Every so often a new potential drug or supplement treatment bobs up in the literature and is worth looking into. The latest one to pique my interest is palmitoylethanolamide (PEA to its friends). The article…
- Conjoint Clinical Associate Professor, Deakin University School of Medicine and Specialist Pain Medicine Physician, Deakin University
The announcement on Friday last week that pregabalin (Lyrica) had made it onto the PBS is a huge relief for sufferers of chronic nerve pain. It also means that the true cost of providing appropriate care…
This article greeted my tragically decaffeinated gaze this morning as I fired up the computer at work. You’d have to be concerned about a senior drug and alcohol clinician like Alex Wodak saying something…
Did you hold your nose and take your daily dose of fish oil this morning? Or perhaps you opted for an odour-free capsule? Well, you’re not alone. Around one in four Australians take fish oil supplements…
PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Myotherapy was developed by American Bonnie Prudden in the 1970s as a system of treating painful…
I recently attended the Faculty of Pain Medicine’s Spring Meeting at Coolum. The Faculty has just launched a new online education initiative in conjunction with the Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP…
It’s been another interesting week for those who follow the literature on CAM. To start off there is this article which is a big and well-conducted meta-analysis of Omega-3 supplementation in cardiac prevention…
Insomnia is far from a modern concept, with sleep remedies such as opioids, chamomile and valerian root recorded in the earliest existing medical writings. The word insomnia itself dates back to at least…
The MJA this month leads with a startling statistic. Diabetes-related foot disease is apparently causing ‘a limb (to be) lost every 3 hours.’ As someone who works in amputation rehabilitation for a living…
A Senate Committee report released nearly a year ago which recommended that the Federal Government stop using the PBS for political grandstanding has finally had a response from the Health Minister Tanya…
It’s been a really interesting month for those of us who follow the chronic pain literature. The idea that higher brain processes such as attention, emotional functioning and even language can be affected…
Australians living with back problems are 2.5 times more likely to experience a depressive disorder than the wider population, according to a report released today by the government’s Australian Institute…
It’s about to get a lot harder to believe food advertising. Ministers from Australian states and New Zealand with responsibility for oversight of food labelling met by teleconference at the end of last…
Regular readers will not be surprised that the MJA articles on CAM teaching in universities have not gone unnoticed by this column. Ian Musgrave has done a typically thorough job highlighting one of the…
I have just attended the 15th World Congress of Pain Clinicians, and while there, I went to a session chaired by one of the unsung heroes of evidence-based medicine, Prof Andrew Moore from Oxford University…
Homeopaths in the UK are about to find out what it’s like to be properly regulated….and they don’t like it. Consolidation of existing regulations by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency…
Medical doctors are often accused of paying little attention to dietary interventions for many diseases. On the other hand, dietary fads and commercial supplements are frequently based on little, if any…
Hair removal is a modern obsession. Despite the economic downturn, the beauty industry is booming, and it seems that a big part of looking good is getting rid of unwanted hair. Men as well as women are…
As a kid I can remember my Dad going off to Rotary meetings and coming back talking about how polio could one day be eradicated. He and his decidedly uncool and stuffy Rotarian buddies did some serious…
The Channel 9 Mornings program this morning ran a story about a Christian couple who claim to be able to cure cancer by the power of prayer. Not surprisingly, for those who missed it, there is no acknowledgement…
The debate in society about marriage equality for same-sex couples has many facets. Until now though, health arguments have not been to the fore. The Melbourne Herald Sun ran with a story about some doctors…
It’s been a pretty tough week for supporters of alternatives to medicine. First up, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) released a draft for public comment of its much-anticipated consultation document…
The popular internet meme First World Problems makes often bitingly ironic statements about things which are really irritating and sometimes infuriating, but only from a position of self-involved privilege…
I have become aware due to my own diligent research on the internet (literally hours and hours) about a massive conspiracy by greedy and unscrupulous engineers. I am talking about the fearsome, faceless…
The tragic case of Penelope Dingle’s death from a potentially treatable cancer was the subject of a moving ABC Australian Story. Following a coronial inquest, the case continues to make headlines with…
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