Health

Telling a child they can’t sing has life-long implications. But there are ways to reverse it.

Singing is a natural human interaction that transcends cultures, socio-economic groups, ability, gender and education level, but many people are so scarred from their childhood experiences of singing that they won’t sing as adults.

Northwestern University choral music expert Steven Demorest says this comes from a focus on talent rather than skill. “It creates a huge stigma for kids and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he says.

Professor Bruce Neal from the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney reviewed more than 34,000 packaged foods with health-star ratings.

These are the voluntary front-of-pack labels, designed to help people make healthier choices.

But health experts said naturally occurring sugars found in fruits, vegetables and dairy were treated the same as sugars added during food processing.

The quarter-acre dream is fast disappearing and larger blocks and family gardens along with it.

As more people move from country areas to the city and as land to build homes near the city centre becomes scarce, we're getting further and further away from nature. It turns out this isn't great for our health.

The change in urban environments because of development, associated with a rapid increase in chronic disease, is a global phenomenon in developed countries.

At the start of this year, did you do what many of us did? (Myself included)

We make great plans and set out an impressive agenda for the year, with key goals, important achievements and projects to undertake.

There's a sense of optimism and renewal that comes at the start of each year.

"This year I'm going to [fill in the blanks]."

But are you like me — that so often the busyness of life interferes with your plans and hopes for a happier, healthier life? We get into a rut and run on auto-pilot.

I spoke about this recently to a lovely group of people.

The word cancer understandably strikes fear into the hearts of many, and most would assume the best course of action would be to have the cancer removed, whatever the side-effects may be.

But impotence and incontinence are no small side-effects, especially when you consider, as two new studies have done, removing the cancer is not necessarily the best option, and the cancer may not in fact require treatment at all.

Most prostate cancers take decades to exit the prostate, and most men will usually die with, but not from, prostate cancer.

So-called noms de womb can be funny, cute and just a little on the weird side.

Phoebe Payn said as soon as people discovered she was expecting twins they started to name them.

"My dad has just started calling them Jesus and Mary because they're due at Christmas," she told Helen Shield on ABC Radio Hobart.

"B1 and B2 is popular. Which is actually quite fitting because in the scan you could see them and they were actually headbutting each other like the Bananas do.

On the surface almond milk is a pretty innocuous, even healthy, alternative to dairy milk.

But the name - those two words 'almond' and 'milk' - raise all sorts of questions. For example, how do you milk an almond? Even the best Kiwi cockie wouldn't be able to tell you where to put the cups.

The fact is, almonds make up less than two percent of the average carton on the supermarket shelf.

What's more, technically it can't even be called milk.

Liggins Institute chair David Cameron-Smith says almond milk is, instead, a manufactured product.

But it's not working. My heart is still going a million miles an hour.

I'd experienced episodes of rapid heartbeat ever since I was a child. My mother told me they were called palpitations.

I mentioned them to a doctor once when I was a teenager and he jokingly asked if they were triggered by watching gyrating rock stars in music videos.

I took that to mean they were nothing to worry about.

Besides, I somehow discovered over the years that if they didn't go away by themselves, I could stop them by holding my breath for a short period.

He said with very valuable assistance of the Government, major medical supply companies in Papua New Guinea and the Department’s business partners at the airlines have agreed to work together to provide the medical supply.

Kase noted that the Chief Secretary had provided considerable assistance through his personal strength and understanding of the issues involved.

He went on to say that the central agencies had worked to free up access to resources which allowed for faster payments to contractors.

It is packed with saturated fat which can raise "bad" cholesterol, says the American Heart Association in updated advice.

Coconut oil is commonly sold as a health food and some claim the fat in it may be better for us than other saturated fats.

The AHA, however, says there are no good studies to support this.