Most people struggling with insomnia at least once in their life, and for some it's a long-term struggle. Can an app help with treatment?

We give an update on all things COVID-19, including the latest research on vaccine effects. 

How parents, childcare centres and policymakers can keep children safe from toxins. 

And how accurate are food tracking apps, especially when it comes to complex meals?

Tips on how to fend off the behavioural problems and cognitive troubles that come with too much screen time, too young. 

What a new paper has to say about semaglutide and suicidal ideation, plus promising results from a trial of antibiotics in sub-Saharan Africa. 

What dietitians can do to help drive down the rising rate of obesity. 

And a rare inner ear condition that could benefit from developments in gene therapy. 

Take a look at changing teaching methods in the classroom, and why that matters for future health.

Australian researchers are developing a new drug to fight the potentially deadly condition of sepsis.

Could a common drug be used to treat macular degeneration?

And what effect does space travel have on ageing?

Severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) can be defined in pathology, yet only be diagnosed after someone has died and their brain examined.

The Victorian state election is on 26th November and hospitals feature in political healthcare promises. Labor anticipates spending more than $6 billion on new hospitals and upgrading existing ones.

Guest:

Assoc Prof Michael Buckland

Head of Dept of Neuropathology

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital

and

Director, Australian Sports Brain Bank

There's a new perspective on how we think about the cause and progress of Alzheimer's disease. Are we actually doing the right thing by removing accumulated amyloid protein from the brain of people with it?

Health practitioners are often still operating under the assumption that obesity is an individual's responsibility, even though science now tells us otherwise.

It makes intuitive sense that if you screen people for disease the outcome will be good - because you get on top of the problem. But how far should you go.

The debate may be over about robotic surgery for men with prostate cancer—but can hospitals afford the robots?

How do you know if memory lapses are a part of slowing down—or an early sign of dementia?

The psychology of moving more—and eating better.

An Australian researcher in women and cancer has died

.

Bringing clarity to health and medical issues from social, scientific and political points of view.

Bringing clarity to health and medical issues from social, scientific and political points of view.

From King George III's apparent madness, to Queen Victoria's genetic legacy, the Health Report takes a look back at the illnesses (and deaths) that have shaped the world.

Vital health and medical news.

Vital health and medical news.

Vital health and medical news.

Exploring how changing your diet—or even your eating schedule—can improve your long-term health outcomes. 

A comprehensive review has delved into the current research into zinc supplements and their effectiveness.

Research has shown that people experiencing chronic pain see the world as a harsher place – distances are longer and hills are steeper.

We blink more than we need to, and scientists have been trying to find out why.

And, sharing memories of Michael Mosley.

Vital health and medical news.

An option for cervical cancer screening could be a game-changer and miscarriages or stillbirths may bring an increased risk of stroke

With COVID there are more protective measures to take—and there's a historical parallel | The results of a trial of vitamin D supplementation find no evidence to support vitamin D supplements | Shingles can be a painful disease and those over 70 can have a free vaccination, but not the costly and most effective one.

The amount of money to spend on health care in the last year of someone's life is debatable. | The vital eligibility criterion for voluntary assisted dying in Australia is a problematic issue for doctors. | For a heart attack you want the best care possible—but where you live can affect limit that. Climate change is becoming more obvious—it now includes a noticeable mental health aspect.

Some immunologists are concerned that COVID-19 is not travelling as expected. An internationally respected immunologist had four doses of COVID vaccine but now recovering from heart failure after getting the virus.

There are still community questions about the value of getting a fourth vaccine dose—we asked a vaccine development expert to explain why you should.

Fitness and living longer are more than just how much you eat and how much you exercise?

In 2009 Australia launched a National Preventive Health Strategy with the aim of being the healthiest country in the world by 2020—where we're at with it now.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare has created a national clinical care standard for diagnosis and treatment.

Many people are told to take a vitamin D supplement, especially in winter when there's less sunshine, but you can have too much of it.

Australia has many stories from people who say they have long COVID but who are unable to access help | Updated versions of coronavirus vaccines targeting the Omicron variant have been announced, yet the virus still mutates | People with Type 1 diabetes need to monitor their blood glucose but automatic systems are being trialled to assist them | A study on the behaviour of teens undertaken during the pandemic identified some of the particular health risks for this group.

What an Australian Centre for Disease Control might aim to be; An Indigenous perspective and research to engage culture for protection against cardiovascular disease and stroke; Research on links between mental health and mortality concludes that both mental and physical health can be adversely impacted.

There may be a link between what you eat and your mental health—also, avoiding overtreatment for breast cancer; predicting your risk of osteoarthritis; and whether mammogram results should inform women about breast density.

The cancer risks that run through generations of families—and the growing frontier in medicine trying to change that.

Many people with migraines suffer in the dark for years before they find the right treatment, but one neurologist has suggested a framework to ease the pain. 

What's happening at the cellular level when an ageing brain is exposed to exercise? At least through the microscope, it looks like rejuvenation. 

The term 'time toxicity' expresses the idea that if treatment to extend a patient's life means lengthy periods in medical facilities, it may be time wasted; In Australia smoking has decreased generally, but tobacco use is higher than average in young people with mental health issues; The bad form of cholesterol is LDL — low-density lipoprotein, and high-density lipoprotein is the good form. An new study suggests there's a limit on how high HDL should be.

Those at greatest risk from unplanned pregnancy are often least able to access it; Study on 800 different lipids to check your metabolic risk and health profile; It's important to ask if someone's life will be improved by taking cancer drugs; Heart defects in kids may need surgery but new research considers exercise as a key to improving their life expectancy.

Combating monkeypox with increased vaccination—and monitoring polio cases in Ukraine; Treating the increasing number of melanoma cases; A faster and more mobile way to diagnose stroke; Comparing data on some mental health conditions against immune disorders.

Ahead of the election, The Health Report hosts a discussion between experts about the pressing health issues. What are the most pronounced problems, and what health questions have not been raised at all?

The risk of premature mortality has been mapped on to federal electorates and Australia's lack of response to the disparity contrasts with that of the UK.

The effects of prostate surgery affect the man and his partner—and sometimes it means a change to sexual function.

Doctors can struggle to communicate with Aboriginal patients—a podcast featuring Aboriginal elders offers advice on delivering culturally safe healthcare.

Global warming will probably mean that wildlife travels more and mixes with other species—and an effect will be to spread unfamiliar viruses; There is new guidance to help hospital doctors and clinicians prescribing opioids for pain; A disorder of the oesophagus creates symptoms similar to reflux or allergies, but the cause of the disorder is not known; The non-availability of a treatment for age-related macular degeneration has eye surgeons arguing for change.

It's expected now that we will generally live longer, but what really interests people is how to spend their longer life in good health—what to do now in order to set a good foundation.

Oncologists don't always know which chemotherapy drug will work best, and even then, one treatment won't suit everyone. So there's growing research on potential therapies using animal 'avatars'.

And later ... an estimated one in six Australians lives with tinnitus but told nothing can be done to help it.

Many people are waiting for an organ donation and some of them may die before a suitable organ is found. Some researchers think that in the near future we will be able to grow organs in animals to be safely transplanted into humans.

The first of two features about medicine's use of animals for organ and tissue transplantation.

This program was originally broadcast in October 2021.

A review of multiple studies on common painkillers found that they have a marked effect on our resistance to infection—which is sometimes bad and sometimes good. Some of these medications could also reduce our response to a vaccination—especially if taken straight before one.

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals keep you healthy. But despite Australia's relative good health it has major problems with general practice. By international standards we are probably overproducing medical graduates, but not enough go into general practice.

New variants of the COVID-19 virus continue to appear, especially as there are low income countries with low levels of immunisation. The 2022-23 Australian Budget allocated A$85 million to COVAX, the international program for delivering COVID-19 vaccines particularly to low income countries. Is it enough?

Australia has a successful breast cancer screening program, but experts say it can (and should) be better. 

New research drives home the importance of treating type 2 diabetes as early as possible for lifelong benefits. 

An update on how COVID vaccines are faring with all the new variants circulating in the community. 

And we take a look at some of the advancements being made in transplant technology. 

Assessing the continuing ability to treat COVID-19 with antibody infusions. | A 'temporary stroke' means people get the signs of a stroke but the symptoms go away it's a called a Transient Ischaemic Attack - but that could be a misnomer. | If you have high blood pressure and lifestyle controls are not helping - by how much should pressure be reduced? | Primary aldosteronism (PA) is a hormonal cause of high blood pressure; it's treatable and there's a simple test.

What we know about the diversity of blood group types in Australia has just been updated—it reflects patterns in immigration. And we discuss the potential benefits of modifying diet to treat multiple sclerosis. And whether mental health issues may raise the risk of cognitive decline.

Japanese Encephalitis (JEV) is common in Asia but now causing concern in Australia. The rise of JEV in Australia happened when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC) were reporting on climate change—a key aspect of which was the effect of climate on health. There's unique archival audio from the 1980s of the surgeon who performed a heart transplant operation on Baby Fae - using a baboon heart. And the records of 80 million people have been assessed to see why there are now less deaths from heart attack.

Australia is lucky to have free healthcare services—but there can be big gaps in who receives it; reports on two people with bipolar disorder finding benefit from a faecal microbiota transplant; and how stomas help the intestine heal.

Two recent scientific publications show that the pandemic originated in the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, in Wuhan, China. The publications are not yet peer reviewed but seem to put paid to the theory that the virus escaped from a Wuhan virology lab.

An Achilles tendon rupture is sometimes heard as a loud 'snap'—so then what? And how the cardiologists are developing new devices for heart transplants; And the complexity of treating cardiomyopathy in methamphetamine users.

Brendan Crabb on how we best understand and get to a COVID-normal life. Also, there's reason to consider screening kids at primary school age for hearing loss problems. Inflammation and how it may affect your risk of depression; And, congenital heart disease and genes not necessarily specific to the heart.

The top five things you can do to keep your mental health in check, plus an update on the virus everyone is talking about: bird flu. 

From the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, one expert came to the fore as a trusted voice, not just in his home country of the United States, but around the globe: Dr Anthony S Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

An omnibus episode about protecting kids from drug and alcohol misuse.

What you need to know about ICE-crystal meth, and a first-hand account of how difficult it is to quit an ICE addiction.

Both items in this programs were originally broadcast in June 2021.