I have another fear and it’s one that has begun to significantly impact my life. I am terrified of learning to drive.

I’m not afraid of spiders, snakes or sharks. Admittedly, they don’t thrill me and I’d be none too impressed if I were to bump into them (particularly the latter two), but I waste no time or energy thinking about the chances of this happening (statistically speaking, pretty darn slim). Speaking in front of hundreds even […]

Here’s a disturbing new trend. More than half of Gen Y (aged 18 to 27) look up symptoms and try to self-diagnose on the internet instead of seeing a doctor, compared to 36 per cent of the rest of us. It is easy to find yourself up a dark alley, getting wrong information about your […]

The deaths of three young children believed to have been infected with a dangerous strain of a virus sweeping through childcare centres are being investigated by the NSW Coroner’s Office. Enterovirus 71 is being blamed for hospitalising at least 36 children with severe neurological symptoms, including meningitis, inflammation of the brain and muscle paralysis. Five […]

Exposure to mercury puts our health at serious risk, so why are we still using it in dental fillings, asks Professor Kerryn Phelps. The Mad Hatter: Have I gone Mad? Alice: I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland The phrase […]

On World MS Day, 43-year-old mum-of-three Megan Healy will complete her lawnmower ride from Melbourne to Sydney. As one of the 23,000 Australians affected by the disease Megan is aiming to raise $50,000 for MS research. She shares her story with The Weekly. Megan Healy was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1996, but she wasn’t […]

Terrible night’s sleep? Blame your smartphone, tablet, laptop, and other devices that new research has pointed the finger at for keeping us up at night. It isn’t the constant need to check emails or chart ‘likes’ on our facebook posts, but the artificial light screens emit that disrupt the body’s natural rhythm and cut into […]

Suicide can be “contagious”, especially among young people, a new study has found. Canadian researchers found teenagers who had a friend who had committed suicide were five times more likely to have suicidal thoughts themselves. The effect — known as the “suicide contagion” — was most pronounced in 12 and 13-year-olds and the increased risk […]

Half of Australians who oppose childhood vaccination get their information from the internet, while most supporters trust the advice of their GP. The finding, which emerged from the first national survey on our attitudes to vaccination, has sparked calls from medical experts for scientific evidence supporting childhood jabs to be made more accessible and user-friendly […]

As news broke today that Angelina Jolie had undergone a preventative double mastectomy after discovering she had the BRCA1 gene (a “faulty” gene that increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer), my mind flashed back to the day I found out I also carried the same gene. I wasn’t altogether surprised when my doctor […]