Hi,
Anyone who has been to see me in the last few months has probably heard about the sandwich competition I was holding. It started off as the Sydney Sandwich Competition, but then I accepted an entry from Cronulla, so it became the National Sandwich Championships. As the weeks went by, I decided to open it even further, and so it evolved to become The Australasian Sandwich Classic, or ASC. The ASC was held last weekend, and it was a roaring success.
My mate Ryan was meant to bring 3 live mud …

If you haven’t yet heard, recent studies have shown that women can reduce their risk of developing breast cancer by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Breast cancer is one of the cancers that has a strong genetic link, so for those who might be at a greater risk of developing it later in life, this is big news, as anything you can do to reduce your risk is obviously important.
According to Xanth Kleinig from The Daily Telegraph, “A major review of research by the World Cancer Research Fund blamed alcohol, lack …

One of the easiest recipes you will ever see and one of the best.
Had a few mates round for a Barbie the other day and we got stuck into a bit of this. So easy (maybe not for the chicken) and so delicious. And a real conversation point….
We did a couple of different marinades—dukkah, piri piri (garlic/chili/lemon) and a dry spice rub (cumin, cinnamon, paprika, salt and pepper) and the beer of choice was VB.
Method:
Rub marinade all over chicken and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
Heat barbecue. I had it …

I asked my colleague, the legendary Deb Cooper, Naturopath at Health & Fertility Matters, Maroubra Junction and my old stomping ground The Wholistic Medical Centre, Surry Hills, to give us all some advice leading into the dreaded cold and flu season. God love her, here’s what she’s come up with.
Simple Measures for Common Colds
Generally a cold takes 3 days to come on, 3 days with you and 3 days to go. You may not prevent it but you can ease the symptoms and prevent it worsening. The best treatment is echinacea …

Really bad it seems!
In the May 2nd 2009 edition of the Good Weekend Magazine there was an article about the hazards of excessive drinking. It was specifically looking at women, but it discussed the topic in general as well, and I was so surprised by some of the stats that I thought I should share them:
“The lifetime relative risk of death (that’s right, DEATH!) from an alcohol related disease MORE THAN TRIPLES when consumption goes from 2 to 3 standard drinks a day”.
“At 10 standard drinks a day, women have …

So, we’re looking at Osteoporosis and which type of exercise is best for it. This study looked at how weight bearing exercise (that is, exercise where you bear your own weight, like running, as opposed to swimming, where your weight is supported by the water) compares with resistance exercise (that is, weights). Hope I haven’t used the word weight too much yet…
Now we all know that weight bearing exercise is better than non weight bearing for increasing bone mineral density. There had been some studies in recent years where it …

What I wanted to do in this blog was summarise an article I read in a journal recently. It’s the sort of journal the general public don’t get access to and so most people don’t get the information. The study tried to compare the “scope, completeness, and accuracy of drug information in Wikipedia” with the information on a well established, reputable, edited, objective website (The Medscape Drug Reference Database).
It’s good to see someone doing this study. These days it’s extremely common for people to research their condition on the internet. …

There are some pretty interesting studies coming out on coffee intake at the moment. Now, let’s not get carried away. For every study telling you that it’s better to do more of one things there’s usually another saying you should do less of it. It’s all about balance, and what works for some individuals doesn’t work for others. We should apply this same principle to coffee intake.
But I did want to mention a couple of articles on coffee that I read recently as the results are quite impressive. In the …

I’m going to talk here about the results of two studies. The first study says that they have conclusively proven that if you
exercise at a higher intensity, you will lose more fat. And really, this probably sounds like the most obvious thing ever,
right?! But it’s interesting because for years most exercise physiologists have actually believed, and I’m not making this
up, that exercising at medium intensity is the best way to lose fat, eg, long slow walks.
There was some graph developed years ago based on some study and I don’t remember …

I read this study where the authors measured the Vitamin D levels in people suffering chronic pain to see if it may be a contributing factor. Vitamin D plays a role in pain perception and neuromuscular functioning, and so dysfunctions related to Vitamin D levels may present as abnormal pain states (in this case elevated).
The researchers measured the Vitamin D levels in 267 people and compared it with other parameters “such as the amount and duration of narcotic pain medication used, self-reported levels of pain, emotional distress, physical functioning, health perception”.
“The researchers found that patients who had inadequate vitamin-D levels …