For Patients

So I came across this list about the fifteen interesting facts relating to the human body, and thought I would take a look and research them myself. Unsurprisingly, some of them turned out to be inaccurate. I've done some research into the claims and compiled a list of articles to explain the realities of the claims. 1: Your nose can remember more than 50,000 different scents. This claim is inaccurate as it vastly underestimates the abilities of the human nose, which is in reality comparable to a dog's…

A UK-based artist by the name of William Utermohlen was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995 and he chronicled his own mental demise over his years of living with the disease. Unfortunately, Utermohlen died in 2007, but he drew a self-portrait every year until he was no longer able to before his death. The artworks offer a unique glimpse into the mind of an Alzheimer's patient, and how their mind deteriorates over time. Strikingly, we can see slow decay until 1999, where we can no longer distinguish any facial…

If you are trying to lose weight and otherwise improve your health, you may already be mindful about what you eat during the day. You might skip breakfast. At lunch, you may opt for a salad with lots of veggies, no croutons and low-fat dressing — on the side, of course.

A recent surgical breakthrough in the treatment of stroke victims has been shown to give some patients a healthy and independent life, even up to 24 hours after the stroke has occurred. A team of Melbourne researchers conducted a clinical trial looking at extending the surgical window for stroke victims from 6 hours, to 24 hours after the CVA event. Following a stroke (CVA), it was believed the medical team had only 6 hours to prepare and conduct a thrombectomy to remove the blood clot from the brain and salvage…

Hand hygiene is a vital part of any infection control practice. Nurses are constantly disinfecting their hands hundreds, if not thousands of times per day (or at least they should be) but this mentality has spread to the greater public, with antibacterial soaps becoming more readily available, and to some, a necessity. You would expect this to be good news, but it's not. Recently emerging evidence has shown that this over-use of antibacterial soaps outside of the healthcare setting may actually be doing more damage…

Traditionally, western medicine has been centred around the biomedical model and its underpinning philosophies to best determine a person’s health status. The biomedical model has allowed medicine to advance in leaps and bounds over recent decades, improving our understanding of the human body while also maintaining a superior standard of care through the evidence-based practice approach. Through this approach, we were able to isolate body systems and understand disease processes and how they impacted upon the individual…

Over the last decade or so, health care has shifted focus from treatment of symptoms and disease processes, to more emphasis on prevention of disease, such as living an active lifestyle and exercising regularly. Healthy diet and personal habits have also seen an increased emphasis in recent health promotion campaigns. Through these new approaches modern medicine has slowly moved away from the biomedical model as its sole foundation, and has moved towards a more holistic approach to healthcare, while using the solid…

Nursing is a broad profession within the healthcare system, which deals with the caring and support of sick is injured people, promoting recovery and wellbeing. Nursing is often what we envision when we think about hospitals and healthcare in general. The caring nurse with her gentle touch and soft voice is what we all think would best aid in our recovery, and indeed this has been shown to be the case on many occasions. Nurses focus not only on supporting individuals in need, but rather focus their skills…