Skinny dipping?
As you read this we will be in the middle of winter – which is shaping up grey and wet. Up until 2019, each year there were predictions around Easter that the upcoming flu seasonwould be the worst on record. Read More...
Clinical Opinion
Mental health for all
When you read this, it is likely (remember 2010) but not certain that we will know who will form the next government. Health barely rated a mention during the campaign, which given the events of the past two years was surprising. Read More...
Celebrate progress and aim for more
Despite enormous progress in the last half century, medicine tends to be a glass half empty type of profession. We focus on what is wrong and shrug off what is good. This is not to say that all is perfect or that we cannot aim to do better, but this is not mutually exclusive with pausing to acknowledge what has been achieved. Read More...
Rethinking pain management
For those old enough, cast your mind back to the mid-1990s. There were no oral opiate medications aside from those containing codeine, and these were used sparingly. Read More...
Some things change – others do not
This year will require everyone in the health sector to be adaptable and innovative as COVID becomes an endemic virus. It will also require a pivot back to all the non-COVID health issues which have been ignored to varying degrees over the past two years. Read More...
Age and wisdom
The website statistica.com has a chart showing life expectancy in Australia steadily increasing since 1870. A person born in Australia in 2020 can expect to live for 83.2 years (females 85.4 and males 81.5). Some enjoy good health in later years. Read More...
Move it, move it!
This is the second year running (excuse the pun) that the City to Surf has been cancelled. I will never break any land speed records but it is certainly an annual goal to extend my runs up to 12km in the lead up to late August. Reaching the finish line is always a boost to the spirit. Increased training in any physical activity can remind us of muscles we haven’t thought about for a while. Read More...
Every breath you take
Different body systems hold different places in our psyche. We think of life (outside the womb) starting with the first breath and passing as taking our last. In between those two bookends, in the main, most of us do not have to think much about breathing. It just happens. When we get “short of breath” it does focus our minds though. Read More...