Symptoms Both can cause fever, cough, body aches, fatigue; sometimes vomiting and diarrhoea. Can be mild or severe, even fatal in rare cases. Can result in pneumonia  Transmission Both can be spread from person to person through droplets in the air from an infected person coughing, sneezing or ...

Wheat and Gluten Allergy Wheat and gluten allergy are topics that have been given a lot of coverage recently. With books like “Grain brain” and “Wheat Belly” topping the best seller lists and celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow promoting a gluten free diet in her cook book, it is not surprising that...

Cervical Cancer is the third most common cancer in women word wide and the most common cancer in women in South Africa. It is one of the top killers of women along with breast cancer. It mostly affects women under 45 years old, who often have young families. Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the virus ...

The beginning of the year is usually a time when people who have been thinking of reducing weight, decide to put those thoughts into action. It is also a time when the health supplement industry starts to promote the sales of weight loss agents and detox products that are labelled with generous prom...

SPRING FEVER After a long very wet winter spring seems to be on its way, the leaves are coming out and exams for many are around the corner,–too late for some, too soon for others!  Good luck to all of you who are writing matric and further exams in the next few months. If you […]...

LOW CARB DIETS: Are they effective or just the flavour of the month? Few issues in health are as controversial as food, what we do eat and what we should be eating.  The current trend for low carbohydrate diets, often combined with a high fat intake, the so called “paleo diet” is of concern to ...

Hypertension is the medical term for the condition of sustained abnormally high blood pressure.  The blood is pumped around the body under some pressure, but when this pressure is too high it puts a strain on the circulation and can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Why do we get high...

PROBIOTICS — Good, bad or indifferent. When one goes into a pharmacy nowadays one is confronted with rows of “health” products that all promise to make you healthier, thinner, younger and more beautiful.  The list is endless and confusing; if the last one did not work there is always a new on...

The most common injuries in sport are muscle and ligament tears, overuse injuries from repetitive activities and bruises from falls and knocks.  Apart from trauma, many injuries are preventable through correct training and conditioning of the body.   The three most common preventable causes of...

Screening tests in General Practice. – Going beyond the obvious. Modern general practitioners should offer more than reactive medicine.  That is, responding not only to problems that are brought to them but looking at the bigger long term picture as well. A large part of the service we offer invo...