Health Report - Separate Stories Podcast

One of the measures taken to prevent virus transmission has been social distancing and lockdown, but these can have their own negative health impact. A study on the behaviour of teens undertaken during the pandemic identified some of the particular health risks for this group.

People with Type 1 diabetes need to monitor what's going on with their bodies because they can't make insulin—and it's vital in maintaining blood glucose. An imbalance can be dangerous and damage blood vessels, nerves, and kidneys.

Updated versions of coronavirus vaccines targeting the Omicron variant have recently been announced by Pfizer and Moderna. There's been an impressive turnaround time and yet still the virus has continued to mutate.

Australia has recorded a lot of COVID-19 cases, and about 10 per cent of affected people have had prolonged symptoms, consequently there are many stories from those who say they have long COVID but unable to access help.

Research on links between mental health and premature mortality has some disturbing conclusions—a mental health disorder can impact future mental health as well as physical health.

The risk factors for heart disease or stroke are often high blood pressure, cholesterol, and maybe smoking. But Indigenous people think that the wisdom of culture can help combat these negative elements.

Does Australia need a Disease Control Centre? How would it operate, and what work would be done there?

About one in 10 Australians have osteoarthritis — it's caused by the wear and tear of the cushioning in your body's joints, and it can be painful to the point of being debilitating.

We know healthy food is good for our body, but evidence shows it's good for our mind too, and the peak body for dietetics in Australia wants nutrition help to be covered by Medicare in mental health plans.

Radiation and hormone therapy come with side effects, and while many people are willing to go through whatever it takes to make sure breast cancer is well and truly gone, a new study has shown there may be an easier way.

A new Australian study says we shouldn't necessarily be telling all women about their breast density as a matter of course, because it can have downsides too.

The cancer risks that run through generations of families—and the growing frontier in medicine trying to change that.

Conversations about the bad form of cholesterol involve LDL — low-density lipoprotein. Whereas high density lipoprotein is the good form, taking cholesterol out of the artery. LDL is supposed to be as low and HDL to be on the high side. An important new study suggests there's a limit on how high HDL should be.

In Australia smoking has decreased generally, but tobacco use is higher than average in young people with mental health issues. And especially so in those with more severe types of mental illness.

The term 'time toxicity' has been conceived by a group of cancer researchers in Canada, expressing the idea that if treatment to extend a patient's life involves lengthy periods in medical facilities, it may be time wasted.

Heart defects at birth are not uncommon, and most can be patched, but some need surgery and leave babies with half a heart. Now new research is looking at exercise as a key to improving their life expectancy.

Cancer drugs can reduce the size of tumors, but it's also important to know if someone's life will be improved by taking them. This factor is not considered so relevant for some of these drugs' marketability.

Study on the types of fat in our body has become more in-depth and now 800 different lipids can be measured to check your metabolic risk and health profile.

Abortion is legal in Australia, but those at greatest risk from unplanned pregnancy are often least able to access it. Experts say better training pathways are needed to ensure an equitable spread of abortion access nationwide.

One of the hottest areas in mental health research is a possible connection between mental health and the immune system, and if mental health is associated with immune disorders like ulcerative colitis and asthma.