Dr Joe Unplugged

Dr Joe Unplugged is your home for open commentary on health, wellbeing and life in the broadest sense. We will explore diet, exercise, sleep and stress amongst other health matters as well as issues that may impact you and your wellbeing in direct or indirect ways....

It’s Christmas!

If Christmas did not exist it would need to be invented. Perfectly timed at the end of the year, it allows for many people worldwide to celebrate in some way, shape or form. This may be the formal religious celebration or simply a catch up with friends and family....

We Need Our Sleep

Human beings spend more time being asleep than anything else. It is estimated that at the turn of the twentieth century the average American slept nine hours each night. By the turn of the twenty first century this figure has dropped to under eight hours. Lack of...

Being Healthy Is More Than Just Not Getting Sick

The focus on preventative health tends to be more about avoiding disease than about being healthy.Sometimes in trying to avoid one disease we may end up with another.The best way not to be sick is to be healthy

Fitness Is Important Regardless Of Your Day Job

Arguments over health continue to center on paying for disease services.There would be less to argue about if people were healthier.One of the pillars of health is exercise. A politician who exercises is actually setting a good example.

Parenting Is About Using Judgement Not Protocols

Parenting requires the use of judgment and the need to respond to situations which can be subtly different to other situations.It can not be done by committee or by strict adherence to protocols so beloved by government departments.

Pills Are Not The Answer to Better Health

An Australian study has criticized doctors for not prescribing enough pills to treat risk factors for disease.Yet it makes no recommendations about doctors advising their patients about things they can do to be healthy without drugs.

ADHD – Overdiagnosed and Over Medicated

ADHD has been over diagnosed and children in particular have been over medicated.New research shows that the drugs not only do not help.they make school performance worse.There are better ways to help our children.

Swine Flu – The Threat That Never Was and Six Ways To Boost Immunity

Swine flu or H1N1 continues to be a non event except in the minds of health authorities who will not accept that they got it wrong.There is a lot of unused vaccine on government shelves. Meanwhile there are simple things you can do to bolster your immune system and hence be less likely to get any viral illness.