It betrothed to be a full year of reforms: pokies legislation, front-of-pack food labels and a dental system that doesn’t cost those in need an arm and a leg. But while we did see cigarette companies forced to barter their splendid embossed logos for matt, olive immature packs, a formula were churned for health legislation and reform.
The difference was a bipartisan support for a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). As Deakin health economist Elizabeth Manning wrote behind in May, a NDIS won’t be inexpensive though will positively be value a investment for a 400,000 Australians critical with incapacity who onslaught to get a support they need from a fragmented and under-funded system.
While meridian change might have dominated a appetite and sourroundings page of The Conversation, we saw a identical debates on a health page on a health impacts of breeze turbines and a reserve of childhood vaccination, with justification on one side and scaremongering on a other.
Wind turbine syndrome is a ‘commincated’ disease. AAP
As Simon Chapman wrote in July, “wind turbine syndrome†is a classical communicated illness – it spreads by articulate and instilling fear in others. Chapman has been gripping a total of a health problems opponents of breeze turbines charge to a appetite choice and by Nov he’d listed 198 ailments, including cancer, hemorrhoids, weight loss, weight benefit and even death.
American domestic satirist Stephen Colbert wasn’t assured either, picking adult Chapman’s essay for a shred on The Colbert Report about a claims of anti-wind plantation campaigners.
Meanwhile, in a vaccination discuss – if we can call it that – Fiona Stanley forked out that it’s easy for vaccine deniers to spin their backs on immunisation when they don’t see a harmful effects of spreading diseases. Back in 1956, 100% of Western Australian relatives vaccinated their children to strengthen them from illness terrible diseases such as polio, that they saw paralysing other children.
Apples enclose some-more formaldehyde than vaccines. Ellen Fitzsimons
The Conversation columnist and toxicology consultant Ian Musgrave took a closer demeanour during some of a claims done by anti-vaxxers. His conclusion? The mercury from tinned tuna takes longer to ban from your physique than any mercury in vaccines. And there’s during slightest 10 times some-more formaldehyde in apples than there is in any vaccine.
So what were some of a other most-read pieces of a year?
Our top-rating story for a year was by Timothy Smith from a Florey Neurosciences Institute who explained because we need open entrance to genetic information. He argued that technical, financial and authorised barriers stop a pity of critical information in medical research. Clocking adult roughly 40,000 views, a essay went viral after it was posted on Reddit.
Into a second year, a medical misconceptions series kept injecting some justification into a Mondays – and showed us again and again that a relatives weren’t always right. Can’t brew antibiotics with alcohol? Oh approbation we can. Need 8 hours of continual nap a night? Not even close. Shaved hair grows behind thicker and faster? Nope. Cutting carbs is a best approach to mislay weight? Thankfully, another myth.
Waking adult in a night is ideally healthy. Drake Guan
Some other off-pace pieces popped adult in a most-read list. In August, Spring Chenoa Cooper Robins and Anthony Santella explored a open health implications of stealing pubic hair. What’s “normal†in a pubic hair landscape has altered extremely over a past 20 years, they said, with half of womanlike undergraduates stealing many or all their hair. The authors willingly list 5 things everybody should know about pubic hair removal.
On a some-more critical note, we took an in-depth demeanour during some of a pivotal issues in health and medicine – on a tip of a list was obesity. We kicked off a a 16-part series an infographic display only how many weight we gained over a past 30 years and what will occur if we change a ways. If we all drank one reduction potion of drink or soothing splash any day and went for a 30 notation walk, we could significantly retreat a trend.
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Throughout a rest of a series, Australia’s tip plumpness experts explained what we need to do to stop a epidemic.
We also brought we endless coverage on a emanate of over-diagnosis in medicine. As Ray Moynihan explained in a initial essay of a series, over-diagnosis happens when people are diagnosed with diseases that won’t indeed mistreat them. Prostate cancer testing and breast cancer screening are maybe dual of a many talked-about areas of over-diagnosis, with justification that some surgeries to mislay cancers are unnecessary.
Other in-depth array looked at: Superbugs vs Antibiotics (December), Medical Histories (November), a fifth book of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (October), Motherhood (October) and Transparency and Medicine (April). We also wrapped adult Panacea or Placebo – our array on a story and justification bottom of 10 interrelated therapies – final month.
Columnist Alessandro Demaio writes about tellurian health. Michael Whays
Finally, we welcomed dual new columnists to a health and medicine page: Alessandro Demaio’s mainstay Health over a horizon gives a image of dire issues in tellurian health; Andrew Whitehouse’s From placenta to play centre examines a scholarship behind child development, from pre-conception to school. Alessandro and Andrew assimilated columnists Michael Vagg and Ian Musgrave.
Stay tuned in 2013 for a consultant research of a sovereign election. We’ll also demeanour underneath a covers with a array on passionate health; and inspect a health and amicable effects of Australia’s drink culture. Have a happy and healthy new year.
Health and medicine’s many renouned stories for 2012:
1. Sharing is caring: we need open entrance to genetic information
2. Monday’s medical myth: we can’t brew antibiotics with alcohol
3. Wind turbine syndrome: a classical ‘communicated’ disease
4. The perils of announcing a pregnancy in public
5. Monday’s medical myth: we need 8 hours of continual nap any night