DR FEELGOOD SUNDAY 2nd MARCH 2003
REACTIVE ARTHRITIS
I received an email from a concerned father a couple of weeks ago. His teenage son had been diagnosed with reactive arthritis and he wanted more information.
This inflammatory joint
condition tends to affect young people and is believed to be an abnormal immune
response to an unrelated infection. Antibodies are produced in error that attack
joints, causing pain inflammation and damage to joint structures.
Dr Laurie Clemens is a
rheumatologist and he will be joining me today so we can learn more about
Reactive Arthritis
You may recall some media
coverage last year when a member of the Band Silverchair was diagnosed with
reactive Arthritis
See article on Sydney Morning
Herald from 2002 http://old.smh.com.au/news/0203/18/entertainment/entertain3.html
A good American Link explaining Reactive Arthritis diagnosis cause and treatment can be found at http://www.arthritis.org/conditions/DiseaseCenter/reiters.asp/
MAJOR EVENT MEDICAL SERVICES
Next weekend Australia hosts
the International Formula 1 Grand Prix. Focus of the world is on fast cars and
fun. There is much that goes on behind the glamour to ensure that things are
prepared for any potential disaster.
Safety is a key factor but no
matter how prepared you are Formula1 racing has the potential for medical
emergencies of various proportions. It is imperative that emergency facilities
and protocols are in place. You see the colour and festivities of the Grand Prix
in the media but what you don’t see is the sophisticated well oiled machine
behind the scenes. In 1996 I drove in the Celebrity Grand Prix and was taken to
see the emergency medical centre on site. The Australian Grand Prix have a
dedicated prefabricated portable building for competitors and officials that can
act as emergency centre and operating theatre, if necessary. It is staffed by
surgeons, emergency physicians and nurses on standby during the event should any
medical disaster happen on track. There is a response team course side as well
as Ambulance Paramedics and local hospital emergency departments on standby.
Australia is renowned for out ability to organise emergency plans and
Dr David Vissenga is the man who coordinates the medical team as the
Chief Medical Officer of the Australian Grand Prix . He joins us to tell us of
what goes on behind the scenes.
Visit the Australian
Grand Prix Website www.grandprix.com.au
PERSONAL FITNESS
Craig Harper joins us again to talk about
Personal Fitness and Training. Today we are going to look at why people join a
gym and then waste time while they are there as if its fulfilling their promise
to themselves to go but they are deluding themselves as they spend most of the
time with a towel on their shoulder gossiping .
Are you ever too old to go to a
gym to get fit ?
visit Craig HArper's personal
training website www.harpers.com.au
SHAKEN
BABY SYNDROME
I was contacted sometime ago by
a woman in America, called Colleen. Her tiny grandson had suffered brain injury
after being shaken by a relative. She asked me if I could help her raise
awareness of this devastating problem.
We all agree that child
abuse is abhorrent and that perpetrators deserve to face the full force of the
law.
But what about the tragedy of a
child who is harmed through an accident which could have been prevented. And
what if the event happened not through neglect but active involvement of a
person who for only a minute or two couldn’t control their anger.
Babies are wonderful, but
we all know they can also cause frustration at times. They cry and cry and
sometimes wont stop. Most people solve this, after checking there is no
rectifiable cause, by tag teaming
with a partner, grandparent ,or friend, going on a long walk with the pram,
or closing the door and putting on some soothing music.
But some people find anger
control difficult. Some people may not realise the consequences of their
actions.
The havoc reeked upon families
though brain injury caused by shaking a baby is doubly tragic when the person
responsible didn’t mean to harm the child. Everyone must live with the
consequences.
As a community we need to
educate people about how to handle babies and how to handle anger.
Mr Geoff Klugg is a neurosurgeon at the Royal Childrens hospital in Melbourne – he will be joining me to explain the effects of shaking on a baby’s brain
visit the Royal Childrens
hospitalhttp://www.rch.org.au/
Robyn Sullivan is the
Queensland Commissioner for Children
& Young People she will be telling us about the impact of child abuse on our
community.
visit the Queensland Commission for Children and Young people http://www.childcomm.qld.gov.au
Visit an American site about
SBS http://www.dontshake.com/sbsquestions.html
please read this article
in the medical Journal of Australia about hte outcomes of the Conference in
Australia
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/176_07_010402/mor10693_fm.html
please visit this site
and read about the people affected by SBS.
http://www.children-of-sbs.com/
LOVE
YOUR WORK
Marcus Moore
Executive Chef Sofitel Hotel
If you find it difficult to get
our head around cooking for a dinner party for 6 imagine overseeing the
organization of food for about 600 as well as several restaurants
and a couple of hundred potential in room diners !
That’s every day stuff for Marcus Moore, Executive Chef at The Sofitel Melbourne. Not only that but he also runs Master Classes in Cookery for people like you and me – and the best bit is you get to eat it al at the end
visit the Sofitel www.sofitelmelbourne.com.au
SCIENCE
CELEBRITIES
Bright Sparcs –
recording Australia’s contributors to Science and technology
Gavan McCarthy is the
director or the Australian Science Archives Project. He will join me to talk
about how you can assist this project. The aim of this project is to catalogue a
data base of Australians who have contributed to the advancement of science and
technology. They need your help to ensure they capture the right information. .
John Tynan (1829 –1895)
is a great example where the family assisted in the documentation of history. It
seems that members of John’s family were able to supply information, which
corrected spelling and an incorrect
reference to him .
John
Tynan was involved in development of farming equipment and won numerous awards
for his plough making.
See
Tynan's brief Bright Sparcs entry, and follow the link to Technology in Australia:
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P004021b.htm
Also visit Australian
Science and Technology Heritage Centre www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au
OVARIAN CANCER
Ovarian Cancer is
frightening because it may have no symptoms and we have no reliable screening
test for it. It is eminently treatable if caught early – but the problem is
how can we pick it up early when it doesn’t have symptoms and we don’t have
a reliable test .
It is important to know
whether you may be in a higher risk group and talk bout options.
The
Australian Statistics Source Cancer
in Australia 1996, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare tells us that
The lifetime risk of a woman developing OvCa before the age of 75 is 1 in 98. The lifetime risk for all age groups is around 1 in 60. OvCa is the 6th highest cause of death by cancer. In 1996, 1166 women were diagnosed with this cancer, the most serious and life-threatening of all gynaecological cancers. In one year, around 800 women die from this malignant cancer - that is one woman every 10 hours! Around 75% of women with OvCa are already in advance stage of the disease at diagnosis. Of these some 80% will be dead within 5 years, many much sooner.
Professor
Michael Quinn is the director, Director of Oncology/Dysplasia at The Royal
Women's Hospital in Melbourne and currently chairs the Ovarian Cancer Research
Group at the Cancer Council and is a member of the National Expert Advisory
Group on Ovarian Cancer.
Visit the Royal Women's
Hospital http://www.rwh.org.au/
Professor Quinn is a dedicated fundraiser for research into gynaecological
cancer and has personally raised over $400,000 by running marathons around the
world.
for excellent information on Ovarian Cancer and also access to support groups
please visit http://www.ovca.org/
GENEALOGY
RESEARCHING
YOUR FAMILY HISTORY
Sue Macbeth our regular
genealogist joins us again .Please visit her website www.macbeth.com.au
also special guest
is Anne Burrows, who is the Genealogy
Librarian of State Library of
Victoria Ann will tell us the services we can access at our various state
libraries.
Visit your state library using
the links below
State Library of Victoria
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au
State Library NSW
http://www.slnsw.gov.au/
State Library Qld http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/