Don’t stack your diets

Many people resolve to lose weight in the new year after indulging over the holidays but ‘diet stacking’ – following multiple diet strategies at the same time to accelerate results – might cause potentially serious health risks.

Ice baths and marathons

The new year is always a time of new health resolutions, but exercising to ape the status of others, rather than focusing on one’s own health, can do more harm than good.

Easing the slow grief of dementia

The growing burden of dementia in Australia’s ageing population is also borne by those who care for them, and the nation’s army of family caregivers deserves recognition and support as well.

The 12-year gap: how Australians can stay healthier for longer

Australians face a decade of poor health unless they close the gap between living longer and staying well.

Pushing the right buttons

New research from Edith Cowan University has highlighted the need for the effective management and integration of new technologies in the workplace, in order to protect workers’ psychosocial health.

Hospital reform can lead to better care

With productive prices, and a fairer federal cap, states can give their health systems more certainty and better incentives, while tougher, more realistic hospital budgets and productivity savings can generate more care for every hospital dollar.

Use your body – keep your mind

The truth of the old saying that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body has been proven once again by a new study which suggests that exercising in mid and later life can reduce the risk of dementia.

Last call

Alcohol-related diseases and injuries could cost the Australian healthcare system a staggering $68 billion over 60 years if nothing is done to stop the impact of the nation’s collective drinking problem.

Wellness woo

Legitimate medical therapies have turned up in the weird health borderland of beauty and “wellness” but when untrained or barely trained people use them therapies, they can do real harm.

The problem of private health insurance

Australia’s private health insurance industry continues to boom, despite claims of crisis in the industry, by reducing cover, imposing red tape and pocketing $5.5 billion of consumer premiums for themselves.

“Bug drugs” could help cure cancer

We’re still a long way from a “cure” for cancer but one day we could have programmable, self-navigating bacteria that find tumours, release treatment only where needed, then vanish without a trace.

Aged care in rural Australia needs digital health tech

Digital health technologies can help Australia’s rural health and aged care systems cut costs, increase efficiency and connect staff, residents and patients to other services.