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Articles

Read the latest articles relevant to your clinical practice, including exclusive insights from Healthed surveys and polls.

By reading selected clinical articles, you earn CPD in the Educational Activities (EA) category whenever you click the “Claim CPD” button and follow the prompts. 

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Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Maternity Matters

This is one of those resources you will wish you would have discovered earlier. Maternity Matters (https://maternity-matters.com.au/) is a website developed and largely authored by well-known Brisbane GP Dr Wendy Burton. As the name suggests it is reservoir of information related to pregnancy and is aimed chiefly at the general public but also provides a healthy serving of support materials for Australian health professionals as well. Dr Burton who is Chair of the Antenatal/Postnatal Specific Interest Group for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has compiled articles, interviews and links to important guidelines and similar reference materials on this site, that cover everything from pre-conception checklists to the post-natal issues such as vaccinations and return to exercise. This website is strongly based on evidence but is also very practical, addressing many of the more controversial and topical issues currently confronting the pregnant woman such as tongue-tie in infants and children’s risk of allergy. All the information is current and very Australian, with contributions from some very well-respected experts. As Dr Burton points out there is a lot of information out there on pregnancy and infant health - some of it very good, but, let’s face it, there’s a lot of dodgy stuff too – leaving women often confused and unnecessarily anxious. Asking patients not to Google is unlikely to be all that effective, but if patients can be directed to an authoritative, comprehensive site such as Maternity Matters you can feel confident that the information they receive will be reasonable and largely in keeping with what you, the qualified GP, would have said – if you were available at 3am when the patient was awake and seeking answers. Access the resource here

By Dr Linda Calabresi
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Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Listeria protection

These days the first question most GPs get asked, after confirming a wanted first pregnancy is what does the woman need to take or eat, and, importantly what should she avoid. It gets tricky doesn’t it? If you avoided  everything that is said to potentially cause harm (according to the world wide web and social media) the pregnant woman will run a serious risk of malnutrition!  Much of the fear stems from the risk of contracting listeria – that surreptitious bacteria that can cause – very occasionally, severe infection in affected adults – but more importantly for the pregnant women can cause miscarriage, premature birth or stillbirth. You need some authoritative, credible information sources to fall back on when giving these vulnerable patients advice. Enter the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand website. On their website they have this fantastic resource: an information page entitled Listeria and food. Quite simply, it’s a precis of what women should and should not eat to keep them safe from this infection. To be fair this resource doesn’t help women keep the problem in perspective, as it doesn’t mention how rarely this condition affects pregnant women. But it gives very definitive advice – eat this – don’t eat that. The reality is, this could save the GP at least 15 minutes discussion time, and provide a ready reckoner for the woman negotiating the local café menu or shopping centre food halls. There is no debate, the pregnant woman, especially the first-time pregnant woman represents a very vulnerable, information-hungry demographic. Keep this site bookmarked and you won’t be sorry.   >> Access the resource here

By Dr Linda Calabresi
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Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Exercise – the underutilised antidepressant

Physical activity not only helps prevent depression, but should be considered an effective therapeutic option for patients who already have the condition, researchers say. According to a review published recently in Current Sports Medicine Reports, major depressive disorder is an exceedingly common, disabling condition with prevalence estimates ranging from 6% to 18% across different countries worldwide.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
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Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Live longer – eat less meat

Want your best chance for living a long, healthy life? Have a diet that is high in plant protein, say Japanese researchers. That’s the suggestion following their prospective study of over 70,000 adults, recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine. According to their findings, a higher intake of plant protein was associated with lower total mortality, specifically mortality related to cardiovascular disease. In fact, those people whose diet was proportionally in the highest bracket for plant protein were up to 41% less likely to die from a heart attack or stroke.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
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Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Correct inhaler technique

Recognise this scenario? You prescribe an inhaler for the patient. You educate the patient on why they need the inhaler. You draw diagrams. You demonstrate the technique on the placebo inhaler. You write the script. And then… you cross your fingers.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
1 in 3 young adults is lonely – and it affects their mental health
Dr Michelle H Lim
  • Clinical Articles

1 in 3 young adults is lonely – and it affects their mental health

More than one in three young adults aged 18 to 25 reported problematic levels of loneliness, according to a new report from Swinburne University and VicHealth. We surveyed 1,520 Victorians aged 12 to 25, and examined their experience of loneliness. We also asked about their symptoms of depression and social anxiety. Overall, one in four young people (aged 12 to 25) reported feeling lonely for three or more days within the last week. Among 18 to 25 year olds, one in three (35%) reported feeling lonely three or more times a week. We also found that higher levels of loneliness increases a young adult’s risk of developing depression by 12% and social anxiety by 10%. Adolescents aged 12 to 17 reported better outcomes, with one in seven (13%) feeling lonely three or more times a week. Participants in this age group were also less likely to report symptoms of depression and social anxiety than the 18 to 25 year olds.

By Dr Michelle H Lim
Outlook for premmies pretty good
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Outlook for premmies pretty good

The majority of babies born prematurely will make it to adulthood without any major health issues, according to new research. In an extensive Scandinavian cohort study, researchers found there was a high prevalence of survival without any major comorbidities among those born prematurely, even though preterm births are known to be associated with cardiometabolic, respiratory and neuropsychiatric disorders in adulthood. There was an exception however. Outcomes were worse for those born extremely preterm (22-27 weeks). The study is important, say its authors, as most previous research has concentrated on the negative consequences of the baby not making it to term.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Eating stodge makes you sluggish
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Eating stodge makes you sluggish

Complaints of excessive daytime sleepiness would have most doctors reaching for their referral pad to send the patient to the nearest sleep lab. However Australian research suggests another, more readily modifiable lifestyle factor might be to blame. According to a large-scale epidemiological study, researchers from Flinders University determined a high intake of saturated fats and carbohydrates increases the risk of excessive daytime sleepiness. And it’s not simply because a diet of hot chips and thickshakes will cause weight gain, and obesity is a well-known risk factor for sleepiness. In this study, they compared fats, carbohydrates and protein calorie for calorie – so it wasn’t how much you ate, or how energy-dense your food was – it was, in fact, the type of food you ate.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Hear this Healthful diet tied to lower risk of hearing loss
Brigham and Women's Hospital
  • Clinical Articles

Hear this: Healthful diet tied to lower risk of hearing loss

It’s just natural that as people age, their hearing gets worse, right? Not according to researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who have recently published their prospective study of eating habits and hearing threshold decline in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Gathering data on on pure-tone hearing thresholds from participants across 19 sites in the US over the course of three years, the researchers then compared these results with longitudinal data on participants’ dietary intake. Participants whose diets most closely resembled recommended healthy diets, such as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, the Alternate Mediterranean (AMED) diet, and the Alternate Healthy Index-2010 (AHEI-2010), were found to have substantially lower odds of decline in hearing sensitivity, at both mid- and high frequencies.

By Brigham and Women's Hospital
Understanding urticaria and angioedema
Dr Karl Baumgart
  • Clinical Articles

Understanding urticaria and angioedema

Urticarial lesions are usually intensely pruritic welts that can be generalised or localised. They normally last less than 24 hours in the one place, being migratory, and leave no residual marks on the skin. Angioedema lesions may be uncomfortable or sometimes painful and occur in the deeper dermis or mucosa and may take 72 hours to resolve. Acute urticaria may be allergic, mediated by inappropriate IgE responses to food allergens. It usually occurs rapidly after exposure to the causative allergen: within 30-60 minutes, up to six hours and rarely eight hours. The most common allergens are either ingested (food or oral drugs) or parenteral (bee or wasp stings or drugs, for example, penicillin). Aeroallergens are not usually the cause of allergic urticaria except when due to grains (in bakers) and latex. However, people who are allergic to grass pollen may develop localised urticaria on contact, for example, when sitting on the grass.

By Dr Karl Baumgart
CancerAid
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

CancerAid

CancerAid is a free app designed by two Australian oncologists for people affected by cancer and their carers. The motivation behind this app’s development was to improve cancer care outcomes by engaging patients in their own care. Patients using the app can monitor treatments, find resources, manage side-effects and read others’ experiences, thereby developing an effective support network. The technology also allows patients to share information (if they want to) with family and friends as well as relevant health professionals The information on the CancerAid app is both evidence-based and constantly updated, so doctors can be very comfortable recommending it to their patients.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Guidelines for treating SCCs and BCCs
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Guidelines for treating SCCs and BCCs

The latest updated version of the clinical practice guidelines for keratinocyte cancer are now available and worth checking out, especially if you do a lot of skin work. Keratinocyte cancer is the new way to talk about non-melanoma skin cancer and basically refers to basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas. The new guidelines, which were developed by an Australian ‘non-remunerated working group’, incorporate a number of recent developments in the non-surgical treatment of these cancers. They provide suitable options for treating more advanced and metastatic cancers, and give guidance on how to manage patients who are believed to be at greater risk of developing these cancers, eg those who are on immunosuppression therapy.

By Dr Linda Calabresi

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