Posts that won't hurt your brain

The biggest thing in science right now is smaller than you can imagine. Nanotechnology is a brave new world containing the likes of carbon nanotubes and buckyballs which promises an array of technological advances every bit the equal of the information revolution: better medical treatments; lighter, more efficient building materials; tougher sporting equipment.

An example of nanotechnology is the production of antimicrobial bandages which are covered in nanoparticles of silver ions that at the nanoscale are anti-microbial by attaching to microbes and preventing their cellular respiration, thus destroying them.

The result is a bandage which doubles as a medicine when used to dress a wound.

Continue reading "Nanotechnology: The biggest little thing going" »

Don’t you hate it when you see an advertisement on television that you love or you think is really clever, and then a week later, you discover that the ad has been taken off the air because of complaints.

It can be frustrating sometimes, obviously complaining doesn’t guarantee that an ad will be banned but it does highlight how we can take some things very seriously.

I remember not long ago the Hyundai “Toddler” commercial that showed a little toddler taking his Hyundai out for a drive. Along the way he stopped to pick up a female hitchhiking toddler and the two of them headed to the coast where he later impressed her with his surfing skills by riding a massive wave.

Continue reading "Shock sells, even when we don’t like the message" »

When my daughter was almost two she did something lots of people do every morning. She ate some peanut butter on toast. Two hours later, when breakfast was long forgotten and the time for lunch was nearly upon us, her face began to swell – and in moments, she was scarcely able to breathe.

I will never forget the terror of holding her while feeling completely helpless as her body turned against her. The gasping sounds she made as she struggled to take her next breath, rapidly turning pale, and as her body went floppy.

It was the most terrifying moment of my life, and a memory that will stay imprinted with my husband and I forever. If it wasn’t for the fast response from a clued-in GP, she wouldn’t have seen her second birthday.

Continue reading "When did it become nuts to want to protect children?" »

Be afraid, be very afraid. The food Nazis are on the hunt through suburban school lunch boxes. Food is no longer a private matter in our educational institutions; parents are quaking in their shoes, terrified that they will be judged on the efficacy of their social responsibility and parenting skills by the contents of the humble pail. 

The fallout of which means becoming social pariahs based on white bread, or the inclusion of a Tim Tam.

Teachers peer beneath the lids of the not so humble receptacles (very seldom now a simple plastic box – they’re now themed, decorated, iced, chilled, heated, layered, compartmentalised and sheathed) and “tut tut”, or shake their heads at a child’s humble peanut butter sandwich or limp carrot.

Continue reading "Food allergy fascists make peanuts of us all" »

For someone who has been intimately involved in healthcare both at the coalface as a registered nurse as well as an academic for over 50 years I am appalled, but not surprised, at the current wave of negativity concerning the Federal Government’s Health Reform Plan.

Not only is the commentary negative, it is also blatantly misinformed in the majority of cases. But more concerning than this is the fact that mainstream debates around the issues at stake have been once again hijacked by the vested interests who have the most to lose by substantial changes to the current system.

Leading this negative commentary is the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott,  the Minister for Health when money was being siphoned from the health system.

Continue reading "The medical profession is sabotaging its own salvation" »

Anyone trying to understand the politics of the federal health takeover purely from a policy perspective is only seeing half the picture. Beyond the rights and wrong of hospital funding is an attempt to shift the political game onto Labor’s home turf.

If you wanted to beat Geelong you wouldn’t go to Skilled Stadium, if you wanted to run over the Broncos you’d stay away from Lang Park because local knowledge and crowd loyalty can have a real impact on the final result.

Likewise in politics, where home ground is not dictated so much by geography, but by the issues being fought over.

Continue reading "Home-ground advantage counts in politics" »

Doctor Rudd may have pulled out his stethoscope and come up with a correct diagnosis about the ailing health system in the states and territories, but many of his patients are not confident about his national plan for a cure.

The Prime Minister’s push to take over funding of public hospitals by diverting some of the GST revenue that currently goes to the states has raised skepticism among not just the various health administrations, but also among most online readers who commented on news sites in the past week.

If Rudd thinks he has a tough job talking the states and territories into agreeing to the rescue plan, he may also have a difficult time convincing many voters ahead of an election due later this year.

Continue reading "The health takeover - see your doctor if pain persists" »

IT’S not just that Health Minister, Nicola Roxon has acknowledged that taxes may need to increase to fund Labor’s health policy in the longer-run. Or, that Treasurer Wayne Swan has admitted a full federal take-over of the nation’s 764 public hospitals could yet be pursued.

Such frankness should be welcomed in our political leaders. It’s just that in both cases, the comments underscore the fact that in complex reforms, there is many a slip `twixt policy cup and delivery lip.

Put another way, there is a huge distance and many hurdles between Kevin Rudd’s radical health reform promise, and the tangle of changes needed to make things better for patients. Those ``slips’’ are already apparent.

Continue reading "How the health overhaul became a big stink over tax" »

Food producers love a good study, particularly one that finds that some ingredient or trace element in their product has some miraculous property found to cure cancer in rats.

Such studies are guaranteed to make headlines around the world and lead to an aura being cast over their product. The wine industry in particular is the master of the self-serving study, with red wine being attributed all sorts of miraculous properties that should see it treated like the waters at Lourdes.

The chocolate industry has also discovered the value of good publicity and the media has recently reported chocolate manufacturing giants Mars and Barry Callebaut AG have announced a cross-industry partnership to promote the health benefits of cocoa flavanols.

Continue reading "Beer and red wine can cure everything, except cirrhosis" »

Nothing of substance has occurred in health reform this week. The PM has announced a position he will take in future negotiations with the states. That’s all.

Those negotiations may or may not be productive. A referendum may or may not be held, may or may not pass.

But no health reform was undertaken this week. No sick or debilitated person is better off as a result of Government action this week.

Continue reading "Diagnosis: PM has a disease called modern politics" »

Maybe he’s telling the truth but given his experience in the Queensland bureaucracy, it’s simply impossible to believe Kevin Rudd when he says he “didn’t properly estimate the complexity” of health reform.

A few minutes talking to anyone involved in healthcare delivery is enough to know the sector is hopelessly complex, a spaghetti-bowl of accountability. Everybody’s hands are tied, it’s a black hole for money, it is impossible to please the stakeholders from state governments through doctors’ and nurses’ associations to the voting public, and the line of managers required to sign off on simple things stretches almost as far as the line of patients waiting for treatment at a hospital door.

What Rudd outlined yesterday is in some ways about changing which bank account gets debited for healthcare services. But most people don’t really care about structural reform – they just want to know Aunt Ethel doesn’t have to shuffle around on the bad hip for too long. And when she does, they want someone to blame. Now Rudd is saying you can blame him.

Continue reading "Rudd asks for the 3am phone call about a hospital problem" »

Kevin Rudd’s festival of contrition and humility has now entered its fourth day with the PM’s address to the National Press Club on his health reform blueprint becoming a showcase for his new laid-back, softer style.

You can see the latest news coverage of the health plan here. More interesting politically was to observe the continuing shift in Mr Rudd’s demeanour. He’s officially buried crotchety Kevin and is now conciliatory Kevin, self-flagellator always at the ready, as he admits his faults and flaws.

He even expressed his relief at the happy news that his nemesis, the surging Tony Abbott, had not vanished overnight in the dead heart of the Australian desert.

Continue reading "Rudd: I don’t pretend to be some sort of perfect leader" »

The leaks have started, the little details of the federal government’s plans to rescue the health system are starting to filter out, with stories in newspapers hailing Health’s Shot in the Arm and Rudd to Cut Away Dead Tissue.

But beneath the gushing promises of more beds and more money there are signs that the government is considering changing the way it funds hospitals.

NSW doctors support any measures that untangle the way health is currently delivered. There are too many layers of management, too much complexity in the funding, and not enough focus on patients. So we agree there are problems. But our starting point is that any solutions should be focussed on untangling the current mess.

Continue reading "How bureaucrats could step in and ruin health reforms" »

This week is Australian Organ Donor Awareness Week - a time for reflection, decision and discussion. This week, we ask all Australians to learn the facts about organ donation,  decide if you want to be donor, and then make sure that your family knows your decision.

Today, more than 1700 Australians are waiting with bags packed for the call that will save their life. Waiting for the call that tells them the organ they desperately need has become available for transplant. Tragically, two of those Australians on average die every week before they get the call.

Australia’s rate of organ donation is low by international standards. In 2009, donations were made by 247 people resulting in 799 life-saving transplants. Although that rate is higher than the average of previous years, it is still clear that we need to do better.

Continue reading "To give the gift of life you’ve got to talk about it" »

The liberation that several near death experiences in quick succession gives you is, well, liberating. And on that note fellas, just how are your testicles today?

I ask this because I am quite convinced that few people realise that the ‘boys’ begin their existence as ovaries (a foetus starts out with ovaries, which early in the pregnancy descend to the groin to emerge as gonads, producing a male child, or stay in their originating location and produce a female baby) – yup – those mysterious, and little discussed bits within women that dictate an enormous amount of the female physiology, health and reproductive capabilities are just as necessary to a woman, as testes are to a man. Ovaries are a woman’s battery packs.  Are you getting my drift here?

Let me have another sip from my glass of neat Vodka – slice of lemon and a chunk of ice (I will no longer pretend to drink champagne as I detest the stuff and find it such a clichéd, girly drink – there’s that liberation again) as I paint a picture for you.

I have just survived a number of pulmonary embolisms – blood clots to my lungs, a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in my pelvis, five ovarian tumours, life threatening surgery, oh, and the summer school holidays and a home renovation.

Continue reading "When your body is trying to tell you something, listen" »

Sunday mornings are usually a fairly quiet affair in my apartment until around 11am when my swollen bladder, thumping headache and noisy neighbours force me from the safety of my bed.

Last Sunday however was special as I managed the truly Olympic effort of making it downstairs to the couch by the crack of 10am. However seconds after collapsing victoriously onto the couch to enjoy this small victory I was assailed by suggestions for ‘fun things to do’ from my ever perky med-student ‘houseguest’.

Ms Gen Y was absolutely bursting with energy after her 3 hours of sleep, I on the other hand felt like Amy Winehouses’ liver, so I politely declined her invitation. She insisted. I more forcefully declined. She begged. I told her to leave me alone and flee the country - and that’s when she told me I had SCTD.

Continue reading "Why I don’t date doctors" »

If you spend time in our public hospitals as a patient or as someone who works there you are acutely aware of all the concerns about the state of the system and the level of care. 

The people who serve in the public hospital sector are generally committed above and beyond all call, and are constantly frustrated if they feel that cannot provide the correct and best care for a patient because of the limitations of staff, equipment, time and capacity.

Many of us have called for hospital boards and now once again the idea has been floated, this time by Tony Abbott. 

Continue reading "Abbott’s plan for hospital boards is one that can work" »

This week’s release of the 2010 Intergenerational Report by Treasurer Wayne Swan brought the issue of mature-age workers rightly into the spotlight.

Few issues are as important to our nation’s future as responding to the long-term trend of an ageing population. 

It was therefore disappointing to see the inflammatory response of Coalition Seniors spokesperson Bronwyn Bishop claiming that the Government was demonising older people and forcing them to work until they drop.

Continue reading "Work while you can, but not ‘til you drop" »

Think you’re a normal weight? So did I, until I got stuck in lift at 2am.

A big group of us piled in and it promptly broke.

After the shock of screaming to a halt between floors, we were indignant. The lift said it could hold 12 people. There were only 11 of us.

Continue reading "Fat tax useless if overweight is the new average" »

It would have seemed like an innocent enough question.

Standing at the supermarket checkout, struggling slightly with a bulging belly as I hoisted heavy bags into the trolley, with no children in tow: ‘Will this be your first baby?’

The answer should be simple. If a one word response will suffice, I’ll have no problem. No, this is not my first baby, my first pregnancy. It is my seventh.

Continue reading "Invisible loss: What I learned about tragic pregnancy" »

Tomorrow might be the official national holiday but today will be a mass celebration of a great Australian institution as hundreds of thousands of workers call in sick.

Up to half a million workers are expected to chuck a sickie, voting themselves an extra day off. Even if you’re the conscientious type and decide to rock up to work today, it’s only a four-day week. Wouldn’t it be great if every week was like that?

Well for many workers it could be, with no loss of productivity plus the benefits of reduced energy consumption, lower carbon emissions, less congestion on the roads and more time for family and leisure. The key is extending the four working days to 10 hours, so all the work still gets done. And one US state has proved it can work.

Continue reading "Enjoy a sickie? There could be four-day weeks for life" »

A “symptom of recovery” from smoking addiction is the hilarious excuse for ministerial forgetfulness from a support group for people trying to beat the butt.

Assistant Treasurer Nick Sherry got himself in a minor twist yesterday on national television when he wrongly – and repeatedly – said the forecast unemployment rate was 8 per cent rather than the recently revised lower figure of 6.75.

His spokesman blamed ill-health, saying the Senator had experienced withdrawal symptoms since giving up smoking. Support group Smokenders told the Sydney Morning Herald that “quitting cold turkey often led to a cough in the first few days and forgetfulness in the first few weeks.”

Continue reading "Smokers a blight on society, and worse when quitting" »

Sometimes you wonder whether you’re living in a parallel universe.

Like that South Park episode where Cartman is nice all the time, or in Seinfeld when Elaine meets Bizarro Jerry.

Or when the Federal Health Minister – who’s also the mother of a small child – won’t ban a toxic chemical that’s making babies sick.

Continue reading "The cost of inaction? Babies exposed to toxins" »

It’s the deadly season of drownings. Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? The bad news is that it’s going to get worse this summer. There will be umpteen drownings across Australia.

I feel sick every time I read - or worse, report - about a child drowning. I know they are always accidents but I also know that the parents are not at arms’ length from the child.

It’s common knowledge that people drown if they put themselves in a risky situation. The simple ways to prevent a drowning are:

Continue reading "Vigilance is the only way to prevent drowning" »

We live in a society where almost everything can be purchased single serve, individually wrapped and stuffed with enough preservatives to last a life-time – a very short life-time for most of us if we don’t pick up some slack.

A simple fact of life is that some things just come in packets. Bread, even from a bakery, comes in a plastic bag. We don’t go the butcher to be handed a handful of mince meat, and a carton of milk wouldn’t be much chop without the carton.

Beyond that simple carton of milk, it is easy to cut corners with pre-packaged ingredients: garlic from a jar, powdered stock, instant noodles, canned vegetables and packet mixes. I too am guilty of pre-prepared ingredients in times of need. It seems easy to buy a packet mix, add meat and pre-chopped vegetables and microwave some pre-boiled vacuum packed rice than cook from scratch – but it’s not real food. We are sacrificing our health, and the environment, to eat food that brings instant gratification but no satisfaction - the idea that it takes a long time to make something from scratch is a myth.

Continue reading "The nine biggest sins of packaged food" »

UPDATE 2pm: Mia Freedman, the chair of the committee put together by Kate Ellis to look at body image in the media, has just responded to Jackie Frank’s comments in her own blog Mamamia.com.au. As Freedman points out, the government doesn’t chose cover models, editors do.

Cue the Nobel peace prize for the editor of Marie Claire who has taken the decision to put a naked Jennifer Hawkins on this month’s cover, not to boost circulation, of course, but in the name of “positive body image.”

How brave of Jackie Frank to take a genetically-blessed 26-year-old former Miss Universe and pay her to get her kit off to make us all feel better about ourselves. Her historic move even came accessorised with a free lecture for Youth Minister Kate Ellis, who Frank says hasn’t done enough to address the crisis of confidence in Australia’s girls and young women.

Now Marie Claire can join the orgy of self-congratulation among Australia’s women’s mags which in the past couple of months have been bold enough to put Sarah Murdoch on the cover of Women’s Weekly without airbrushing her 3.5 wrinkles and encouraged Tiffany Wood to show off her curves in the buff in Maddison.

Continue reading "Don’t buy into mag land’s body image spin" »

Barack Obama craves a historic presidency. Witness his pledge to single-handedly rescue the US health system in which millions lack insurance coverage. “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,” he announced in September.

Now, following a crucial Christmas Eve vote in the US Senate, the Democratic-controlled Congress is about to approve a major healthcare package.

Hurdles remain: the two houses must still confer to iron out differences. Public financing of abortion remains a flashpoint. But the near-certain outcome, sometime in January, is a bill on the president’s desk.

Continue reading "Is Obama digging his own grave on healthcare?" »

Many of us are aware that there’s a desperate shortage of organ donation in Australia.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that thousands have died on waiting lists.

And yet we still have one of the lowest donation rates in the developed world.

Continue reading "How much would you sell your organs for?" »

Christmas is an odd time of year at Parliament. It’s a ghost town populated by a few grumpy staffers who inexplicably have to work and a few merrier journos who spend a rather long time at lunch.

But with such merriment one also has to keep an eye out for the Government dumping the trash when nobody is looking.

On Tuesday night at 6:30 the Government put out a press release quietly announcing that the controversial Men’s Health Ambassadors program, of which Julia Gillard’s partner was the marquee signing, had met for the final time and was being scrapped.

Continue reading "Tis the season to bury bad Government decisions" »

Is it too early to differentiate classic Abbott as Liberal leader from classic Abbott the wrecking ball? Perhaps, but if he does announce soon that a Coalition government would push for a hospital takeover it will be one hell of a great play.

With Abbott and opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton flagging moves to make Coalition policy a referendum to take over state hospitals they have beaten Kevin Rudd and Labor to the punch on what, thus far, has been a dithering display on the issue by Kevin Rudd and Nicola Roxon.

The Government has already broken an election promise on hospitals. It said it would force the states to improve public hospitals or announce a takeover of hospitals, via a referendum at the next election, by mid-2009. It has done neither.

Continue reading "Abbott has beaten Rudd to the punch on health" »

Would you believe it if I told you more Australians know what their loved one’s favourite tipple is, or the song that tops their personal playlist, or what their go-to comfort food is - than whether or not, if the end was nigh, they would choose to be an organ donor?

It sounds slightly flippant when you put it like that but that’s the finding from a new national survey of 3800 Australians conducted on behalf of the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority. 

The survey also revealed most Australians believe ending a relationship, talking to an elderly family member about aged care and explaining the birds and the bees to their kids are harder conversations to have with their loved ones than organ and tissue donation.

Continue reading "If you discuss one thing with your family this Christmas…" »

“Just because I’m a hypochondriac, it doesn’t mean I’m not ill”. Sick, clichéd, but true.

In my stronger moments I can be rational about my health, and even laugh at my anxiety around it; but when my head and heart start racing, I desperately hope that those feelings of impending doom are just feelings…

I can’t remember when I first started worrying about my health, but I was always the sort of kid who missed things because of ‘tummy aches’. I didn’t fake them; I just seemed to worry enough until I genuinely felt ill.

Continue reading "Confessions of a hypochondriac" »

Surely it’s some kind of peer reviewed joke. A researcher at Monash university has published a paper in the British Medical Journal saying it’s time to re-think Santa because he’s an obese, speeding drink-driver who spreads disease and is therefore a bad role model.

Ditto, obviously, for the tooth fairy who is doing a roaring trade in body parts. And the Easter Bunny must be a bad role model too because he brings chocolate and also makes no sense. And the bogeyman, who has questionable hygiene and engages in the potentially deadly activity of climbing up on rooftops to make things go bump.

There are too many bad role models around kids, but they’re much more omnipresent than Santa. The morbidly obese, the lazy, the cheats and liars of the world are everywhere and tragically some kids see this behaviour in their homes 365 days a year. And that’s before you get to rugby league players and drug-addled Hollywood starlets.

Continue reading "Save Santa from wowsers" »

If you have an aversion to thousands of riders in brightly coloured lycra, it’s not for you. If, however, you are a keen recreational cyclist who delights in an outdoor adventure, the Great Victorian Bike Ride is one of the ‘must do’ events in life.

First conducted in 1984, when 2,100 people cycled from Wodonga to Melbourne, it has grown into one of the great cycle touring events in the world. Last week, 5,000 people rode from Portland in the west of the State, via Cape Bridgewater, along the iconic Great Ocean Road to Geelong.

Averaging 70 kilometres a day, the huge peleton spread for kilometres along the coastal road. There was every shape and size of human imaginable, battling headwinds from Port Fairy to Port Campbell one day, and then the long climbs to Laver’s Hill and over the Otways the next.

Continue reading "The cycle of your life" »

Ageing, death and dying have become the new pornography of the 21st Century. They are rarely talked about in polite circles and when they are, it’s in a distorted and denying way.

The genetic program for ageing is largely determined at the time of conception.

You can realise the best possible scenario for your body with things such as good diet and exercise but your body and the cells in it have been programmed to age and then die, no matter how many creams and supplements you use.

Continue reading "Outsourcing your own death doesn’t make it any easier" »

How times change. When I started working in an office a little over 20 years ago, you could still smoke at your desk. In fact, when you were shown the stationary cabinet on your first day in a new job you could kit yourself out with a stapler and sticky-tape dispenser as well as an ashtray.

In those days, ‘smoking or non-smoking?’ was an everyday question when checking in for an airline flight’, you watched the Benson & Hedges World Series Cup over summer and the Winfield Cup over winter and the back cover of almost every women’s magazine carried an ad featuring an attractive blonde, a beach, acres of cheesecloth and a packet Alpine.

At about the same time blokes would go to the beach in the middle of the day, shirtless and hatless, while women would lay for hours baking themselves to a golden brown while occasionally basting themselves with coconut oil. Sun protection was not standard work issue for workers out of doors and sunshirts and sensible hats had the same sartorial appeal as sandals with long socks.

Continue reading "Sip, slop, slap: let’s stop drinking like it’s 1969" »

A mother of twins died in Buenos Aires on Sunday due to complications following buttock implant surgery. Two children no longer have their mother for the rest of their lives because of her desire for a firmer arse. Has the world gone mad?

Solange Magnano, 38, a former Miss Argentina reportedly died when liquid injected during her gluteoplasty procedure (arse surgery to you and me) caused her to have a pulmonary embolism. It was her second cosmetic enhancement since having breast implants after the birth of her children.

A spokesperson for Gustavo Rosso, Magnano’s husband, said during his statement that there have been only 15 recorded fatalities from the same procedure worldwide. I’m sorry, only 15 people dead because of the desire for a firmer butt?

Continue reading "Leaving it all behind for a firmer bum" »

If the legislation for the Orwellian­-sounding Australian National Preventive Health Agency passes, then expect an avalanche of make­-work exercises by the Agency all for the cause of making us healthier.

Armed with a budget of $133 million of your money over four years, the agency would get to work advising commonwealth and state health ministers about health issues surrounding alcohol and tobacco consumption and obesity.

It will look to create new policies about interventions in settings such as schools, workplaces and communities.

Continue reading "The perils of a fat tax" »

In April 1995 my father, Barry Larkin, took his own life. He had been the major influence in my life and his death was completely devastating. I honestly felt like I was broken and I would never (could never) be “fixed”.

I experienced, first hand, the collateral damage of suicide; something at least 1900 Australian families experience every year. The ABS is currently revising how it categorises death by suicide and estimates the actual total could be as high as 3500.

In the aftermath of a suicide, friends and family often end up on a massive emotional roller coaster, which can seem never ending. You can be despairing, sad, confused, betrayed, guilty, angry, sentimental and grief stricken all in the space of a minute. Yet each of those emotions can be so complete and so raw that you feel more alive but less in control, than you’ve ever felt before.

Continue reading "R U OK? I can tell you I’m not, about suicide" »

It is always heartening when Australia bands together around an issue with such cohesion and gusto as we have seen over the past fortnight with the separation of the conjoined twins, Krishna and Trishna.

I feel I should, out of journalistic integrity, (not that I’m a journalist) mention that I have had some dealing with the twins. In 2007 and 2008 I would spend my weekends volunteering at their orphanage in Bangladesh and was struck at the time by the girls’ strength and resilience.

Andrew Bolt’s piece in Friday’s Herald Sun focused on the debate (largely in our oh-so-balanced talk back arena) about whether or not the Australian Government should have foot the bill for the operation to separate the twins.

Whilst I wholeheartedly support Danielle, Moira Kelly, Atom Rahman and the wonderful team who have supported the girls, I must - and believe me I never thought I’d utter these words - agree with Andrew Bolt in saying that the Australian Government and associated departments made the right decision in not paying for the procedure.

Continue reading "You don’t have to be brain surgeon to rejuvenate a life" »

While there is a lot of heat surrounding the climate change debate, one issue that has received less public attention is the impact of global warming on our health.

Adelaide is currently experiencing a record breaking heatwave and has been on catastrophic fire danger alert, and this even is before summer has even begun. These events provide a timely reminder of the consequences of extreme weather on the health and safety of the population.

With global warming, inevitably we will suffer more heatwaves with longer and hotter summers. Australia - more than almost any other country- will be vulnerable to climate change-related illness and death.

Continue reading "The health risks from climate change are mounting" »

The propensity for us ascribe days to inanimate objects seems endless. Some of the more obscure that we’ve encountered recently include ‘Picnic Day’, ‘World TV Day’ (which coincidentally shares a day with ‘World Hello Day’, one promoting socialising and one well…not), ‘Lefthanders Day’ and everybody’s favourite, ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day’.

So it would not be out of the question to, upon hearing the words ‘World Toilet Day’, shake your head, perhaps laugh, and turn the page, or click the link for Laser Hair Solutions in the right side panel (because this site appreciates the plight of the left hander when designing web content).

All jokes aside, World Toilet Day is an internationally recognised and significant promoting a critical issue for 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. It is the lack of safe toilets. We know the solution and we have the technology to simply, effectively and practically make a difference, all we need is the will.

Continue reading "Do you give a crap about World Toilet Day?" »

They’ve made it through one of the toughest parts.

Previously conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna were separated by surgeons at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne around 11am AEDT. They are now in an induced coma and doctors hope to wake them up slowly over the coming days.

You can listen to audio of the press conference here. Our live coverage of it is over the jump.

Continue reading "Trishna and Krishna: Surgery results announced" »

ALMOST 70 per cent of men say that a woman’s face is much more important than her breasts, legs or figure, a Punch survey of male attitudes on female body image has found.

And almost two-thirds of men believe that women spend far too much time worrying about their appearance, and should spend less time fretting about what men think - because you are all much hotter than you think you are.

The Punch has today assembled this special package of pieces about female body image through the eyes of blokes. Much of it is framed around our 100-man survey, but also includes columnist Joe Hildebrand talking about his love of fat chicks and former Zoo Weekly online editor Chris Deal’s essay on why men are as dumb as you probably suspect they are.

Continue reading "Guys talk about female body image" »

Are you gonna take me home tonight? 
Ah down beside that red firelight? 
Are you gonna let it all hang out? 
Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin’ world go round. - Queen, 1978

My name’s Joe Hildebrand and I like fat chicks.* My best friend Byron likes fat chicks. My other best friend Matt likes fat chicks. My other best friend Darrin is actually fat himself. Even Queen likes fat chicks, and they’re all gay.

Yet fat chicks seem to think that nobody likes them at all.

Continue reading "Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin’ world go round" »

A little known fact I like to trot out at feminist rallies and family gatherings is that I use to work for the esteemed gentlemen’s periodical, Zoo Weekly magazine. Officially my title was Online Editor, but unofficially it was You Tube surfer and talker to the hottest chicks planet earth has ever produced.

Sadly my tenure at the Encyclopaedia Tit-tanica was brief, and a decision that to the male ego sounds like the frothy rantings of a mad man. In bloke-speak the phrase “I quit a job at Zoo Weekly” roughly translates to “I’m a frightful shirtlifter, pass the amyl and pump up the Right Said Fred”.

But after I’ve stopped trying to use my penis for a brain, not only is the fleshy mirage of life at a lad’s mag revealed, but so too are a few finer points of the deluded male mind.

Continue reading "Men: we really are as dumb as you think" »

These are the raw numbers for the female body image survey.

1. Which of these physical qualities do you value most highly in a woman?

A.) Pretty face 68
B.) Great breasts 8
C.) Nice legs 8
D.) Perfect fat-free figure 16

Continue reading "This girl looks normal: The 100 man body image survey" »

We live in an environment where alcohol is under siege.

Every day we are assailed with stories of glassings, drunken and rampaging footballers, binge drinking and all manner of other incidents pointing to an alcohol-fuelled end of civilisation.

Every day our politicians are making new suggestions about how to solve the problem, including today’s suggestion from the Prime Minister: confronting advertising campaigns to warn young Australians about the dangers of excessive drinking.

Continue reading "Drinking less will let you drink better for longer" »

Hi.  My name is Ashlee.  I’m a 24 year old Australian woman. I have a relatively successful media career for my age, given the current economic climate. I currently live and work in Indonesia. I have always tried to give back to the communities in which I live through volunteering and I don’t have a criminal record. I do have a gym membership though. I’m doing OK. Oh, but I forgot to add, I am fat.

Actually, I should say obese, according to my BMI. 

And apparently this makes me some kind of social pariah who should be the target of intense public ridicule and scorn, no matter what food I may or may not put in my mouth, no matter how many times a week I work out. 

Continue reading "Why is the weight debate full of so much hate?" »

You would think a drug that causes more than one in ten suicides, thousands of child abuse cases, and one in three road accidents would be outlawed.

Not chance, of course, because that’s alcohol. Cannabis, on the other hand, mostly causes feelings of wellbeing.

Debate over the relative harms of drugs has been raging this week. Most of the debate has been in the UK, where government drug advisor Professor David Nutt has been sacked for, in essence, arguing that drugs should be categorised according to the harm they cause. Crazy, huh?

Continue reading "Only a dope would say cannabis is worse than grog" »

Did I read the story correctly? Now police can’t even fine a person for drunken behaviour in public places? Time to get serious with the idiots who drink to excess, befoul public spaces, wreck the ‘quiet enjoyment’ of others, and divert our accident and emergency teams…

Here’s the basic principle – if your drunkenness results in police officers, or ambulance officers, or hospital teams, having to deal with you, you pay the full cost of this intervention – call it the ‘abuser pays’ principle.

Now I’d be in favour of bringing back the charge of public drunkenness, but I suspect that the paperwork involved these days for police officers in processing someone charged with an offence deters them from doing so, and we probably don’t have the cell space available.

Continue reading "Abuser pays – make drunken idiots pay for their mayhem" »

Last year my amazing brother, Supercar driver Ashley Cooper, was full of life when he donned his race suit before his V8 race at the Clipsal 500.  An amazing man, a beautiful son, a brother, partner, mate and a very devoted Daddy to his two delightful children. My brother went from that moment of being full of life, to being the giver of life.

Ashley died as a result of a high speed collision on the track that day, but was able to give the ultimate gift to six other families, the gift of life.
 
Ashley was an organ donor and myself and my family know first hand the experience of organ donation and the amazing gift that donating life brings to both recipients and donor families.

Continue reading "It helps to know the answer to the organ question" »

SO there we were performing a static hold in the push-up position down at the local park when the Dog Lady first came into our lives.

We heard her before she came into view, the swoosh of her nylon track pants and the tinkling bell on the collar of her Labradoodle cutting through the early morning silence.

“Good morning!” I said cheerfully as I got to my feet. “F…....g dickheads!” she bellowed in reply.

Continue reading "Abusing us park exercisers is a lazy national sport" »

This week parliament will debate a bill to establish a national Preventive Health Agency, reminding of that classic Mark Twain observation: nobody is safe while the legislature is in session.

On The Punch Federal health minister Nicola Roxon insisted that she was no nanny statist, and that the purpose of the Agency was about saving lives and reducing health costs.

Most modern governments understand the follies of outright bans, such as the failed US Prohibition movement from 1919 to 1933. However, the Agency plans what it sees as the next best thing.

Continue reading "Counterpunch: The nanny state will nag you to death" »

Several years ago scientist David Suzuki observed that humans have an innate need to be connected with nature, even if it’s only a nearby park or a tree in the backyard.

Australians, who have always expressed nature as part of their national identity, are manifesting this observation more than ever before.

In a recent study looking at a range of social issues related to modern living a surprisingly high number of participants reported growing their own vegetables or herbs at home.

Continue reading "Why ‘growing your own’ is growing" »

Put your hand on your heart.

That was easy, wasn’t it?

Now put your hand on your kidneys.

Continue reading "Hand on heart, you should watch your kidneys" »

Next week Parliament is set to consider legislation that is another first from the Rudd Government – Australia’s first agency dedicated to Preventative Health. 

Currently the media abounds with stories about our obesity epidemic, rising rates of chronic disease and problems with alcohol and tobacco.  This Agency will help us do something about those problems. 

As much as some media outlets find the labels irresistible, this isn’t about creating a nanny state, or nagging people into being ‘good’.  This Agency will be staffed with experts who will work hard to find the best possible ways to help us be healthier – and reduce our health bill as a result.

Continue reading "I’m no nanny, it’s about saving lives and the system" »

This is not a League v Union v AFL v Soccer rant. This is about whether we can agree that sport is important. If we agree it is important, then surely we can work together to do it better.

Sport can be part of a coordinated strategy to get a number of results - we need healthier kids, we need people to think binge drinking isn’t acceptable, we need people to want to solve conflict without violence.  We need more kids to dream, big.

The ugly argument about what is better - thugby league, yawnion, gayfl or wogball - is as sophomoric as those phrases are offensive.

Continue reading "The power of sport" »

A European initiative to restrict how loud you can listen to your iPod could vastly improve your next public transport experience.

In the latest attempt to protect us from ourselves, the European Union this week proposed an 80 decibel limit on the volume level on portable music players.

This, their scientists say, would protect the five to ten per cent of music listeners who crank it up a little too loud from damaging their hearing.

Continue reading "Assaulting my ears is as bad as polluting my lungs" »

We let my grandma starve to death.

It was horrible to watch - hopefully not so horrible for her, as she had bucketloads of morphine to keep her “comfortable”.

She’d had Alzheimer’s for years, and had been in a home for about two of those. Some in the home lived in a happy daze, believing their loved ones were still alive, or maybe that they were really sunning themselves on a beach somewhere rather than sitting in a bland corridor that smelled like vomit and Dettol.

Continue reading "When starving a loved one to death is an act of love" »

MY wife’s mother died a few days ago. A stroke it was, suffered on Father’s Day.

It was very sudden and deeply distressing as a result, for though she was 85, she had been in good health for a person of her years.

She’d lived by herself in her own home, did for herself, managed her affairs with careful and practiced prudence.height="270" />

Continue reading "The public hospital system is fuelled by love, not money" »

Those of us who enjoy the occasional night on the razz often have a special outfit that we like to wear when hitting the town. Some years ago I worked in a newsroom which had a communal purple silk tie which was shared around like the yellow jacket in the Tour de France. When worn it became code for: I am leaving the office, and may be some time.

Carlton’s Brendan Fevola is in a league of his own when it comes to his fashion regimen. This elite A-grade sorting superstar seems reluctant to leave the house unless he’s frocked up, literally, in a pink petticoat, felt bowler hat with flowers in it, and a foot-long sex toy which he either hangs out the front of his pants or waves above his head.

He did it at the end of last year’s season, snapped by a casual punter who recognised him as he stood looking like something out of A Clockwork Orange on a Melbourne CBD street corner in broad daylight.

Continue reading "These nobs are going to cost us all a drink" »

Does anyone else find it quite frankly perverse that in affluent first-world Australia so much time is spent fretting about the supposed weight problems of our children when UNICEF figures show five thousand kids across the globe die every day essentially because they can’t get a clean glass of water?

I sure as hell do. But here we go again. Last week the Rudd Government’s Preventative Health Task Force Report called for a ban on junk food advertising on TV before 9:00pm and for the use of toys, cartoon characters and celebrities that appeal to children to be phased out. But the Australian Communications and Media Authority is against the banning of those TV ads.

The reaction? A seething white-hot fury coming from nice middle class homes all over Sydney. How can anyone possibly put corporate profits before our kids’ health?

Continue reading "Junk food doesn’t make kids fat - junk parents do" »

One of the rudest things you can do is tell a parent how to raise their kid. But that’s not the case when it comes to how to bring it into the world in the first place.

Everyone has tips on birth, sometimes insisting their way is the only way to do it. Have candles and incense. Have stirrups and steel. Do it with hot towels. Do it to music. Breathe like this. Think like that. Take drugs. Refuse drugs. Have a Caesarean. Be induced. Make a video.

Then there’s the row over where it’s best to give birth. In a private suite. In a public labour ward. In a birth centre. And, to much ongoing controversy, in the home.

Continue reading "Homebirth wars: this ‘right’ should come with a warning" »

A group that has suggested Swine Flu is a man-made conspiracy has now furthered its campaign against vaccination by jumping on concerns about Swine Flu vaccine.

In a press release issued on August 28, titled “Swine flu indemnity - why there are concerns about this vaccine”, the Australian Vaccination Network links an issue over medical practitioners’ indemnity with concerns about ingredients and past practices, as well as drawing in claims about past issues with vaccines.

In response, Eran Segev, president of Australian Skeptics, has warned that “The AVN is taking advantage of the current situation over insurance indemnity for the Swine Flu vaccine in order to spread fear and alarm about vaccinations in general.”

Continue reading "Swine flu madness fuels bogus vaccination claims" »

Faced with the debate over President Obama’s project to overhaul American health care, I’m finding it difficult to maintain the impartiality required of an ABC Current Affairs presenter.

I’ve had rather a lot of care from what the Americans call “socialised medicine”, here and in the UK – in fact without it, I’d be dead several times over – and some of the things that have been said against it strike me as plain ridiculous.

We’ll come to my own experience shortly, but first a taste of what I mean about the American debate. According to Sarah Palin, for example, the Obama plan will involve a system of sinister committees – “death panels” - which will decide whether the old or infirm have the right to live or die.

Continue reading "If I lived in the United States I’d be dead, or dead broke" »

Newsflash: smoking is bad for you.  So, apparently, is drinking to excess.  And, wait for it, regularly gouging on fatty foods is no good either.  It’s shocking, I know.  Better go get a coffee to help get over it all; but do make it one of those low fat, caffeine free types so as to look after yourself.

Maybe, however, you happen to be one of the 99 per cent of people who knew these things to be the facts of life already.  You may still engage in one or some of them, but you do so knowing that there are risks.

This informed consent that you grant yourself is under threat.  A new buzz-phrase is sweeping the bureaucracy and is being visited upon us all.  It’s called “preventative health”.

Continue reading "Motherhood health report tells us what we already know" »

With the current kerfuffle about binge drinking, you might be inclined to think that drinking copious amounts of alcohol is a fairly recent phenomenon. The truth is that the history of Western civilisation is soaked in alcohol. 

In the spirit of informing the current debate — and helping policy makers and public health officials to see what they’re up against — The Punch presents the following comprehensive* history, spanning over 2500 years of drunkeness.

360 BC — Plato. The history of binge drinking in the West begins in Ancient Greece with the philosopher Plato who compared drinking parties to going to the gym. Just as going to the gym temporarily weakens you but makes you stronger in the long-run, drinking parties, he argued, can make you stronger.

Continue reading "The complete* world history of binge-drinking" »

Fine dining fans will be thrilled to hear that the world’s most famous restaurant – McDonalds – has just made a bold pitch for the haute cuisine end of the market with the release of two new burgers made with prime export-quality Australian Angus beef.

“Served on a sourdough bun and with gourmet trimmings for $6.45 and $6.75 respectively, the burgers represent a premium option for cost-conscious diners” a Maccas spokesman said this week.

Many people will think this latest marketing ploy is a disgrace. And I agree with them.

Continue reading "Take your kids to Maccas with pride" »

I’m going to do something here that most pollies wouldn’t do and ask for help. Help in trying to address Australia’s $16bn alcohol toll. I want the readers of The Punch to leave a comment and share their ideas on how governments can address Australia’s binge drinking culture and the violence which stems from it.

Three years ago I took a 10 point plan to both John Howard and Kevin Rudd. It included advertising restrictions and health warning labels.

But with that plan shot down its now time for fresh ideas as this a real issue which this country as a whole needs to take responsibility for.

Continue reading "Our drunk nation" »

REMEMBER this name - or if you’re drunk, get a friend to write it on the back of a beer coaster and stick it to your forehead for future reference. It’s going to be important later on.

Not next week. Not in a month’s time. But in a few years, when shouts are banned, shots are illegal, when you are limited, by law, to a maximum of four purchases of spirits, liqueurs and/or fortified beverages within a 24-hour period at any licensed establishment.

When it’s illegal to drink in the presence of minors. Illegal to drink at any sporting event. Illegal to drink at a picnic.

Continue reading "The right of consenting adults to really tie one on" »

If you have a teenager about to get their licence make them sit down in front of the computer and watch this UK public service advertisement.

Then ask them if the message sank in. I have a theory about shock ads: that the more graphic the less effective. The more extreme the outcome, the harder it is to relate to the scenario = “that would never happen to me.”

But this four minutes of chilling horror might just be the exception.

Continue reading "Do shock safety ads work?" »

One in six people in this country will encounter problems conceiving and need medical assistance to have a child.

It’s a startling figure and it probably explains why most of us know someone who has struggled to start or add to a family.

In the past there was little that could be done for these couples, but thankfully science has provided options that many only dreamed of previously. Sadly it seems the Government is about to take those options away from many Australians.

Continue reading "IVF for the rich and infertility for the rest" »

I’ve no idea how Usain Bolt started his brilliant running career as a kid in Jamaica but I’d be pretty confident the world’s fastest man did a lot of his early charging around in bare feet. It doesn’t seem to have done him any harm. In fact, when it comes to running, it may be that bare is best.

At least that’s what Craig Richards thinks, and he’s spent a lot of time studying the pros and cons of sports footwear. And here’s a warning – anyone who’s just forked out a few hundred bucks for a new pair of running shoes, stop reading now.

Continue reading "You’re wasting your money on expensive running shoes" »

The strange thing about having swine flu is that it is more like meeting a pop culture icon than being told you’re sick.

After being examined by two doctors yesterday (the intern called for backup) I was told that I had the best accessory in the Winter 2009 collection – the H1N1 virus.

This terminology was obviously preferred by doctors who refuse to engage in the more tabloid pig or swine flu. It also would have sounded alarmist when paired with their sage advice which was basically “go back to bed and you’ll be right, young bloke like yourself” etc.

Continue reading "Swine flu review: good show, but wouldn’t buy the album" »

It’s that time of year, isn’t it? When the intention to eat healthily just doesn’t result in the same. Puritanical thoughts of eating only soup for dinner somehow morph into soup plus half a loaf of buttery toast. Steamed fish and vegies ends up as steak with cheesy potato bake.

A roast with all the trimmings is a regular occurrence and apple crumble is, somehow, always okay. Yes, the winter weather is dictating my diet and I have no choice, do I? It’s rather impossible not to put on the “winter two”. Or three, or four.

And as we reach August, this means I’m stuck wearing what fits. One, my fat jeans, or two, my leggings - marvellous creations with lots of stretch. But of course, I’m sick of both. (See boys, when we say “I don’t have anything to wear”, we often mean “I can’t fit into anything in my wardrobe”). I’m afraid that looking great in winter is only achievable if you’re Gwyneth Paltrow. Aka, Wonder Woman.

Continue reading "“Detox” the new code word for dangerous dieting" »

This week in Parliament will be an important test of the Opposition’s commitment to both health reform and economic responsibility.

Right now we’re looking at making some of the biggest reforms to our health care system since the introduction of Medicare. 

We can’t do that unless we make the hard decisions. 

Continue reading "Coalition is being reckless on private health insurance" »

Make no mistake about it. The battle to preserve Australia’s mix of public and private health care will be joined in earnest this week.

At stake is a worsening of the shaky health of our public hospitals.

At stake also is a direct cost impact for almost half the population who have private health insurance and an indirect, or delayed, impact on those who rely on public hospitals for treatment.

Continue reading "The ALP simply hates private health insurance" »

Of the sixty-eight squillion pieces of advice doled out to pregnant women, perhaps the most useless is the message to stop playing competitive sports. While the advice is well intended, it’s completely unrealistic given that pregnancy itself has become a competitive sport.

The sport of pregnancy is complex and not for the faint-hearted. There are a number of fast-changing rules that change depending on the context. First, there are the weight trials. This can take one of two forms. The first form is the competition to see who can put on the least amount of weight during their pregnancy.

My wife Kasey first became aware of this one when she caught up with a former school friend for coffee who breezily confided ‘I only put on 10 kilos when I was pregnant’.

Continue reading "Pregnancy has become a competitive sport" »

IT’S so tempting to see misfortune as a money spinner. Slipped on a grape at the supermarket? Sue!

Stressed out by an overbearing boss? Claim! Hurt your neck in a car accident? Collect!

But here’s something to consider before you speed dial a lawyer – a compensation payout may make life worse.

Continue reading "Hurt? Suing over it may hinder your road to recovery" »

The Rudd Government’s latest health blueprint is a well-intentioned but ultimately futile attempt to manage a system that has become the unwitting tool of our quest for immortality.

No matter how well the system is managed, it will remain unsustainable so long as we expect it to keep us alive way after we have passed our personal use-by date.

As we await the barrage of Baby Boomers to enter old age and demand access to the life-sustaining machines that go ‘beep’, we should draw inspiration from the 1970s classic Logan’s Run and accept death is part of the deal.

Continue reading "The real health crisis - we’re all scared of death" »

Mostly flying doesn’t bother me, although there was a time when just the thought of a trip to the airport would make me break out in a sweat.

My head would suddenly fill with all the possible bad things that could happen, notwithstanding the fact they rarely do.

On the other hand, I rarely worry about a visit to the doctor, and while I’d rather not see the inside of a hospital ward, I don’t get the chills at the thought of it. Sure I know there’s chance of something going wrong in even the best-run hospital, but how bad can things really be?

Continue reading "Why the hospital will kill you before a plane crash does" »

The two greatest experiences of my life occurred in a birthing suite.

The birth of a new baby is an exhilarating experience that produces emotions from deep within your soul.

Yet somehow I think the emotions that child birth produces in woman are even more significant.  Obviously pregnancy causes massive physical change but less obvious is the enormous emotional change having a baby ushers in.

Continue reading "Defending the right of Mums to have a safe home birth" »

King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV had extraordinarily big hands. They were imposing and strong – they were safe. They were the kind of hands that could be relied upon to dispense justice and steer the ship of state.

As the King of Tonga he made it into the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest monarch ever, topping the scales at 209kg. To be big in Tonga was to be important and in a land of big people the King was clearly the biggest.

As a Labor child of the eighties the King confirmed my own observations of power.

Continue reading "Fall of the heavyweights: how the salad set took over Labor" »

No, you won’t see dolphins cavorting through the surf if you stare at it long enough.

Enough to make your eyes bleed, isn’t it? The model forms part of the submission by the geniuses at Accenture to the National Health and Hospital Reforms Commission - you know, the crowd who released a report containing 123 recommendations on how to give a Prime Minister a headache yesterday.

The report is worth a read, and as Leo Shanahan described it yesterday, a much-needed blueprint for healthcare reform in this country. Some of it is mum-and-apple-pie agreeableness on better outcomes for rural and remote communities, or woolly stuff like this:

Continue reading "Here we go again with next to nothing on health reform" »

The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission’s final report is a much needed blueprint for health reform in Australia.

But the recommendations of the report should not be confused with actual commitments and that is the real issue now: what recommendations will the Rudd Government actually commit to before the next election so as to actually have affected some change in the health system in its first term.

Before the 2007 election Rudd promised to takeover state hospitals if there was no improvement in services by state run hospitals by June 2009. This was actually crafted in terms of a “commitment by states to reform” but what people gleamed, and what Rudd was happy for them to take away from the promise, was that if there was not improvement by June this year he would hold a referendum for a full takeover.

Continue reading "Rudd’s health revolution is not a takeover of hospitals" »

Updated 3.35pm: Every State Government will have to agree to a total ban on smoking within 50 years under a policy proposal from Labor’s youth wing ahead of next week’s national ALP conference.

The Punch understands Young Labor will announce the policy within the next few days, and has it listed for debate at its conference this weekend. However the policy will not be presented to the party’s national conference in Sydney next week for debate.

Under the plan, smoking would not only be banned everywhere in Australia, but the sale of cigarettes and cultivation of tobacco would also be declared illegal.

Continue reading "Young Labor plan to ban smoking within 50 years" »

Last night was a let down.

The cupboards were bare, the kitchen bereft of yummy smells and for the first time in two months no-one really cared who had the remote at 7pm.

Sunday night’s MasterChef finale celebrations were a distant memory, and all we were left with was an empty feeling.

Continue reading "How to cope with post-MasterChef depression" »

For those like me who’ve wondered (worried) about how many innocent brain cells they’ve wiped out at the pub over the years, the most exciting news in ages is that, just maybe, our brains are smarter than we are.

How so? The evidence is growing that the brain isn’t a fixed collection of a few billion neurones, but a living laboratory that can make its own new cells. And while that is not an excuse to wipe them out with that fourth martini, it does open up a whole new way of understanding the human mind.

It’s all part of an evolving area of science which views our brains as plastic. And no, we’re not talking that hard coloured stuff they make Lego out of. The idea is that your brain is changeable. And one way to encourage it to do make the right changes is– and here we get radical – thinking in the right way.

Continue reading "The modest drinkers’ guide to growing back brain cells" »

I’ve long suspected what the secret to happiness is, and now I’ve got proof. It comes courtesy of the Nerve Gut Research Laboratory at the University of Adelaide.

It’s not love or money or success.

It’s definitely not in a self-help book.

It’s a good sleep and a good poo. It’s that easy.

Continue reading "Science proves morning ablution the only solution" »

I have always had a fair deal of respect for nutritionist Rosemary Stanton but realised yesterday that this is only because I haven’t been paying attention.

Not sure if the rest of you caught it, but Mrs Stanton has launched a pretty out-there tirade against Bindy Irwin’s new commercial deal as the public face of a particularly sinister company.

Not Union Carbide or Exxon or British Aerospace but the baking products conglomerate Greens General Foods, one of the shadiest players in the evil cake trade.

Continue reading "Kiddies everywhere at risk from Bindi’s cake habit" »

Restaurants are defensive of their hygene in the same way that newspapers are defensive of the accuracy of their reporting. Phone up and complain and the last thing either will do is admit liability. And nowadays when people are treated shabbily they turn to the internet. Or me.

What surprises me is the number of emails and comments that come my way from diners who’ve returned home from some of Australia’s top restaurants only to fall ill. I have become, you might say, shit-central - and vomit-central - of the blog world.

The truth is for what I see is there is a good chance you may become ill eating out although not always is it the restaurant’s fault.

Apart from the food authorities in NSW, the food inspection Stasi can’t really be bothered to help diners.

Continue reading "Eaaaarggh…what really made you sick last night" »

If you’re like me - and hopefully you’re not, since that would make you a lazy couch potato with a strong dislike for exercise - then you’ll no doubt be heartily cheered by the efforts of a bunch of amphibious rats somewhere in Japan.

Apparently two groups of these rats were set different tasks. The unlucky ones got to paddle in a pool for six hours, with a brief break halfway through. The ‘lucky’ ones got to carry a load of weight and struggle hard for twenty seconds before being lifted from the water for ten seconds, and then thrown back in.

Clearly, some people have a strange idea of fun. But for the rats, there were some interesting changes. The ones that exercised for six hours got fitter.

But, and this is the good news bit, so did the rats which did twenty seconds hard work, followed by ten seconds break – repeated over just four and a half minutes of swimming.

Continue reading "Forget eight-minute abs, six minutes is enough exercise" »

IT has become so hard to be a smoker. At a recent wedding I was the only person nipping outside during the bad songs for a quick gasper, and I’m sure the smell of tobacco was following me around the room. Lately I’ve noticed security guards starting to move us on when lighting up outside certain buildings. The next logical step in this “ban creep” is for councils to outlaw smoking in public spaces such as parks and on footpaths. The only place you could smoke would be inside your own home - which would be the end of smoking for me, as there’s a ban there too.

Anti-smokers now believe a fresh round of punitive tax increases could wean a million Australians off the cancer sticks. The price of some packs would be headed for around $20. This is exasperating. If everybody knows the dangers and costs, as the latest unnecessarily revolting ad campaign says, why is this state-sponsored suicide still legal at all? Why don’t we just outlaw cigarettes?

This graph, in its unedited form, shows the relationship between consumption of tobacco and the price of a pack. It demonstrates that price rises work, but I’ve added in what I believe to be an additional force on consumption - the dramatic fall in the social acceptability of smoking that began in the 80s and has more recently fallen like a ciggie butt to the footpath.

Continue reading "Stop being polite about smoking, and just outlaw it" »

Enforcing a blanket ban on advertising certain foods to children is not the answer to solving Australia’s obesity problem.

Activists and some politicians bleating for a ban on advertising high fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) foods on all media before 9pm need to get real.

Arguing that television adverts for HFSS foods are almost totally responsible for making people overweight, especially children, is an extraordinary leap of logic.

Continue reading "Changing ads on TV won’t tackle the obesity epidemic" »

…..but the body is not.

And I am in a whole world of pain.

And no, seeing as you ask, I am not about talking politics (or at least not on this occasion). Rather, I mean the physical pain of preparing to climb, just four weeks from now, Africa’s Mt Kilimanjaro – “Killy”, to its friends.

Continue reading "5895m above sea level and the oxygen is thinning…" »

With the beginning of the new financial year there are invariably small changes to our lives.

Many of these revolve around money. Things like tax cuts, rate changes and increases in family allowance benefits.

The middle of the year also gives us time for more personal reflection: it’s July and I still haven’t taken the bottles from my April birthday party to the recycling bin – just a random example.

But here is a list of ways that things have changed today and The Punch’s evaluation of whether we’re better off for it.

1. Crappy tax cuts introduced

Kevin Rudd committed to these tax cuts before the last election and now has to go through with them.

The promise was made in the heady days of economic boom time when we enjoyed daily joy rides in limousines with Paris Hilton and wore extinct animals on our heads. Now we’re dressing in possums and the best celebrity we can muster is Kochie giving some sage financial advice: “Here’s one folks, ever thought of knitting your dinner?”

Continue reading "For better or for worse: 10 things that changed today" »

The outsourcing of responsibility for your own stupid behaviour to our nanny government continues apace with Kevin Rudd’s cockamamie plan to effectively pay people to stop shovelling tons of junk down their throats while sitting on their bum watching the telly.

Central to this plan is the utterly laughable claim from the 2007-2008 National Health Survey that 68 per cent of Australians are obese or overweight.

This figure says nothing about the real health of many thousands of Australians, but plenty about the ludicrously narrow definition of obesity.

Continue reading "Hey Kev, get your hands off my modestly-sized beer gut" »

Most things that are good for you tend to be unpleasant. I’m thinking broccoli, exercise, less booze. But there’s good news at last. The key to a longer life is more orgasms.

No, we’re not necessarily talking about more intercourse, although there’s nothing wrong with that. This isn’t about the perfect partner who boosts obscure chemicals in your brain, cuts stress, and keeps you going well into the next century.

Continue reading "The secret to a longer life: more orgasms" »

In our body-image obsessed world, being told that you can be thinner by the weekend sounds delicious.

That was the hook Grazia magazine used in publishing the latest US diet craze in its “Thin by Friday” feature in the June issue.  NOVA 96.9’s newsreader Kristy Warner has also shared her experience of the diet on-air.

Continue reading "Medical mag calls out glossy on potentially fattening diet" »