Health

Thousands of women reach out after Perth woman's bleeding disorder story

Within 24 hours, Ms Christos' social media accounts were swamped with messages from women and girls around the world.

"My babysitter contacted me, old neighbours, all these girls I had sat in a school classroom with, all going through similar things," she said.

"Before I knew it every time I opened my phone I had thousands of messages on my Facebook, email and other social networking sites, all reaching out.

"So many said to me I was just like them, they didn't know someone else went through what they did."

Are eggs healthy?

First of all, they are a nutrient-dense food. They contain high-quality protein, meaning eggs offer all nine essential amino acids that can't be made by humans and therefore must come from our diets. Protein in eggs can help build and preserve muscle as well as boost satiety, both of which are important for weight control.

Common types of headache and what causes them

The condition is among the most disabling the world over — leaving sufferers of severe headaches unable to go about their lives for days or weeks at a time.

A headache produces pain felt around the head, but how severe the pain is depends on what type of headache you have.

There's more than 100, but some are far more common than others — especially tension-type headaches and migraines.

Tension-type headaches

Tension-type headaches are the most common form of headache — up to 30 per cent of the population will experience one each year.

Healthy diets this Easter

Dr Suresh Venkita from the Pacific International Hospital reminds you that “a high intake of sugar any time is unwise”.

In an apparently healthy person, he says, sugar is a fuel which has to be burned efficiently and quickly before it is turned into fat (like surplus money which is parked in a fixed deposit!).

There’s also the risk of accidents due to high sugar intake in one time.

How?

How long does it take to lose your fitness

It may well be something you've heard a million times before. But when it comes to your fitness, it's well worth remembering.

If instant gratification is your thing, exercise can be a drag. It's not something you do once, then sit back and reap a lifetime of rewards.

Those rewards only come with hard work, consistency and self-discipline.

"You're only as good as your last training session," said sports scientist Tony Boutagy.

"In other words, you only get health benefits from a session for up to about 48 hours afterwards."

Should you treat your aching back with a crack?

The research, which pooled 26 prior studies, found that spinal manipulation was linked to "modest improvements" in pain and function among people with short-term lower-back pain. Their pain improved an average of one point on a 10-point scale.

Children exposed to CT scans face increased risk of developing cancer

CT scans are used by doctors to get to the core of a problem by creating a 3D image of the most inaccessible nooks of the body.

But the beams of ionising radiation can cause cellular damage.

A fresh analysis of 2013 research is being presented by researchers from the University of Melbourne at the World Congress of Public Health in Melbourne.

They said the radiation risk was much greater than previously acknowledged.

The results indicated that most of the excess cancers occurring more than two years after a CT scan were caused by radiation from the scan.

Study: Obesity during pregnancy increases risk of epilepsy in child

Being overweight during the first trimester of pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk of childhood epilepsy.

The recent Swedish study, published in journal JAMA Neurology, of almost 1.5 million babies found the risk of epilepsy almost doubled from normal-weight women to very severely obese women.

Epilepsy disrupts the normal electrochemical activity of the brain resulting seizures.

Natural sleep aids: Tackling Insomnia without drugs

There are countless others herbal teas promoted as sleep aids however, including valerian, kava, passionflower, hops and lavender.

But do they really help you sleep better?

It's hard to know, because like many natural products, there's little solid evidence behind them, says chair of the Australian Sleep Health Foundation Professor David Hillman.

Are vegetable oils healthy?

But our consumption of vegetable oil has increased considerably since the 1960s, and the health effects of high intakes are a source of scientific debate.

What researchers agree on is that vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower, corn, cottonseed and soybean oils, are rich in a type of fat known as linoleic acid. That acid can lower LDL or "bad" cholesterol when it replaces saturated fats in the diet (which primarily come from animal sources).