

Health Report
ABC Australia
Covering the health stories that make a difference. Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander dissect the latest and breaking news in the medical world.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 8, 2022 • 30min
8 August: Cervical cancer screening | Miscarriage and stroke risk | BCG vaccine and kids | Shingles update
An option for cervical cancer screening could be a game-changer and miscarriages or stillbirths may bring an increased risk of stroke

Aug 1, 2022 • 29min
1 August: Ventilation | Vitamin D | Shingles
With COVID there are more protective measures to take—and there's a historical parallel | The results of a trial of vitamin D supplementation find no evidence to support vitamin D supplements | Shingles can be a painful disease and those over 70 can have a free vaccination, but not the costly and most effective one.

Jul 25, 2022 • 29min
25 July: Health services in the final year of life; clarity for legal wording on voluntary assisted dying; social inequity and heart attack; climate and mental health
The amount of money to spend on health care in the last year of someone's life is debatable. | The vital eligibility criterion for voluntary assisted dying in Australia is a problematic issue for doctors. | For a heart attack you want the best care possible—but where you live can affect limit that. Climate change is becoming more obvious—it now includes a noticeable mental health aspect.

Jul 18, 2022 • 29min
18 July: Living with COVID ain't rosy; Why vax boosters are necessary; Exercise won't fix poor diet
Some immunologists are concerned that COVID-19 is not travelling as expected. An internationally respected immunologist had four doses of COVID vaccine but now recovering from heart failure after getting the virus.There are still community questions about the value of getting a fourth vaccine dose—we asked a vaccine development expert to explain why you should.Fitness and living longer are more than just how much you eat and how much you exercise?

Jul 11, 2022 • 29min
11 July: Tackling obesity | Standards on how to handle sepsis | The right amount of Vitamin D
In 2009 Australia launched a National Preventive Health Strategy with the aim of being the healthiest country in the world by 2020—where we're at with it now.The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare has created a national clinical care standard for diagnosis and treatment.Many people are told to take a vitamin D supplement, especially in winter when there's less sunshine, but you can have too much of it.

Jul 4, 2022 • 29min
4 July: Coming to terms with long COVID; Vaxes for variants; An artificial pancreas; Protecting pandemic teens
Australia has many stories from people who say they have long COVID but who are unable to access help | Updated versions of coronavirus vaccines targeting the Omicron variant have been announced, yet the virus still mutates | People with Type 1 diabetes need to monitor their blood glucose but automatic systems are being trialled to assist them | A study on the behaviour of teens undertaken during the pandemic identified some of the particular health risks for this group.

Jun 27, 2022 • 29min
Speculating on an Australian Centre of Disease Control and Prevention; How Indigenous culture can protect the heart; Associations between mental health and mortality
What an Australian Centre for Disease Control might aim to be; An Indigenous perspective and research to engage culture for protection against cardiovascular disease and stroke; Research on links between mental health and mortality concludes that both mental and physical health can be adversely impacted.

Jun 20, 2022 • 29min
Breast density and MRIs, diet and mental health, genomics and osteoarthritis
There may be a link between what you eat and your mental health—also, avoiding overtreatment for breast cancer; predicting your risk of osteoarthritis; and whether mammogram results should inform women about breast density.

Jun 13, 2022 • 29min
The cancer risks that run through generations
The cancer risks that run through generations of families—and the growing frontier in medicine trying to change that.

Jun 6, 2022 • 29min
Cancer treatment and 'time toxicity'; youth mental health and smoking; a paradox for cholesterol levels
The term 'time toxicity' expresses the idea that if treatment to extend a patient's life means lengthy periods in medical facilities, it may be time wasted; In Australia smoking has decreased generally, but tobacco use is higher than average in young people with mental health issues; The bad form of cholesterol is LDL — low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein is the good form. An new study suggests there's a limit on how high HDL should be.


