General Health

Being active has been shown to have many health benefits both physically and mentally...

Pain can be acute or chronic. Chronic pain sometimes cannot be cured and when you are in pain, it is natural to feel angry, frustrated, sad, hopeless and depressed. Pain can disrupt your sleep, change your personality and mood and affect your work and relationships. By learning how to accommodate your life to pain, you can improve your quality of life significantly. Drug treatment includes simple analgesics like paracetamol, non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and the stronger opioid drugs...

There are 4 stages of sleep: Stage 1: non REM- wake. It is the changeover from wakefulness to sleep and it lasts a few minutes Stage 2: non REM- light sleep. It lasts about 25min when heart beat and breathing slow down and muscles relax...

Freud often used the iceberg to describe the mind. The tip of the iceberg above the water represents the Conscious Mind. Beneath the water is the much larger bulk of the iceberg which represents the subconscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is about 10%, the subconscious 50-60% and the unconscious 30-40%...

Neurogenesis is the generation and incorporation of new nerve cells into the brain circuits. Previously, neuroanatomist such as Santiago Ramon Cajal believed the nervous system was not capable of regeneration and that neurogenesis in humans no longer continued after the embryonic development phase...

At birth a baby’s brain contains 100 billions neurons roughly as many nerve cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. The brain starts to form about 3 weeks after conception. As the neuron matures, more and more synapses are made. A foetus brain contains roughly twice as many neurons that it needs. As a normal part of brain development, any connections that are seldom or never used will be eliminated. Circuits that are often used will become permanent...

Most people are afraid of having dementia later in life. My mother has severe dementia and could not recognise me, my sister and her grandchildren even though we always live together. It is a very sad experience and it is a condition that is on the increase as our life expectancy improves...

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas to help glucose enter the cells in muscle, fat and liver where it is used for energy. Therefore Insulin regulates the storage or usage of energy...

Insulin resistance is the root of many chronic diseases and over half of adults in the United States are affected without being aware of it. Dr Benjamin Bikman, in his book “Why We Get Sick”, gave scientifically proven strategies to improve insulin resistance...

Health is the most important value in this life and yet most people take it for granted until illness comes and we suffer from it. The 5 leading causes of death in Australia are coronary heart disease, dementia, cerebrovascular disease (stroke), cancers (mainly lung cancer), and chronic obstructive airways disease. Diabetes is a major underlying cause of heart attack, stroke, blindness...

In prehistoric times before humans knew farming, they were hunters and gatherers and they could go without eating for long periods of time. It took a lot of energy and time to hunt game or gather fruits and nuts. Nowadays, with the advance of electronic devices, people spend more time sitting watching televisions, using computers and playing games so the lifestyle has changed significantly...

Dr Louis Ignarro was awarded a Nobel prize in 1998 for the discovery of Nitric oxide and cardiovascular health. Nitric oxide NO has a very short half life and is identified to be an endothelial derived relaxing factor...