Day: January 14, 2024

What is rehabilitation? If you have been injured or had a serious illness, you might need extra help to get better. Rehabilitation services can help you recover from a stroke, a heart attack, a workplace injury, surgery, or many other things. It is a slow, step-by-step process. Life after your injury may be different to your life before. The goal of rehabilitation is to help you return to living the best life possible, despite any changes. How can rehabilitation help me? You might need to use rehabilitation services if you have: had a stroke had a spinal injury had a brain injury suffered burns had

What is addiction? Addiction is the repeated use of a substance or an activity, even though it may be harmful. People can become addicted to many different things. Common addictions are: drugs alcohol cigarettes gambling Addiction can badly affect your life and hurt the people around you. But it’s possible to overcome addiction and reduce the harm to you and others. Deciding to make a change Only you can decide to overcome an addiction. Quitting is a gradual process — it often takes several attempts. When breaking an addiction, you may have withdrawal symptoms, including: tiredness mood changes insomnia cravings aches and

A refractive error is the most common eye problem. When the shape of the eye is abnormal, the eye doesn’t bend (or refract) light properly, and so vision is blurred. The most common types of refractive errors are: Long-sightedness (hypermetropia), causing blurred close and distance vision. Short-sightedness (myopia) causing blurred long distance vision. Astigmatism, which causes an uneven focus of light and blurred vision. Presbyopia, When the eye lens loses flexibility, making close work difficult. This is most common with people over 40 years of age. These errors can be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. Surgery might also be an option.

What is GORD? Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) happens when stomach acid leaks from your stomach and moves up into your oesophagus (food pipe). This is also known as ‘reflux’ or ‘acid reflux’. Almost everyone gets heartburn due to acid reflux from time to time. GORD is when reflux occurs more than twice a week. It can eventually lead to more serious health problems and impact your wellbeing and quality of life. GORD can affect everyone, even children, but mostly affects people aged over 40 years.  Diagram of the gastrointestinal tract. What are the symptoms of GORD? The most common symptoms of GORD

What is a referral? A referral is a letter from your doctor or health professional to another health professional or health service. Referrals are made to get expert help with the diagnosis or treatment of your health problem. Most referral letters are written by your family doctor (general practitioner, or GP). Referrals can be made to: a specialist doctor an allied health professional, such as a psychologist or physiotherapist radiology, for x-rays or other imaging services pathology services (for blood tests) Who can make a referral? Referrals can be made by health professionals such as: doctors dentists nurse practitioners midwives physiotherapists optometrists psychologists What information does a

What is a blood clot? When you are injured or have an operation, your blood naturally clots to help prevent you from losing too much blood. However, this also increases the risk of a blood clot forming inside a deep vein. This usually happens in your leg and is called a deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). You may not notice you have a DVT. However, a DVT usually causes pain, swelling, heat and redness. A blood clot can sometimes move through your veins to your lungs. This is called a pulmonary embolism, which is serious and can even cause death. DVT and pulmonary embolism are together referred

What is visceral body fat? Visceral body fat, also known as ‘toxic’ fat, is fat stored deep inside your body. Most fat is stored underneath the skin and is known as subcutaneous fat. This is the fat that is visible and that you can feel. The rest of the fat in the body is stored around your internal organs, including your heart, liver and intestines. This is visceral fat. Visceral fat makes chemicals and hormones that can be toxic to the body. Visceral fat produces more of these toxic substances than subcutaneous fat, so it can be more harmful to

  Every day in Australia, 9 infants or children die suddenly and unexpectedly. The aim of Red Nose Day (Friday June 29) is to reduce this number to zero. By hosting an event, creating a fundraising page, volunteering or buying merchandise, you can raise money to help make this happen.  Since last year’s Red Nose Day, a campaign run annually by the charity Red Nose, Australia’s fundraising efforts have contributed $238,000 towards research. More than 1 million more educational kits were distributed to new parents. The funds also facilitated more than 3,000 counselling sessions for people affected by the sudden

What are red blood cells? The red blood cells are also called erythrocytes. They are an important part of your blood, along with other cells, including: white blood cells platelets plasma Red blood cells make up just under half of your blood cells. Individual red blood cells are disc shaped. What are red blood cells made of? Red blood cells contain a protein called haemoglobin. Haemoglobin carries oxygen in the blood to tissues in your body. Haemoglobin is made of iron. The iron in haemoglobin is what makes your blood red. What do red blood cells do? Red blood cells play

Bowel cancer (colon and rectal cancer) What is bowel cancer? Bowel cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, develops when cells in the wall of the large bowel grow in an abnormal and uncontrolled way. Bowel cancer can occur anywhere along the large bowel, which includes the large intestine, rectum and anal canal. It typically begins growing from the inner lining of the bowel or from small growths on the bowel wall called polyps (adenomas). If left untreated, these cells can spread along the wall of the bowel, to lymph nodes and to elsewhere in the body. Bowel cancer is the second biggest cause

What is rectal bleeding? Rectal bleeding means bleeding from your back passage (anus) when you go to the toilet and pass faeces (poo). When should I go to the emergency department? You should always have bleeding from the anus checked out by a doctor as it could be a sign of something serious. Seek urgent medical attention if: the bleeding is very heavy you have signs of shock like rapid, shallow breathing, dizziness, nausea or confusion you have black or dark red poos your vomit contains blood or what looks like coffee grounds you faint you have a severe pain in your rectum you

Recovery from mental health is the process of getting well, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and creating a satisfying life for yourself. Most people who are diagnosed with a mental illness recover with the right support. A range of services can help you recover and what’s needed will be different for every person. What is common to everyone with mental health issues is the sooner you seek help and treatment, the better your possibilities for recovery. What is mental health recovery? Recovery from mental health is not the same as a cure. Recovery means being able to create and live

What is a medicine recall? A medicine recall is when a medicine or therapeutic product is withdrawn from being sold; or sold with specific warnings due to concerns with it. It might be because of safety, quality, effectiveness, labelling or packaging of the medicine or product. It could be because of a problem with the medicine itself, like unexpected side effects, or a problem with something unrelated to the medicine, such as a packaging or labelling mistake. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and pharmaceutical companies can recall medicines. The TGA is the government body responsible for medicine safety, so it

What is Raynaud’s phenomenon? Raynaud’s phenomenon (or Raynaud’s disease) is a condition that causes parts of your body to feel numb and cool. This may happen when you are cold or stressed. Females are more commonly affected, with about 1 in 5 getting Raynaud’s phenomenon at some stage in their lives. Females under the age of 25 years are more likely to get Raynaud’s phenomenon. It’s also more common in colder climates. What are the symptoms of Raynaud’s phenomenon? Raynaud’s phenomenon causes your skin to: turn white then blue feel numb feel cold You are mostly likely to get Raynaud’s