Health

Everyone makes — and breaks — the same resolutions every year, whether it’s to eat better, lose 10 kilos, or give up the grog. Here are seven easy resolutions that are actually realistic and achievable, and which will have a positive effect on your health. Skip synthetics When you go to the January sales to […]

Diabetics, listen up! According to new research, taking an extract of pine bark may help. Previous studies have shown that pycnogenol supplementation also reduces blood clotting (which is critical for diabetics, who often suffer from impaired circulation), lowers LDL (‘bad’) and raises HDL (‘good’) cholesterol. Your Say: Have you tried pine bark extract or anything […]

Adding a handful of nuts a day to your diet for a year or more may help prevent, and even undo, a collection of risk factors for heart disease. Spanish researchers have found that along with a Mediterranean diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish, that adding nuts to your daily food intake is more […]

The weather is warming up, which means it’s time to fire up the barbie. However, cooking meat — beef, pork, chicken or even fish — at too-high heats can trigger the formation of dangerous chemicals. The smoke created by fat falling onto coals can contain carcinogenic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which settle back […]

According to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine (168:154-158), a sedentary lifestyle won’t just trigger weight gain and predispose you to diseases like type 2 diabetes — it can actually make you age faster. The study, of over 2,000 twins, found that those who exercised for at least 199 minutes per week were […]

**As brave as we are, there are definitely different types of pain that we shouldn’t ignore. “If you experience pain of any description — sharp, dull, constant or fluctuating — if it is unusual for you, you should go to a doctor,” explains Dr Sue Reddish, a GP at The Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s […]

So you’ve had your regular two-yearly Pap test … but this time the result has come back as “abnormal”. What does this actually mean? We asked expert, Kate Broun, manager of PapScreen Victoria, to explain. From July 2009, the vaccine is free for girls in year seven. For more information about Pap tests and cervical […]

Forget obsessing about what you eat and take a good hard look at the way you eat! Japanese scientists have discovered that eating your food quickly makes you three times more likely to be overweight. The research conducted by Professor Hiroyasu Iso and colleagues from Osaka University in Japan, showed that it’s not just eating […]

With a recent surge in gourmet offerings the scope of today’s pizza is huge. No longer is it simply a high fat, high salt takeaway food best limited in the diet. Let’s explore what’s hot in the latest offerings and how best to choose a pizza to please. That’s the TICK Smart choices Base – […]

When your metabolism is in peak condition, you can rev up the rate at which you burn fat. Start your engine with these six tips. 1: Eat breakfast There is a link between eating breakfast and increasing the kilojoules you can burn, perhaps because your metabolic rate slows while you sleep. The best breakfast is […]