HEALTH & WELLBEING

A US veteran has received the world’s first complete transplant of a penis and scrotum.

There is growing evidence that sweeteners may have health consequences of their own.

As winter draws closer, many Australians are wondering whether this year’s influenza season will be as bad as the last, and whether they should get vaccinated.

The Greens are calling for the legalisation of cannabis for adult use.

A tissue-destroying.ulcer, commonly in the tropical regions of West or Central Africa, is on the rise in Victoria.

A British man has caught a super strength strand of gonorrhoea believed to be the “world’s worst” case.

Citizens of the US states of Idaho and Indiana may soon be able to use cannabidiol (CBD) legally.

The first case visited a number of places across Melbourne, while the second was on an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne last week.

A simple dare had turned a teenage rugby player into a paraplegic.

The tourist is feared to have exposed other people to the contagious respiratory disease.

For years, cannabis has been held as illegal, and still is, in many states and countries across the world.

A transgender woman might be the first to successfully breastfeed her adopted newborn child following months of hormone therapy.

Pressure at work and even in school can bring both emotional and mental stress, which in turn can affect how a person functions in life.

New research suggests that drinking coffee is associated with longer life. Two major studies involved more than 700,000 people and found that the more coffee consumed, the less likely to die young from disease such as diabetes, cancer and various heart ailments.

Australian doctors and giant tobacco company British American Tobacco have told federal parliamentarians that the country must make e-cigarettes easily available to smokers as it is a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.

Leading Australian researcher and oncologist, Prof. Roger Reddel, who is also the Director of the Children's Medical Research (CMRI) Institute, believes that all childhood cancers will be curable in near future. Even 50 years ago, very few children survived childhood leukaemia, but now the cure rate is upwards of 80 percent.

A Bond University study has for the first time pointed out, or rather, quantified, the real extent of antibiotic over-prescription in Australia. The study shows how a number of general physicians (GPs) do not follow national guidelines for antibiotics.

Two small studies have reported success stories of personalised vaccines treating melanoma patients. The findings recorded in these studies are big steps towards personalised therapies, even though vaccines are still unlikely to be used as standard treatment.

African people may soon be munching on Vitamin A-rich bananas developed by Australian researchers. The bananas have been developed in Queensland as part of a “significant humanitarian project” to save African lives.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently revealed that oral sex is producing dangerous gonorrhoea and that a decline in the use of condoms is helping the infection spread faster.

Poor sleep may lead to Alzheimer’s, especially for those who carry the risk of the degenerative disease. Lead scientist Dr. Barbara Bendlin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US said that previous studies had also shown the influence of sleep on the development progression of the disease in various ways.

Drinking coffee may be a good way to stay fit. US journalist and health expert Bob Arnot, in his new book “The Coffee Lover’s Diet,” explored how coffee can help in losing weight.

Botanix, an Australian company, is developing the first new acne treatment in 20 years. The treatment involves using synthetic cannabis oil to treat pimples.

Ecstasy could help alcoholics deal with trauma and stress, factors that cause people to get hooked, according to a study. The drug is being tested as part of a revolutionary treatment to help alcoholics beat addiction.

Australia is slowly taking a tough stance on food manufacturers when it comes to marketing junk foods to kids. It is going for tighter regulations such as banishing confectionary and soft drinks from Victorian schools. By end of the year, it will be removing soft drinks from vending machines in all NSW hospitals.

Latest reports suggest that regular intake of chocolate and cocoa could be beneficial for cognitive functioning over time, thereby staving off degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Latest reports suggest that around 16,000 Australian children have been prescribed antipsychotics. In 2015, a total of 16,570 teenagers, children and toddlers were prescribed such drugs, Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data has shown.

Prof. Lindsay Grayson, leading infectious disease expert with Melbourne’s Austin Hospital, has warned that the country may return to the Dark Age of medical treatment because of the superbug crisis.

A survey carried out by Obesity Policy Coalition has created quite a buzz, and there are many who want a ban on cartoon characters used on food packaging to lure kids. About 186 packaged foods with cartoon characters were surveyed, and 52 percent were classified as unhealthy, based on Food Standards' Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion.