essential GP blog :: comment and articles on current health topics
Vitamin D is one of the latest trendy health issues. Five years ago, nobody thought to request a Vitamin D check from their doctor, but now everybody is getting their levels checked and Medicare is creaking under the cost of providing so many tests. So what is the role of Vitamin D in the body, how do you know if you are at high- or low-risk, and should get your levels checked?
Read MoreIllawarra's ehealth portal: an online directory for local medical professionals and health and disability organisations, an online resource for accurate health information, and a topical blog responding to breaking health news with links to all relevant resources.
essentialGP is authored by Dr Anne Simpson, a GP working at Illawarra Family Medical Centre
What is it with GPs? You'd think we'd been doing our job long enough to know how to schedule our appointment books. And yet as a patient you'll be very familiar with long waits in the waiting room. Let me give you the inside info on what some of the contributing factors are and how you can help.
Attending to certain lifestyle factors can reduce blood pressure and our risk of future disease. The usual culprits are well known to most of us - obesity, smoking, high cholesterol, stress etc. Listed below are some ideas for tackling these known hypertension risk factors, that you may not previously have considered:
Bexsero is the new vaccine against meningococcal B but, unlike other Western countries, it has not yet been included in our childhood immunisation programme and is only available privately. What is the vaccine and should you be forking out $130 per dose to vaccinate your infant or teenager against MenB?
At the outset of life, our consumption of medication is relatively low, but by the time we reach our seventies, many adults are on multiple tablets. Most of us will take as many tablets in the last ten years of our life, as we took in the preceding 60 or so years. Being on multiple medications has inherent risks, so read on for ways to minimise these dangers.
Headache is one of the most common ailments, suffered by adults and children alike. While they can often occur infrequently and be relatively short-lived, they also have the potential to have a significant impact on daily living.
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essentialGP is authored by Dr Anne Simpson, a GP working at Illawarra Family Medical Centre
essentialGP is an information resource only and should not be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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Do you know what your local options are if you need medical attention out-of-hours? Many people go to the Emergency Department (ED) as their first port of call, but this can involve time consuming waits and it may be more appropriate to attend a GP instead.