We have come to rely on pills to fix all our ills. Yet 75% of the illness burden in western countries is lifestyle related. Realistically the solutions will come from lifestyle changes not pills. We cannot medicate our way to wellness. Whilst this infographic uses...
The G20 met on the weekend. As usual the topic of sustainability of health systems gets discussed. It is a problem facing all countries. The demographics of aging populations coupled with increasingly expensive healthcare makes for a government economist’s nightmare....
In medicine, beliefs and ideas get very ingrained. Some, such as screening mammography become sacred cows. And when sacred cows are questioned the reaction is more akin to dealing with heresy than dealing with science. This was on display again with yet another...
Over the weekend I saw an article claiming that 70% of Australians wanted something done about gambling. As usual that “something” is code for government intervention of some description. The end result is generally inconvenience for the majority with no impact on the...
A fortnight ago I wrote about how the role of cholesterol in heart disease was being challenged. There was also a challenge to the widespread prescribing of statin medications. And to cap it off we saw a near hysterical reaction of some health authorities to this. The...
A headline about lack of hospital beds or people missing out on care is always popular. Often statistics are used to show that certain sections of the population are getting less access to treatment than other sections. It reinforces the sense of crisis about the...
