I guess a lot of you saw the recent articles (such as this one in The Australian) questioning the effectiveness of Paracetamol for back pain. This is newsworthy because it is probably the first thing a doctor would recommend for back pain, so we want to know if it actually works. It has very few side effects, if any, so it’s almost certainly not going to be dangerous to take, but according to this new research, there may not be much point.
The study in question looked at 1,600 people with …

I’m really excited to be heading to India next month! After speaking at a conference earlier this year I was approached to go and do a short work/teaching placement at an elite Sports Medicine Hospital in Mumbai. I’ll be doing 10 days working in the clinic, which will involve a combination of treating patients (apparently it’s where the Indian Cricketers and Bollywood Starlets hang out), and running daily lectures/seminars on sports injury management.
I’ve never been to India so I’m really looking forward to being able to go someplace new and …

Soothes a dry sore throat. Welcome to Cold and Flu Season. I’ve been laid low the last couple of days with a flu that would kill a grizzly bear (spoken like a true man I know) and as I was lining up my potions and vitamins and other drugs I remember an article I’d read on Manuka Honey.
According to the article, published on the BBC website, Manuka Honey’s antiseptic properties can help enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics. It was tested on hospital strength bacteria.
Here are a couple of choice quotes …

Thanks to the internet, we have access to more information that ever before. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to figure out whether something we read on the internet is true or not. Wikipedia is a site that always comes up very high on search engines, so if you’re ever looking to come up with a diagnosis or learn more about why your shoulder/knee/hip/head hurts, it’s a common place to end up. Sadly, a recent study has shown that the site is “riddled with errors”.
An article titled “Is Wikipedia Dangerous To …

Don’t mean to brag (I actually love bragging), but having been consulted by a lot of World and Olympic champion athletes I can tell you that one of the biggest issues they face is how to prevent recurrence of injuries. When it comes to hamstring tears, there is very strong evidence that we can reduce the risk of suffering one by performing a simple (but incredibly challenging) exercise.
The New York Times recently posted an article outlining how this exercise works. Here’s a great excerpt and a link to the full article. I …