This Week In Wellness

This Week In Wellness researchers led by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have suggested that boosting the immune system might be a good strategy for dealing with COVID-19. Whilst this might initially appear like a sarcastic, parody headline it is in fact in contradiction with the immuno-suppressive approaches that have been used around the world. https://medicin...

This Week In Wellness a paper published online by Cambridge University Press has shown that Coca-Cola paid scientists to downplay the role of sugary beverages in the obesity epidemic. Scientists used information gathered from over 18,000 pages of emails via freedom of information requests made by a US non-profit public health group “Right To Know”. These emails were between Coca-Cola and public he...

This Week In Wellness a group of physicians calling themselves America’s Frontline Doctors have dominated world wide news cycles and social media channels, despite efforts to censor them. Social media platforms have this week scrambled to delete the repeatedly posted video featuring 7 doctors claiming to be at the front line of America’s Coronavirus response. Critics suggest that whilst these doct...

This Week In Wellness facial recognition cameras being trialled in East Perth have raised concerns about their scope of use and the potential for human rights breaches. Whilst facial recognition software is legitimately used by law and border enforcement officials to identify individuals based on their facial features using artificial intelligence technology, in other parts of the world the scope...

This Week In Wellness creating bio-diverse green spaces can help to “re-wild the microbiome” of our environment and as a result improve human health. A research team led by the University of Adelaide published a study in Restoration Ecology compared carrying levels of green space diversity from lawns to re vegetated woodlands has shown that re-vegetation of green spaces can improve soil microbiome...

This Week In Wellness scientists have identified a new strain of swine flu in China capable of creating another pandemic. Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the paper states that whilst it is carried by pigs, it can affect humans and has “all the hallmarks” of becoming highly contagious in humans and needs close monitoring. Get personally mentored by me for FR...

This Week In Wellness a review in the Journal of The American College of Cardiology has stated that not only were there no beneficial effects of reducing saturated fat intake on cardiovascular disease or total mortality, there were in fact protective effects against stroke if the saturated fat intake was retained. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109720356874 Would you like t...

This Week In Wellness Australian researchers are investigating whether vitamin D could be the answer to our country’s “allergy epidemic”. With one in 10 infants and one in 20 children in Australia already suffering from food-related allergies, and with the rates seemingly on the rise, researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute are hoping that vitamin D might provide the answers. ht...

This Week In Wellness a new study investigating the impact of lifestyle interventions for early stage type 2 diabetics has shown that nearly two thirds can achieve complete remission within 12 months. The study published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology comes on the back of many other studies in recent years showing the success of lifestyle interventions without the need for medi...

This Week In Wellness scientists from Harvard University have advised couples to wear masks whilst having sex and suggests they should be advised to engage in sexual activity via telephone, video chat services or masturbation in order to reduce there risk of spreading the corona virus. https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/couples-should-wear-masks-having-22123980 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...

This Week In Wellness Australian researchers have shown that infant tummy time is associated with improved development, healthier weight babies and improved head shape. It was also linked with improved social and cognitive function as well as walking. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2020/05/02/peds.2019-2168 https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/24-04-2019-to-grow-up-healthy-ch...

This Week In Wellness social media giants Facebook and Youtube have increased their efforts to censor and “deplatform” debate around Covid19 lockdowns from lay people, scientists and experts alike whilst Twitter has maintained a more open approach and more and more people are flocking to MeWe, founded by entrepreneur and privacy advocate Mark Weinstein. The post TWIW 63: Social media giants increa...

This Week In Wellness a study from Clinical Reviews in Food Science and Medicine has indicated that avoidance of meat in the diet may be linked to increased rates of anxiety and depression. This is not the first time that these links have been drawn and suggested reasons for the link include reduced omega-3 fatty acid intake, vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies, iron and zinc deficiencies and even...

This Week In Wellness Germany has moved to ban the use of the herbicide Glyphosate from 2023 and phase out its use from 2020 as Adelaide council Marion moves to join other Australian councils in phasing out its use. Several legal challenges by over 50,000 Americans against the manufacturers of Glyphosate (ag and pharmaceutical company Bayer) claim it has contributed to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cases...

This Week In Wellness a research article published in Biomed Central (BMC) has shown that women choosing to birth outside of hospitals, be that a home birth or a free birth, did so in search of the “best and safest” birth experience. In Australia 97% of births occur in a hospital setting however this paper investigated 28 women who chose to birth outside of that system between 2010 and 2014, with...

This Week In Wellness a study has shown that receiving Chiropractic care at regular planned intervals regardless of symptoms had more pain free weeks and shorter painful episodes of lower back pain compared to people who sought care “when needed”. The study was conducted in Sweden where 98% of all chiropractors who are members of the Swedish Chiropractic Association consider maintenance care to be...

This Week In Wellness a pre-print study published by medRxiv for the first time measured the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in a representative sample of the Californian population. Stating that “to date, many epidemic projections and policies addressing COVID-19 have been designed without seroprevalence data to inform epidemic parameters”. “A sero-survey gives you a snapshot in time of who is...

This Week In Wellness Sweden could be the new model that countries around the world seek to model as their Coronavirus infection rates and deaths plummet despite not imposing the strict lock-downs seen in other parts of the world. Sweden has not closed bars, cafes, restaurants, playgrounds or schools and gatherings of up to 50 people are still allowed. Despite this the Swedish infection rate and d...

This Week In Wellness physical exercise could help reduce the amount of time people spend in acute mental health facilities and reduce their reliance on psychotropic medications when they are there according to a study published in SAGE Journals. “The general attitude of medicine is that you treat the primary problem first, and exercise was never considered to be a life or death treatment option....

This Week In Wellness whilst the media is reporting the seemingly exponential growth of Coronavirus worldwide some are suggesting that the spread of the disease may be plotting a different path. It is common in the media to show linear graphs of the Coronavirus that show seemingly exponential growth and this growth has been extrapolated by many experts in the media to forecast dire results. Kennet...

This Week In Wellness traditional recipes provided by the families of London schoolchildren and derived from traditional family recipes originating in Europe, Africa and the Middle East have in some cases been shown to be as effective as malarial medications. Researchers from Imperial College London helped the schoolchildren test their family soup broths for activity against the malaria parasite....

This Week In Wellness the World Health Organisation WHO has officially declared the Coronavirus COVID-19 a pandemic as action is taken all over the world to halt it’s spread including America shutting its borders to the EU, the NBA cancelling the rest of its basketball season and the Australian Government advising against “non-essential” gatherings of 500 people or more, but are things you can do....

This Week In Wellness the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) through their President Associate Professor Chris Freeman say that “we are neglecting vulnerable older Australians when it comes to protecting them from medicine-related harms” and describes their medicine safety as a game of “Russian Roulette”. https://ajp.com.au/news/most-aged-care-residents-have-three-medicine-problems/ The pos...

This Week In Wellness a review published in the New England Journal of Medicine has linked intermittent fasting to improved health, slowing or reversing ageing and a reduction in chronic diseases including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers and neuro degenerative brain disorders. Whilst the authors acknowledge that the results can be variable and influenced by things like sex, diet...

This Week In Wellness a healthy lifestyle leads to a life that is free of chronic illness including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer for longer. Using data from the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals follow up study this paper in the British Journal of Medicine was able to confirm that never smoking, maintaining a healthy body weight, moderate to vigorous physical activity...