susceptible to wild fits of buying stuff that has eco-certification logos all over it.

Fair Trade, carbon neutral, Flipper-friendly - essentially if it’s round, has an acronym, and is preferably some shade of green, then I’ll buy the item it’s endorsing. (Pictures of stupidly smiling animals on the packet don’t hurt, either.)

“Organic” is one such trend I’ve recently been fixated on. It’s a term with an underlying philosophy - products made naturally without the use of modern synthetic inputs - that has been around for quite some time now. The concept has been around since the beginning of time.

Continue reading "The great organic swindle" »

So the crowd cheers, euphoric, as the ‘guilty’ judgement of Dr Conrad Murray is read out.

Michael Jackson’s fans will now be able to remember him untainted – they will forget that he was a drug abuser, a consummate weirdo, they will forget the grim and disturbing pictures of his deathbed. He will be again the child star turned genius. In death, he will be perfect.

Meanwhile, the cardiologist who pumped him full of powerful drugs, who – the jury heard – committed numerous acts of negligence not big enough to have him found guilty of gross negligence, will have an uncertain fate in gaol.

Continue reading "Guilty verdict in Jackson case not black and white" »

The existence of a fountain of youth that restores the health and youth of anyone bathing in its waters has tantalised humanity for centuries.

Substitute the mythical water for modern-day medicine and we could, in the next decade, see medicines that slow the ageing process and help us live to 150 years old. 

Life expectancy in Australia is already on a positive trend. At the beginning of the 20th Century, life expectancy at birth was about 55 years for males and 59 years for females.

Continue reading "What would life be like if we lived to 150?" »

Nothing on this earth would entice me to have a baby at home.

Call me old fashioned, but I’m all for the protective womb of expert physicians and latest technology in a crisp white hospital environment. The risks are simply too great; the act of childbirth too unpredictable; the potential loss too devastating to contemplate.

And tragically, in South Australia we’re hearing all too much about risk becoming reality.

Continue reading "The real miracle of pregnancy isn’t childbirth" »

It takes a man to stand tall and call his a small. Especially when he’s been a normal all his life. For centuries, it was sufficient to just order a coffee. But increasingly if you want that self-same beverage you will need to specify that you want “a small”. 

Perhaps that’s no big deal. Perhaps what was once a normal coffee is too small for the modern condition. Most of us are fatter, and have no work life balance, so it may be we need the extra milk to maintain our new weight and the extra caffeine to keep the machine spinning smoothly. 

And after all, it’s not just the coffee that’s getting bigger, everything’s getting bigger: Chinese swimmers, the gap between female US news presenters’ eyes, wine lists, teenage girls’ breasts – it’s the way of the world.

Continue reading "Listen up, blokes, there’s nothing wrong with small" »

If people didn’t donate their tissue and organs to others, the following people wouldn’t have contributed nearly as much to the Australia we know: Kevin Rudd, Derryn Hinch, Kerry Packer, Jimmy Little, Fiona Coote…

We’d be a lot poorer for it. But Australia is already a poorer country than it could be. There are plenty of sick people who need organ transplants but can’t get them. Australia has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the developed world. There are some 1,566 Australians on the waiting list for a transplant right now and every week an Aussie dies waiting for a kidney transplant.

The way to ease this crippling shortage is breathtakingly obvious. When you die, your organs should automatically go to someone who needs them. End of story.

Continue reading "Festival of Obvious Ideas #2: Compulsory organ donation" »

An email pinged into the inbox, asking if I could write a short blog for a new website – Mindshare – an online mental health community.

The email went to the ‘think about later’ folder. And I sort of did think about it later, but my mind kept skittering over the surface of it, like a beetle on a shiny floor. Touching it but leaving it untouched.

When that happens it’s because there’s something I’m a little bit afraid of. When I got a follow up email, I sighed and had a proper think about it. And what I thought was that I’m afraid of the language of mental health: I don’t want to write an opinion piece on it because the language is cold, and fills me with dismay. The language I know goes something like this:  Mental health in crisis. Psychotic abandoned by failing system. Children with mental illness left years without treatment. Suicide cluster. Depression epidemic. Neglect. Danger.

Continue reading "Why it should be OK to tell a friend to take their meds" »

If I’m going to subsidise your homeopathic treatment, I want you to subsidise my red wine. At least there is some evidence the wine may have health benefits.

Insurance is basically a controlled gamble. I pay my monthly fees and hope one day I get a terrifically chronic disease that makes it all worthwhile. Then all those suckers I’ve been subsidising with my rude good health will get what’s coming.

We all hate paying insurance, so more people should be incensed that a portion of the money goes on… well, incense. Aromatherapy, along with other feel-good, do-nothing therapies. (Actually, compared to homeopathy, aromatherapy’s practically penicillin.)

Continue reading "Yet another whack at those dastardly quacks" »

The Australian Greens may well be a sanctimonious blight on the national political landscape but I don’t see why they should be teased for eating lentils or tofu.

There is nothing wrong with lentils at all. They’re terrific. Dhal rocks, as does lentil salad with mint, peas, red onion and feta, and stewed lentils make the perfect base for a grilled sausage.

Anyone who doesn’t like tofu should try the kick-arse Chinese dish mapo tofu, which is fresh tofu served with spring onions, minced pork and heaps of chilli. If that still doesn’t work they should get along to a little place called Barbecue City in Adelaide’s Chinatown and order the tofu with broad beans and pickled cabbage. While there is nothing smart or clever about vegetarianism there is also nothing wrong with eating vegetables, and this vegetable dish is one of the best going around.

Continue reading "Tofu-munching Greens are cooking up a big fat tax" »

Imagine for one scary moment that you’ve just been diagnosed with a very serious medical condition.

In shock you walk out of the doctor’s office with a script for a medication to treat your new illness and into the local pharmacy.

As you nervously wait for your script to be filled you notice that the pharmacist has not only prepared your medication, but has also grabbed a bottle of Blackmores vitamin pills off the shelf after looking at their computer screen and she puts both bottles into your hand.

Continue reading "Professional pharmacists choose patients over profits" »

According to Andy Warhol, everyone has their “15 minutes of fame”. Looking back at four decades of work as a health scientist mine will probably be the development of ‘GutBusters’, the world’s first men’s “waist loss” program in 1991.

GutBusters lasted for over a decade before it was taken over by Weight Watchers and closed down for being unprofitable (men won’t admit to having anything wrong with their health and hence won’t pay for it).

This is despite the fact that it achieved (and still has) world-wide acknowledgement as an ethically-based and economic scientific weight loss program. Those are rare, by the way.

Continue reading "Economic growth is making you really, really fat" »

Excruciating pain requiring urgent dental work can be debilitating and when treatment is withdrawn we condemn people to a period of absolute misery.

Therefore, it is difficult to understand why any government would seek to disadvantage those in need and jeopardise the health of its people.

Yet that is precisely what the Gillard Government intends to do from next January when it proposes to close the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme (MCDDS). The MCDDS provides $4,250 in Medicare benefits for dental treatment over a two year period for those with chronic disease referred to a dentist by a GP.

Continue reading "Gillard’s dental plan rotten" »

This week, my daughter and I made a pompom. You know, one of those mad, multi-coloured things constructed with wool and cardboard that we all used to make before such quaint activities were usurped by the PS, the DS and the iStuff.

I groaned inwardly when she came home with a doughnut-shaped circle nearly the size of her head. As a child of the ’70s, I know the bigger the hole, the more wool winding. This wasn’t a pompom we were making; it was an RSI-inducing fluffy football (thanks, Ms F).

So, for a week, we wound and threaded and knotted and chatted, pausing only to dispatch her father for more wool supplies (don’t send a man to buy textiles unless you want variations on brown). This morning, as she trotted off to school, it was hard to tell who was more puffed up – my daughter or the massive woolly doughnut that, by day’s end, will be a pompom.

Continue reading "Time is the best gift you can give a child" »

In a New York nursing home, a bunch of 80-year-old women are sitting around in cliques, bitching about each other.

They’re also hogging the communal television set, saving seats at the dinner table for “certain” people and bossing each other around during the leisure activities: That is not how you play bridge, Ethel, so you can’t come anymore!

I’d like to think they’re wearing hair nets, knitting for their grandkids and drinking copious cups of tea with lipstick smeared on the cup,while they’re doing it.  But the point is they’re doing it – mouthing off about each other, just like a bunch of teenagers.

Continue reading "The benefits of showing your bitchy side" »

You get the feeling not much happens on a Saturday morning in Merriwa. The sleepy country town in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales just hums along quietly. Except for its proud and tidy RSL, where the front bar opens at 10am, horse races flash across the television screens and tickets pump out of the Club Keno machine.

In a stuffy back hall, on neat rows of red vinyl chairs sit the Merriwa Healthy Environment Group; a group of local farmers and landowners who came together in February to unite against the coal seam gas companies as they rode into town.  Seven months later, they feel under attack. 

Their enemy? PEL 456, PEL 468, PEL 4 and PEL 433; coal seam gas exploration licences for Merriwa and its surrounding areas of cattle, sheep and cereal farming land, up for sale to the highest bidder.

Continue reading "Community is the real cost of coal seam gas" »

When done properly, a celebrity endorsement can literally make a company. The most famous example is when then third string sportswear company Nike (behind Adidas and Converse) signed first year NBA player Michael Jordan in 1984.

Jordan had just been picked third in the NBA draft after centers Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie, but Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight really liked the free-scoring Jordan and courted him personally.

When Jordan signed, Nike’s stock price was below 60 cents. When he finished his first three-peat in 1993, Nike’s stock price was $8.80 and now the biggest sportswear company in the world. When Jordan announced that he was retiring from basketball a few months later, Nike stock sunk to $5.20 and when he sent out his famous two-word “I’m back” press release, Nike stock surged again.

Continue reading "It’s a working class sham" »

Some people effectively work as plants; double agents within a lobby group, party or organisation who undermine the very thing they purport to be working for. It’s anti-astroturfing. Chameleon white-anting.

Dr Philip Nitzsche is, I suspect, one of these.

The ghoulish right-to-die campaigner has won Therapeutic Goods Administration approval to import Nembutal, a drug used for voluntary euthanasia, for suicide, and for executions – including in the recent case of Troy Davis.

Continue reading "Euthanasia: When Dr Death comes knocking" »

Mothers and girlfriends worldwide have long yelled at errant sons and partners for being overly fixated on a video game. 

This week, however, a group of gamers and scientists demonstrated that proficiency in World of Warcraft may be worth more than the geek cred it achieves.

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology has published an advance online copy of a paper that explains how enjoyment of and technical skills in playing video games can be harnessed to achieve remarkable outcomes in scientific research.

Continue reading "How World of Warcraft could save your life" »

Here’s a new way to think about what you’re eating every day.

Next time you’re standing in front of the fridge, pull out the most processed item you own and make a call to the manufacturing company that produce it. Ask them if you can come around and take a look at the factory, and see how they do things.

If they agree, prepare to be horrified, says Jonathan Safran Foer.

Continue reading "Flexitarian: it’s vegetarianism for meat eaters" »

Dear body, I’m writing to say sorry. You’ve copped a right hammering over the years. Honestly, you could take yourself off to a home for battered bodies, on account of the physical and emotional abuse you’ve endured.

Sure, I’ve never cut you, starved you or shoved heroin into you. But there’s something pretty ugly about constantly comparing you and always finding you wanting. Slimmer, more sculpted, wider-eyed, smaller-nosed, longer-limbed, more honey-toned, less freckly, less spotted, less wrinkled, less… just less, freakin’ less of you. Especially you, thighs – you’ve ruined my life.

For a long time, I thought I was the only one haranguing you for your inadequacies. Turns out, we’re all at it.

Continue reading "Body, you’ve copped a lot of crap but please forgive me" »

A recent survey by an international health insurer, which involved 13,000 people from 12 countries, found Australians are world leaders in self denial when it comes to being fat.

Despite 76 per cent of the Australians surveyed believing it is the individual’s responsibility to adopt preventive health measures, the results demonstrated that 60 per cent of those Australians surveyed were overweight or obese.

Continue reading "We’re getting too fat for our coffins" »

Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit. This week we’re going heavy metal. Silver is starting to acquire a cure-all gloss, as people attribute all sorts of amazing powers to it. It can kill werewolves! And microbes! And de-stink stinky sneakers!

As a disinfectant, it’s not just a Band-aid gimmick; it actually does help treat infections and is being used more often as superbugs get a foothold in our hospitals – although some experts warn that its very effectiveness could eventually just create more resistant strains of bacteria.

So if it’s good embedded in wound dressings, it must be even better if tiny particles of the stuff are suspended in liquid and downed in one, right? Well, hate to make you blue, but I call bullshit.

Continue reading "ICB: Colloidal silver is rolled gold… something" »

“Raising awareness” is a catchcry for cancer events. Prostate cancer awareness is complicated like no other cancer by the mixed messages on early detection.

Urologists and pathologists urge men over 40 to get tested regularly; others in the clinical community involved in cancer screening advise men to make an informed choice about being tested, after discussing their family history and other personal concerns with their GPs.

Why the debate? Because there’s no screening test that adequately distinguishes between an early-stage prostate cancer that may lead to a patient’s death if untreated and a cancer that will do no harm in the patient’s lifetime.

Continue reading "Stop giving men a bum steer on prostate cancer" »

One of the lowest points of my life came when I was a 17 year old runaway scratching out a heavily eyelined living as a waitress in Sydney.

Thanks to a Great Dane-sized bout of black dog depression, I’d gone from being a straight-A student to a high school drop-out in a few short months.

In 1987, I was writing three-unit English essays on Jane Austen and dreaming of becoming some sort of millionaire adventurer balloon-ess.

Continue reading "Don’t let that Black Dog howl so loud it drives you mad" »

Drugs are bad! Drugs are bad for individuals and they are bad for societies. This seems to be the opinion of most, but it is very hard to get to the bottom of why so many people have this view. In the case of a street drug like heroin it is quite easy to see the high cost to an addict’s life and family, but there are countless other examples where the cost/benefit tradeoff is far more favourable.

Drug use falls into three main categories: 1. Medicine 2. Enhancement, and 3. Recreation. Medicinal use of drugs is not at issue here, as society already seems to be willing to engage in honest and open discussions about the risks, benefits and side effects of drugs for medicinal purposes.

Things get far trickier when it comes to the use of drugs for enhancement and recreation.  Drug companies around the world are spending billions of dollars trying to develop drugs that will reduce our need for sleep, bolster memory power and simply make us feel happier. Do we want to live in a society where such drugs are available for everyday use?

Continue reading "What if you could give your kids some really good drugs?" »

When you’re fourteen years old, chubbier than the rest of your friends and desperately unhappy about it, there’s nothing more precious than good self-esteem.

It gives you confidence, improves how you relate to others and boosts your overall sense of happiness. It makes you a better human.

Diets do not help build healthy self-esteem. Ergo, books about diets do not help engender healthy self-esteem. That’s probably why American author Paul Kramer has copped so much flak for his new but yet to be published book, Maggie Goes on A Diet.

Continue reading "Don’t judge this book by its cover" »

Being the boss is no picnic. People come to you with problems, complaints, conflicts and issues – constantly. And then you still have the rest of your job to do as well as a manager of your own to deal with.

I get it, but your compensation is a higher salary (sometimes a lot higher), status, perks and greater control over your work day so suck it up. If you are not up for the job, don’t take it on. And if you are getting overwhelmed, get help.

Australian companies are well-known for selecting managers on their technical ability rather than their people management skills.

Continue reading "Welcome to the big chair. Now prove you deserve it" »

This is the first in a series of pieces The Punch will run featuring speakers from the upcoming Adelaide Festival of Ideas. This week, oncologist Ranjana Srivastava writes about the last days of a terminally-ill patient.

Surprisingly, it takes until mid-morning for the code blue call. The way he has declined, I would have expected him to have breathed his last by now.

Aghast at the code, I climb the stairs two at a time to get to Mr Johnson’s bed side. There he lies, surrounded by a throng of doctors, each moving to a different part of his body, to bring it back to life.

“Quick, is he breathing?” asks one. “The pulse, the pulse”, presses another, already plucking open the patient’s gown. “Mr. Johnson, wake up, wake up darling,” urges his lovely, white-haired nurse.

Continue reading "When letting go is the hardest thing to do" »

By mid-century Australia will need almost one million aged care workers. That means almost five per cent of our entire national workforce will be engaged in caring for the burgeoning ranks of the old and frail.

Yet, today, we are struggling to maintain an aged care workforce just one quarter that size, leaving many vulnerable, elderly Australians at the mercy of rushed, impersonal “work flows” and a constantly changing roster of carers—and raising the dreadful prospect of “warehousing” the aged into the future, with little more than perfunctory physical care.

This should not come as a surprise. The entry level award wage for personal carers, for example, is significantly lower than the award for new zookeepers charged with the well being of animals.

Continue reading "By 2065 we’ll need 4 times more aged care workers" »

It’s about time we show our true colours. Thanks to Coco Chanel, dark, brown skin that used to be only associated with the working class was redefined as “sun-kissed”.

Since then, the Western world has regarded bronzed skin as the symbol of chic and affluent jetsetters who can afford to travel all year round.  Celebrities and models compete for the best tan. Many aspire to perfect the St Tropez look. 

In fact the St Tropez look is so highly sought after that a whole range of fake tan product is named St Tropez – a town where its seaside resorts are frequented by rich guests in the summer. Things work somewhat differently in Asia though.

Continue reading "We need to get over our complexion complex" »

Our government has been trying to ensure that the generous rebate to millions of Australians who take out private health insurance remains in place, and remains sustainable into the future.

To do this, we’ve tried to introduce a means test that stops support for a family earning more than a quarter of a millions dollars - but retains it for nearly 8 million low and middle income Australians, with a scale down for those in between.

Our last changes were met with predictions from the Liberals and insurers that the sky would fall in and that millions would drop out of insurance.

Continue reading "Let’s debate the rebate with some nice healthy facts" »

You might have heard all the hoo-haa last week about the NDIS, or national Disability Insurance Scheme.

In simple terms, it’s like a Medicare for disability. Not many of us use an ICU, but we all pay quite happily, through Medicare, and should the need arise, ICU care is just an ambulance ride away. Disability care and support isn’t that “neat”.

Currently, if you have a broken neck, are incontinent, need a wheelchair and an adapted vehicle, live in NSW and you acquired your disability in a car smash, your personal care support needs will be, for the most part, covered. As will your physio, speech and occupational therapy, your continence supplies (and the personal help you need for bowel and bladder care), someone to give you a shower each day, and even your wheelchair will be supplied, generally in a reasonable timeframe.

Continue reading "Disability insurance scheme: I’ll believe it when I see it" »

Every morning I attempt to do well by the countless articles relevant to maintaining a healthy balanced diet. By the afternoon, all my good intention swirls down the throne due to a momentary lapse in judgment.

Processed sugar, the supposed poison, became something I habitually consumed to remedy the three-thirtyitis. Fine occasionally, but when I needed it every day, I began to think I had a problem.

At first I blamed boredom and a juiced up sweet tooth for my daily indulgence. This erroneous conclusion was purely based on the fact that I am one of those sorry sods who head to the gym at lunchtime to feel better about my dietary choices. And then make a bad choice because I went to the gym.

Continue reading "Confessions of a sugar junkie" »

For three months Australia’s world-class health system refused to treat Thornlands’ Della Johnson who has a rare vascular disease of the brain called moyamoya. The reason: she’s a Queenslander. More precisely, she lives on the Southside of Brisbane, sees doctors on the north and needs an operation interstate.

If she lived in New South Wales, she would now be cured; months post-operation and free of her horrible symptoms. But she comes from a smaller Australian state which lacks a surgeon trained in this ‘one in a million’ procedure.

Her battle for life-saving treatment captured media attention nationwide because it exposed a flaw in our world-class federated health system. Australians are divided into eight public hospital systems and scores of hospital regions. Those boundaries can mean delayed health care and unquantifiable mental anguish for those trapped in unfortunate postcodes.

Continue reading "Cross border health issues must be resolved" »

Today’s Angry Cripple column was inspired by Christine Bigby’s ABC Ramp Up column that argued the success of the National Insurance Disability Scheme depends on the type and quality of support and disability services available for purchase. The author is Max Jackson (full bio below).

Mahatma Gandhi, one of the twentieth century’s greatest freedom fighters, once said of freedom, and I quote: “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

As emphasised by Gandhi, freedom is a right. However, despite Gandhi’s pronouncement all those decades ago, freedom as a right represents a shadowy illusion on the outer circle of disability rights.

Continue reading "Don’t pigeonhole the disabled on housing options" »

The Government has sealed the deal on health reforms, declaring them the biggest thing since Medicare - see the story here. But then, they would talk them up, wouldn’t they? The Punch decided to get Australian Medical Association President Dr Steve Hambleton’s verdict.

What’s your overall impression of the deal?

Hospitals definitely needed improved funding and the good signal is that the Prime Minister is actually taking notice of medical experts - so I guess (we should see) improved transparency and meaningful clinical engagement.

Continue reading "Punch Q & A: What’s all this health stuff?" »

Repeat after me: Models do not cause eating disorders. Really, they don’t.

The news which hit the headlines this week that nearly 100 children between the ages of five and seven had been diagnosed with eating disorders in the UK in recent years immediately prompted some stock-standard finger pointing (“It was the models wot done it!”), but it’s time to dispel a few myths about eating disorders.

For years, the scrawny, malnourished-looking girls who haunt the runways of Paris, Milan and New York have been accused of shoving women the world over just that much closer to starving themselves or sticking their fingers down their throats.

Continue reading "Eating disorders: A more weighty issue than you think" »

They say quitting smoking is hard, but I’ve learnt the real truth. It’s not just the quitting that’s difficult (although it is), starting up again is bloody hard too.

I’m not just doing this for attention; this is not a cry for help nor is it part of any quarter-life - well, a little closer to third-life - crisis. Truth be told I always enjoyed smoking and I never wanted to give it up in the first place.

I started engaging in smoking when I was sixteen. I say “engaging” because I was really pretending to inhale smoke whilst holding it in my mouth before blowing it out like a clandestine burp.

Continue reading "The difficulties of giving up on quitting smoking" »

Goodbye foie gras, pork belly and the seven stages of degustation. Our “future food”  will be home-grown, seasonal and natural; served informally and with a lot of respect for where it was grown. That’s according to some of the world’s top chefs in the foodie and travel section of The Australian.

Sounds healthy, huh? A meal of organic roast beetroot is a long way from the Jetsons-style microwavable micro foods of our childhood imagination - but will it be worth going out for? If growing something yourself and cooking it simply is all there is to it, we’d be better off staying home and practising our MasterChef skills, right?

It’s Tuesday. What’s on your mind?

Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit. Let’s get straight into it. So some bloody smart-arse congregation of designer-stubbled preening ad men have concocted a ridiculous campaign suggesting milk will take care of PMS.

Picture them sitting around their long shiny tables, bums squeaking in their exxy leather chairs, waiting for a cute secretary to bring them (soy) lattes and discussing just how ‘cheeky’ their new milk ads are.

Oooo and we’ll have a website and do social media and piss off the feminazis by suggesting women are hormone-ravaged banshees who can be tamed by calcium intake. IT’LL GO VIRAL, they probably thought, with pants-wetting glee.

Continue reading "ICB. PMS. Don’t. Get. Me. Started." »

Children as young as 10 are at risk of heart disease. Doctors are faced with obese toddlers, and teenagers that weigh up to 200kg. Kids are fat, and getting fatter, and it’s no surprise if they’re guzzling soft drinks and gobbling fast food.

Dr Matt Sabin, from the Royal Children’s Hospital weight management clinic, says: “We’re not talking about a little bit of extra weight, we’re talking about severely obese children”.

The United States and Australia are experiencing a lethal ‘fat crisis’ that is growing steadily worse.

Continue reading "First world problem: Death by fat" »

Should circumcision be banned? Is it mutilation or a culturally and medically significant practice?

That’s the question facing legislators in San Francisco after a controversial, but successful, campaign lead by “Foreskin Man” Michael Hess to have the question put to a ballot.

In California in the last year, the anti-circumcision movement has gained enough public momentum to have the question put to a ballot. Under Hess’ proposal, the circumcision of a minor would be a criminal act and be treated as an assault.

Continue reading "Should we force kin to suffer the unkindest cut?" »

Perfectionism is a badge that many achievers wear with pride. But when does healthy striving for high standards become a health problem? All too often, my research has found.

In 20 years working with those affected by eating disorders, I have noticed a worrying tendency among sufferers to aim for impossible standards, and to be overcome with a sense of worthlessness when these crippling expectations are not met.

Colleagues and I discerned similar patterns among patients struggling with depression, anxiety and other common but debilitating disorders.

Continue reading "It’s perfectly reasonable to worry about perfectionism" »

With Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin in the Northern Territory last week consulting on “what’s next?” for the Northern Territory Emergency Response, it’s timely to throw the concept of ‘exit strategies’ into the mix.  In particular, how do people exit the Government’s income management program and take control of their finances?

It’s a very real dilemma for governments at all levels.  Teetotalers and drunks, spenders and savers, good and bad parents - it makes no difference.  If you’re an Aboriginal person receiving welfare payments in the NT, you live under the Emergency Response and half your welfare must be spent on the priority goods like food, clothes, rent and health care. 

You can’t use the money for alcohol, tobacco, pornography or gambling – well at least not the quarantined half anyway…

Continue reading "NT Intervention: Guilty by geography" »

Alcohol. The anti-alcohol lobby say just one drink increases your risk of cancer, and news yesterday was that cigarette-warning-style labels will start appearing on bottles of booze. The social costs of alcohol are often cited as an additional reason to crack down on it. Here, Dr Eric Crampton casts a sceptical eye over how that social cost is measured.

If I told you that surfing cost the Australian economy a billion dollars and that we consequently should make life jackets compulsory, you could be forgiven for thinking that the number represented some real cost to the community; perhaps the cost of rescuing surfers caught in rips or medical care for those injured in accidents.

But if you found out that the vast majority of that figure was the combination of surfers’ expenditures on their boards and the costs of holidays they took heading up to Yallingup, you might think twice about endorsing the policy recommendation. And you might wonder a bit why anybody would have thought those costs could matter for policy.

Continue reading "Don’t base policy on crapulous alcohol statistics" »

Carl Thompson is a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy and scoliosis who is undertaking honours in marketing. He writes for ABC’s Ramp Up, DiVine Victoria and blogs here.

My right hand was yanked from my wheelchair control stick by a serious looking plastic surgeon.

“He has severely deformed hands,” she remarked, as an older gentleman professor reeking of poorly concealed cigarettes grabbed my left hand and agreed, “yes, he indeed has a pronounced deformity.” Boy, I’m glad they got the pleasantries out of the way.

Yeah, I get it. Surgeons want to talk about surgery, not chat about the weather over tea and biscuits. They have limited time available to spend with their prospective patients, and normally I wouldn’t mind. I suck at small talk - I’m scared of appointments at the hairdresser. But even I expect some warmth to be shown by the surgeon.

Continue reading "Hey Doc, I’ve got a name and I’m not bloody stupid" »

If your doctor sent you off to try reiki, coffee enemas, or (my personal favourite) vaginal blowing, you should go straight to the registration board.

But what if they’re recommending St John’s Wort, or acupuncture? Where does medicine end and dodgy science begin?

The latest Medical Journal of Australia delves into these quackery-tainted waters with two pieces on whether doctors should be prescribing complementary and alternative ‘medicines’ (CAM).

Continue reading "Coffee enemas are not your friend" »

Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit. Get ready to get steamy. The hot topic du jour is romance novels and the apparent threat they cause to women’s sexual health.

A UK medical journal has published a piece from ‘agony aunt’ Susan Quilliam arguing that bodice-ripper romantic fiction is discouraging condom use and giving women crazy ideas about orgasms.

Before we go any further, let’s have some gratuitous ‘literary’ sex scenes, just to give you the flavour.

Continue reading "ICB: Steamy romance novels are bad for your health" »

Derryn Hinch won the Great Organ Gamble, scoring a life-saving liver. Many lose that lottery. Many people die waiting for organs.

The latest statistics, from the Australian & New Zealand Organ Donation Registry, show about 1600 Australians are waiting for organs – 176 for livers. More than 1140 for kidneys, 96 for hearts, 146 for lungs.

Hundreds die waiting. Demand exceeds supply. We can increase supply – by getting more people to sign up for organ donation and to make sure their families are aware of their wishes – but there won’t be enough any time soon.

Continue reading "I’ve got a hunch that Hinch is just the beginning" »

What is the cigarette plain packaging legislation?
From July 2012 the Australian Government plans to prohibit all brand logos, fonts, colours and promotional wording on cigarette packaging.  Cigarettes will come in olive green boxes displaying prominent safety warnings and the name of the brand and variant printed in standard size, font and position.

Why is Labor taking on Big Tobacco?
They are the only target left that is less popular than Julia Gillard. 

Does plain packaging infringe on freedom of choice?
Studies have shown most smokers cannot distinguish between brands in blind trials and the perceived differences are often an artefact of subtle cues in the colour, logos and design on the packaging.  Nevertheless, tobacco companies spend millions of dollars perfecting the positive associations evoked by cigarette packaging and consumers have a right to have their free choices subconsciously influenced by them.

Continue reading "FAQs: Is plain packaging bad for your health?" »

In the age of specialisation and outsourcing, perhaps it is only logical that we should contract out responsibility for beating our bodies into shape. Self-discipline is no longer a pre-requisite for a hard body, you just need cash. 

And if you’ve got the cash but you’re not sure you can motivate yourself to keep the appointments, you can always pay in advance – then if you’re tempted to skip a session you’ll need to confront the prospect that you may be not only fat but stupid – a rough start to any morning.

To an extent it has become a box to tick – “My trainer this, my trainer that…”. And sometimes even a kind of defence -  “You’re fat and unfit?  Hhhmm. You’re fat and unfit but you’ve got a trainer – well that’s ok…”

Continue reading "You can never be friends with a personal trainer" »

It can make you paranoid and irrational, prone to making stupid decisions with bad consequences, and can ultimately cause serious harm. Yes, it’s the moral panic over drugs.  The latest burning issue is synthetic dope.

Kronic (or Puff, or Voodoo, or Kaos) was happily crossing the counter of many a hippie herbal high store until the mining industry realised its employees were using it to rort their drug testing systems. Often sold as incense, it’s made from herbs sprayed with chemicals that mimic the effects of marijuana.

WA quickly moved to ban Kronic, so people in possession now face fines of up to $100,000 or 25 years in jail. Victoria is planning to follow suit. Then South Australian pollies, with a burst of speed so surprising it makes one suspect performance enhancement, managed to prohibit the drug the very day after The Advertiser published doctors’ calls to make it illegal.

Continue reading "Synthetic marijuana: Don’t believe the Kronic hype" »

How can a new, first-time parent feel any sort of confidence?  Seriously, after being told time and time again that exclusive breastfeeding until six months of age is the best thing for our babies’ health, we now hear that maybe those recommendations are putting children at risk of other health worries. Just maybe.  If you’ve recently had a baby, you know the pressure to breastfeed.

The stress placed on new mums to get their babies on the boob, and keep them there until they are at least six months of age, can be pretty overwhelming in those first few months.  Especially if breastfeeding is not going so well for you. In fact, the pressure is so great that most new mums either persevere, or give up and are wracked with guilt.

So when stories like these are released questioning the advice we are given in those early weeks of parenthood, we’re left wondering who and what are we meant to listen to? Especially when the official government response is they will review the national breastfeeding guidelines later this year. Great! What if your baby is past that stage by then? What if you have a seemingly hungry four-month-old baby now, and want to know what to do?

Continue reading "The best authority on breastfeeding is you" »

Someone I love very much is fat. Really fat. Technically, you’d say he’s morbidly obese, but “morbid” actually means “gruesome” or “being unduly interested in death”, which doesn’t apply to my friend at all. At least, I don’t think it does.

It’s hard to tell, because fat people don’t talk about being fat. Sure, they’re the first to dub themselves “chubster” or “jelly belly”, or “Sir Cumference” or “Lord of the Fries”. But it’s a tactic – much the same way gay people adopted “queer”, thereby cleverly disempowering the homophobes who tried to beat them with it.

It’s as if Roseanne Barr single-handedly silenced the plus-sized world when she said, “So you’re fat? Just be fat and shut up about it.” Well, she is wrong. (And not very funny. Much funnier is Dawn French, who says she’d have been a famous model had she been around when Rubens was painting. Kate Moss? She’d have been the paintbrush.)

Continue reading "All jokes aside, there’s nothing funny about obesity" »

For most Australians, it’s hard to imagine being in an intensive care unit waiting room confronted with the prospect of losing a loved one. For those who do find themselves in this situation, it’s a devastating, harrowing time.

Imagine then, what you would say at this terrible juncture in your life if your loved one died and you were asked: “do you know if they wanted to be an organ and tissue donor?”  Do you know what your family and friends’ organ and tissue donation wishes are?

During this time of personal tragedy many say they simply don’t know. That’s not unique to the intensive care unit either, it’s reflected across our community. Forty per cent of Australians do not know their family’s donation wishes.

Continue reading "1602 Australians want you to act on this now" »

I recently took myself to a medical clinic that bulk-billed. I didn’t go there because they bulk-billed. I went because the clinic was walking distance from my office building. I needed to get tested for Helicobacter pylori. Here’s what happened:

GP: You can take the test home, do it yourself and bring it back to be sent to the lab. (No further instructions so I leave and I attempt to pick up the test from reception.)
Medical Receptionist: No, you do the test here, but after two hours of fasting, water is allowed.

(I return after two hours of fasting, having drunk a glass of water during that time.)
Centre Manager: Actually you need to have fasted for 6 hours, nil water, but it should be OK.

Continue reading "Medicareless: Our two-tier, second-rate health system" »

Did nuclear power kill any Germans prior to the announcement last week of their plans to phase out nuclear power? No.

But Germans are dying now and it’s a safe bet that the cause will not be phased out. It probably won’t even be identified in a generic way, let alone named and shamed and prosecuted. Is it cucumbers? Or cabbage or lettuce or bean sprouts?

“Death toll from E-coli cucumber outbreak reaches 16.” shouted the Sydney Morning Herald over a picture of goats chomping on a mountain of dumped cucumber.

Continue reading "A raw deal for cucumbers" »

In 2010 Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa declared that the time had come, particularly for Africans, to stop the “wave of hate” and to stand up “against wrong”.

He was referring to the wrong to “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people” who are “part of the African family” and who “are living in fear.”

This news from Africa would be bad enough. But the same fear extends far beyond that continent.

Continue reading "Religion is helping the spread of AIDS" »

One day the Government may need to stage an intervention in Sydney’s plushest suburbs, Byron Bay’s glorious expanse, and the genteel landscape of the Adelaide Hills.

These are the places where some children’s lives are at risk because parents have entirely lost trust in governments, and are turning to some dodgy alternative sources of health information.

Studies by the Federal health department, CSIRO and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance have shown that while overall Australia’s uptake of vaccination is good – mostly around 90 per cent for children - in certain regions the levels of conscientious objectors have soared, resulting in clusters of deadly diseases.

Continue reading "Deadly parenting choices in the vaccination debate" »

Structural reform of Australian healthcare financing can cut inequity and promote universal choice as well as universal service delivery.

In a society as wealthy as ours it’s understandable that Australians support universal access to healthcare.

But accepting this principle and the current one-size-fits-all structure of Medicare are different. Under the current structure only those who can voluntarily afford to opt out of the system have real choice.

Continue reading "Medicare needs a shot in the arm" »

I am the postgraduate dream. I live on minimum wage; I have a flirtatious relationship with the poverty line. However, I think this is a karmic repercussion of my own bad choices. As a younger, less-worldly type I entered into a line of work - dirty, unrewarding work - from which I seem unable to escape: I kill people.

In the beginning it all seemed like good fun. Harmless fun. However, recently the inescapable truth has dawned on me. Hospitality is about killing people. Most of us are all too familiar with government propaganda about the perils of smoking and drinking, two activities frequently central to hospitality.

However, it’s not these which really grate against my sensibilities. It’s the fat that is propelling me towards a nervous breakdown. They haul themselves out of their cubicles and waddle in at least once a week. Very often they appear more frequently, their numbers certainly seem to be growing.

Continue reading "Would you like a heart attack with that, sir?" »

Last week Penbo railed against Cancer Council advice that drinking any alcohol at all was a cancer risk. The Cancer Council responded, saying they were just relaying the science. Now, winemakers have their say.

Many of the posts in response to the article by the Cancer Council Australia’s chief lobbyist Paul Grogan picked up the basic flaw in his argument, but as winemakers are one of the targets of CCA’s latest media flurry I would like to add my two cents’ worth.

Grogan’s defensive cries that they “don’t make this stuff up”, but that is not what people are accusing them of. The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia acknowledges that a link has been found between alcohol and a level of cancer risk, just as there is a link between numerous other activities in life and cancer risk. That is not new news, despite recent headlines.

Continue reading "Debate about alcohol has turned cancerous" »

I rattle when I walk in the morning after taking all my complementary medicine supplements.

(Tim Minchin explains his frustration at dealing with believers)

Not to mention that I reek of cat-breath from fish oil pills and of neem pounded into my scalp, and have the complexion of a ginko tree root.

Let’s face it, I’m not all that attractive but by my calculation I have fended off high blood pressure, rapid aging, flaky skin and quite possibly a number of varieties of leprosy.

Continue reading "Cat breath’s not the only side effect of complementary pills" »

When Cancer Council Australia published its recent estimate of the number of cancer cases in Australia linked to alcohol consumption, we didn’t expect the message to be popular.

But we have a responsibility to provide independent, evidence-based information about cancer risk, enabling Australians to make informed choices.

Many people may not want to know that something as popular as alcohol consumption increases their cancer risk – but that’s what the evidence says. And we believe everyone has a right to know about that evidence, whether it’s a “good news” story or not.

Continue reading "We don’t make stuff up, alcohol is a proven killer" »

According to new research, by the year 2090 the principle cause of death in Australia will be boredom.

The cumulative effect of ten decades of social engineering will have turned us into a nation of risk-averse robots who enjoy brisk walks and pepitas and have never done anything foolish or dangerous.

We will be so permanently alive that we will wish we were dead. The days will merge into one, free of fortnightly hangovers, monthly food binges and occasional days spent entirely on the couch, nothing but clear-eyed wellness and crisp outside air.

Continue reading "Every teat-pipette of alcohol is doing you damage" »

The tobacco industry’s campaign against plain packaging is at last a cause worthy enough for me to believe in.

As a smoker myself it is very important to me that if I am going to be killed slowly it should at least be by someone I know and trust. Indeed, it does not reflect well on the euthanasia lobby that it is strangely silent on this particular aspect of dying with dignity.

Fundamentally this is a debate about choosing the manner of your own death. Some people choose to hurl themselves off the Gap, Ben Elton chooses to do it on live television and smokers choose to do it by gradually annihilating their lungs.

Continue reading "Smokers deserve the right to die with dignity" »

Most of us should be pretty happy it’s Friday - even if it means the end of Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week.

(Tourette Syndrome is never, ever funny. Not even in this clip.)

If you didn’t know, it’s actually an inherited disorder involving “tics” but for most sufferers it doesn’t involve involuntarily saying four letter words that begin with “s”, “f” and occasionally “c”. Nor is it probably how namesake George Gilles de la Tourette probably expected to be remembered in history.

But what purpose does Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week actually serve? More to the point what do Awareness Days, Weeks and Years provide, period?

Continue reading "It’s Friday. Are you even aware of what else today is?" »

Labor is frantically priming the electorate for a “tough Budget” and health and medical research has borne the brunt of the Government’s political posturing in recent weeks.

A strategic leak from the Gillard Government proposed a $400 million cut over three years only to be followed by unconfirmed reports of a back-flip. 

It is likely the Government was preparing the sector for a worse-case scenario before delivering lesser cuts with the headline message that they had spared research from the worst.  It remains a possibility.

Continue reading "Warning: Labor incompetence will damage your health" »

Nearly half of all Australians don’t visit the dentist regularly. Cost and anxiety are the stumbling blocks, and no wonder.

I took my kids for a check-up last week.  My 12-year-old, who has never had a moment’s dental drama, leapt smugly into the chair and had the smile wiped from her face when she was told she’d need her first filling. 

The dentist anaesthetised her gum with a large needle and occupied her mouth with his mirror, an amalgam condenser and the hygienist’s suction implement.  You’d think this would have impeded her capacity to talk, but no. 

Continue reading "At the dentist: You’ll just feel a little sting…" »

The average guy with a few kilos to lose has no time for celebrity-endorsed weight–loss programs, according to Weight Watchers in the United States.

But he sure loves a good beer and a bit of joke at the expense of his mates, according to their new online advertising campaign (you can watch it in the video above).

You can tell a Weight Watchers “kind of guy” by one of three possible outfits.

Continue reading "Weight Watchers for men; actually more fun than beer" »

Good health is fundamental to our lives, so in assessing whether a government decision is good, bad or just acceptable it is useful to apply the health criterion. If this was applied to every decision, no doubt government would improve. I am going to apply this criterion to the Adelaide Oval.

Our health has two fundamental needs. Easy to understand is the need for hospitals, emergency services, life support systems (intensive care) and family doctors. Waiting lists and hospital closures are rightly big news.

Even more fundamental to health are the natural life support systems, the natural resources, water, availability of productive, non-degraded land, biodiversity and stable climate. These are deteriorating, and scientists have used the words global environmental change to describe them. This change is accelerating.

Continue reading "Stuff Adelaide Oval, let’s fix the environment first" »