NSW prisoners to be banned from smoking
Nick Ralston Smoking in all NSW prisons is set to be banned within 18 months after the state's prison boss expressed his concern about the health effects lighting up in jails is having on staff and inmates.
Call for age limit after chiropractor breaks baby's neck
Julia Medew, Amy Corderoy A baby's neck has been broken by a chiropractor in an incident doctors say shows the profession should stop treating children.
Bid for Lyme disease recognition begins to bear fruit
Laura Banks Renee Loricchiella believed she had a 'full bill of health' until 2010, when she was vaccinated for an overseas trip.
Chiros warned off treating children
Julia Medew and Amy Corderoy A Melbourne infant's neck was broken during a chiropractic adjustment that went horribly wrong.
McDonald's asks: Would you like fruits and vegetables with that?
Stephanie Strom With tastes growing healthier, McDonald’s aims to adapt its menu.
More women prescribed psychiatric drugs and left at risk of birth defects
AMY CORDEROY Women of child-bearing age are increasingly being prescribed psychiatric medications that can cause pregnancy complications and birth defects, doctors fear.
Nurse made aged patients 'beg and suck his thumb'
HEATH ASTON A male nurse made an elderly dementia patient get down all fours and beg him for cigarettes, and forced a 99-year-old female patient to suck his thumb.
Patients wait five weeks for chemotherapy
AMY CORDEROY Patients in need of chemotherapy are being forced to wait up to five weeks because the St George Cancer Centre does not have the resources it needs to deal with increasing demand.
Warning over rise in heart attack deaths outside hospitals
AMY CORDEROY People who suffer heart attacks outside a hospital are more likely to die today than five years ago, and this has sparked calls for the urgent installation of defibrillators across the state.
Mental illness gets the silent treatment
CAROLINE ZIELINSKI Esther Olsson attend the funerals of two uncles who lost their battles with depression.
Daily drinking a hidden time bomb for women
The few glasses of wine women drink each night to take the edge off a stressful day wrangling children or rushing to meet work deadlines pose hidden health risks that may not surface until decades later, experts warn.
For bub's sake, a pregnant pause for both from alcohol
COSIMA MARRINER Former Olympic swimmer Elka Whalan and her husband Thomas have a rule - coffee, dessert and alcohol are the three things that should never be enjoyed alone.
Blood screen less threat to foetus
EWA KRETOWICZ Australian women are risking miscarriage with invasive Down syndrome tests because a new, safer and more reliable blood test has not been made available.
Deadly nicotine blows its way into e-cigarettes
EAMONN DUFF ASun-Herald investigation has found tobacconists and other businesses are selling potentially deadly nicotine products as traders seek to cash in on the boom in electronic cigarettes.
Statins offer quick fix for heart, for a price
EWA KRETOWICZ Obesity and cardiovascular disease costs taxpayers nearly $1 billion a year in medication alone.
A couple of drinks a day likely to earn you a later ailment
COSIMA MARRINER The few glasses of wine some women have each night pose hidden health risks, experts warn.
Call to widen safer, more reliable Down syndrome test
EWA KRETOWICZ A new, safer and more reliable blood test for Down syndrome isn't available locally.
Cholesterol drugs heavy going for PBS and health
EWA KRETOWICZ Obesity and cardiovascular disease is costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion in medication alone.
Men urged to take drinks pause to support pregnant partners
COSIMA MARRINER Elka Whalan and her husband have a rule - alcohol should never be enjoyed alone.
$1bn bill for obesity and heart drugs
EWA KRETOWICZ Obesity and cardiovascular disease cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion a year for medication alone.
Six myths about vaccination
Dr Rachael Dunlop Commonly held fears about vaccines are putting Sydney children at risk.
Doctors brace for 40 years of asbestos illness
AMY CORDEROY Do-it-yourself home renovators are regularly exposing themselves and their children to cancer-causing asbestos, a study of NSW residents has found.
Push for new law to target chlamydia
JULIA MEDEW Doctors want laws introduced to allow them to prescribe antibiotics to sexual partners of people diagnosed with chlamydia, even if they do not physically examine these patients.
Cigarette phase-out considered as trial tests if vapour safer
EAMONN DUFF Australia could become the first major nation to outlaw smoking, with a federal government-funded trial about to test the viability of electronic cigarettes as a safer, permanent replacement for tobacco.
Bid to get formula warnings
COSIMA MARRINER Baby formula tins would carry warnings of formula feeding risks, under proposed changes.
Ethical minefield of parents in control
Neil McMahon Designer babies - their gender, personality traits and skin colour chosen by genetic testing - are a looming reality. But are we ready to confront this minefield of ethics?
Privacy
Smartphones raise privacy issue in healthcare
AMY CORDEROY Is the easy availability of camera phones encouraging doctors and nurses to take a souvenir snap of the occasion?
Abortion access threatened by new law: doctors
AMY CORDEROY Leading medical and legal groups have called on government MPs to abandon a proposed law that would for the first time define a 20-week-old foetus as a "person".
Lismore water fluoride decision applauded
Julie Power Lismore City Council's decision to fluoridate its water supply – reversing its position of the past seven years – will finally bring it into the 21st century, joining the rest of NSW, said local paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall.
GPs alarmed on prostate cancer tests
Julia Medew Teenagers and men in their 20s and 30s are having controversial prostate cancer tests in a de facto screening program that is worrying some Australian doctors.
