As you’ve no doubt recently heard, there are calls to make codeine a prescription drug. It is currently an over the counter pain reliever and something that a lot of people routinely use. Chances are you have used it yourself and if so, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. A new report published in The Medical Observer says that for the decade 2000-2009 the number of deaths from taking codeine in Australia more than doubled. Here are some of the key points from the article:

Almost half of these …

A new study has found that working more than 55 hours a week “significantly increases your risk of having a stroke”. abc.net.au broke the story this week, citing a study conducted on over 600,000 people over the past 8 and a half years.
Key findings of the study included:

People working 55 hours a week had a 33 per cent greater risk of having a stroke than people who worked a standard 35 – 40 hour week.
The more hours people worked beyond standard hours, the higher their chance of having a stroke …

An article in The New York Times this week has shed light on the changes that take place in the brain in response to exercise. The story focused on a series of brain scans performed on a lady who started exercising at the age of 77 and went on to set numerous world records in masters track and field competition.
In short, when compared to other 90 somethings who were studied, her brain showed:
Fewer abnormalities in the white matter (the cells that help to transmit messages from one part of the …

As an Osteopath I see a lot of people with disc injuries. People are understandably concerned about doing damage to their discs, as they play an important role in the structural integrity of the spine, and live very close to nerves and the spinal cord, so they can cause a lot of pain and other problems.
There have been a number of studies where researchers take members of the general population and perform scans on them. they are trying to find out how many people actually have a particular injury. For …

What I’m going to look at in this posting relates to how quickly one should start addressing a complaint of low back pain. Historically, people suffering from low back pain have been told to rest, sometimes for very long periods. It’s time to right this wrong.
I have treated plenty of people who 20 years ago were given a neck collar for a minor car crash and wore it for 3 months despite no evidence of any tissue damage, because “that was what they did back then”. Researchers have compared the …

I pity the fool that volunteered for this study. 153 healthy, that’s right, HEALTHY, men and women VOLUNTEERED, if you can believe it, to be given the virus that develops into the common cold. Imagine doing that to yourself. I think they had a cotton bud with the flu virus inserted into their nostril or something. Good times!
Anyway, I am loving their work, for we all get to benefit from the results. Prior to being given the virus, their sleep habits were measured for 14 nights, both in terms of …

A new study has found that men who had higher cardiorespiratory fitness (endurance) had significantly lower rates of certain types of cancer compared to less fit men. The differences were pretty huge for both Lung Cancer and ColoRectal Cancer, and seriously, none of us want that.
The benefits get larger the fitter you become. Compared to the least fit, the fittest people had a 55% less risk of developing Lung Cancer, and a 44% less risk of ColoRectal Cancer.
Each level of fitness provides a little more benefit – even moving up …

New research suggests it could be very simple to add up to 8 years to your life. 8 more times you get to celebrate Christmas with your family, 8 more years of travelling to enjoy, 8 more years watching your grandchildren grow up. Or if you’re my Nanna Joyce (pictured), 8 more years of Singapore Slings!
The research, which followed 17,000 people for 30 years, identified the components that make up the unhealthiest lifestyle. These were physical inactivity, smoking, poor diet and alcohol use.
For a 65 year old who doesn’t …

Seasons Greetings one and all! How good is the Pacman Christmas Tree! I certainly get the impression from talking to many of you that it has been a full on year, so I hope you get to enjoy a well deserved break and take some time to recover and prepare for 2016.
Just to let you know I will be working all the way up to and including Christmas Eve, then back on Monday the 4th of January.
Hope you have a great Christmas and a happy and HEALTHY New Year!
 

Apparently not! Even I thought it was but the results of a new study (to read it click here) have found that “not only does running not cause osteoarthritis in the knee, it may even help to keep the problem at bay”.
The study followed 2863 people and found that “runners, regardless of the age they were when they ran, had less knee pain and osteoarthritis.”
This supported another previous study of 74,00 people from 2013 which “found that running significantly reduced the risk of both osteoarthritis and knee replacement.”
Some other choice quotes …