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Health news

  • Marshmallows

    Australian hospital manager calls junior doctors ‘a workforce of clinical marshmellows’ in email stuff-up

    Health officials rush to apologise as union calls misfired message from administrator ‘tone-deaf’ and ‘unacceptable’
  • Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr. Anna Cody poses for a photograph

    Queensland’s puberty blockers ban has potential to cause harm, sex discrimination commissioner says

  • The facade of Prince Alfred hospital, Sydney, Australia

    More than half of Sydney health district’s staff psychiatrists have resigned, leaked documents show

  • Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese addresses the Labor caucus

    Labor under growing pressure on dental cover, the ‘missing element of Medicare’

  • Elizabeth Struhs, who died in 2022 after being denied insulin.

    ‘She’s at peace and so am I’: why members of Australian religious sect the Saints deliberately denied Elizabeth Struhs lifesaving insulin

  • Pill bottles on shelf

    Queensland must listen to doctors on puberty blockers ahead of its own ‘ideological views’, AMA says

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Key issues

  • Illustrations of capsules in the shape of a brain

    ‘A pill for every ill’: doctors say Australia overprescribing antidepressants to mask toxic social conditions

  • An illustration of a person climbing a hill of pills towards a light at the top

    We asked readers about taking antidepressants. The response points to a ‘silent epidemic’ and urgent need for reform

    Out of 776 responders to our callout, 711 say they experienced withdrawal symptoms, many debilitating
  • Pokies machines

    ‘I had a full-blown relapse’: woman allowed into Victorian pokies clubs despite self-excluding from gambling

    Bree Hughes says state’s safeguards to curb gambling are a ‘joke’ after she realised very few venues checked if she was on the self-excluding list
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Antiviral

  • Composite for Antiviral column - retinol and anti-ageing skincare

    Antiviral
    Can retinol, vitamin A or other compounds really keep your skin healthy and ‘youthful’?

    Melissa Davey
    The ads are everywhere but the evidence is poor for most creams, experts say – with one limited exception
  • The composite shows varied multivitamins and supplements.

    Antiviral
    Multivitamins promise glowing skin, better sleep and a longer life. But who do supplements really benefit?

    Donna Lu
  • Composite image for Antiviral column. The image shows orange and green squar pollen, a honey pot and an inhaler

    There’s a buzz online about local honey being the ‘ultimate hay fever hack’ – but does it actually help?

    Melissa Davey
  • Composite for Antiviral. The image shows orange and green squares, with a person squeezing sunscreen out of a tube

    Antiviral
    The sunscreen myth: could it really be causing skin cancer?

    Melissa Davey
  • Composite for Melissa Davey's fortnightly column.

    Reader callout
    Antiviral: Guardian Australia’s new health column helps you determine science from snake oil

    Melissa Davey
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Opinion

  • The shadow of a young girl or boy playing on a swing

    Sandra was estranged from her mother after experiencing childhood trauma. The grief when she died was complicated

    Ahona Guha
  • Elizabeth Struhs

    We are seeing anti-medical, anti-science narratives everywhere – how can doctors like me respond?

    Mariam Tokhi
    • Newborn baby being checked by staff in hospital

      I am a midwife in a NSW hospital. This is what an ordinary day looks like

      Oceane Campbell
    • Ranjana Srivastava

      When it comes to the vulnerabilities of age, patients deserve sympathetic oversight, not turning a blind eye

      Ranjana Srivastava
    • Dave Morthorpe at his home in Katherine, Australia

      The dentist drought: why rural Australians like Dave are losing their teeth and their health

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Science

  • Sydney rock oyster

    Australian oysters’ blood could hold key to fighting drug-resistant superbugs, researchers find

    Protein found in Sydney rock oysters’ haemolymph can kill bacteria and boost some antibiotics’ effectiveness, scientists discover
  • Queen Elizabeth II (left) in EastEnders’ Queen Vic pub in 2001 with Barbara Windsor (right) and Steve McFadden.

    Cockney influences found in Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, says expert

  • The aurora Australis seen in Tasmania on 1 January

    Spectacular aurora australis thrills sky gazers across south-east Australia

  • Weight-loss drugs can improve kidney health, study finds

  • Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as declared, report warns

  • Australian astrophysicist’s $250,000 prize for field-changing discovery a ‘nice surprise’

  • Stunning microscopic worlds captured in video competition – video

  • September Supermoon: the best place and time to see tonight’s bigger and brighter full moon

  • Mobile phones not linked to brain cancer, biggest study to date finds

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Multimedia

  • How office buildings, factories and shopping centres can cause legionnaires' outbreaks – video

  • The Covid-19 Omicron variant’s increased transmissibility has prompted the question: should you consider switching your reusable mask for a respirator instead?
    3:20

    What face mask should you wear during the Omicron outbreak: N95, KF94, cloth, P2? – video explainer

    The Covid-19 Omicron variant’s increased transmissibility has prompted the question: should you consider switching your reusable mask for a respirator instead?
  • School teacher Dr Malcolm Binns holds a small jar of the compound of an anti-parasitic medicine used to treat malaria, called Daraprim, which was partly made by his students in a lab at Sydney Grammar School in Sydney, Australia December 2, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray

    Australian students describe how they made copycat Malaria drug – video

    Students from Sydney grammar school describe how they created a version of Daraprim, a drug used to treat malaria, in a school laboratory

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