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...
Top 3 Traits Insecure People Have In Common

Top 3 Traits Insecure People Have In Common

Do your insecurities sabotage your success?  Are you struggling to achieve the personal and professional success you desire? While insecure people share many common traits, I have observed that they have three traits in common, especially when promoting themselves. ...

The French Do It Differently

The French Do It Differently

The French have a reputation, rightly or wrongly, for arrogance. They believe that the French way is best and everyone else should get on board. Sometimes they have a point. Gavin Mortimer wrote an interesting piece in The Spectator comparing rates of childhood...

How You Can Heal From Fibromyalgia

How You Can Heal From Fibromyalgia

Diseases that used to take years to develop from toxic habits in adults are happening to our babies right now. Children from 7 to 10 years of age are being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. (1) You may find this shocking. But, if we check, it’s no surprise to find that...

The Real Ball

The Real Ball

The vaping debate has reached an interesting point. We seem to have moved on from arguing the merits of vaping as being 95% less harmful than smoking. Most of the more recent debates has focussed on funding of charities dedicated to reducing the death and disease toll...

Prius Non Tempore: First, Do No Time

Prius Non Tempore: First, Do No Time

The golden rule of surgery is: Primum non nocere - ‘First, do no harm’. There is another, competing rule that comes from practicing defensive medicine: Prius non tempore - 'first, do no time'. Primum non nocere boils down to avoidance of acts that do more harm than...

Servicing The 1984 Model

Servicing The 1984 Model

Inanimate objects can generate much passion. What matters is how they are used not the objects. A knife is great for cutting food but can be used to kill. Is a knife good or   bad? It is neither and both. The Medicare system generates passion. The passing of its...

Are Your Goals Limiting Your Well-Being?

Are Your Goals Limiting Your Well-Being?

In life, we are taught that having goals is a good thing that we should set them and we should and ought to aspire to them. But have you ever considered the possibility that even doing such a thing as setting a goal is actually placing a limit on who and how you can...

Tricks, Treats And Long Drives

Tricks, Treats And Long Drives

Being healthy is more than eating sensibly and exercising – hence there are eight rather than two pillars of health. Relaxation, sleep, relationships together with fun and purpose get less attention as there are few pharmaceutical agents and no grant funding for big...

How To Eat For Healthy Eyes

How To Eat For Healthy Eyes

Eating for eye health is simple: the food that is good for our eyes is good for the whole of us, as our eyes are part of our body. This is common sense, but something we sometimes forget. The common eye conditions, cataract and macular degeneration, are at least...

Get It Right!

Get It Right!

I have started watching the Netflix Documentary-drama – the making of the mob which chronicles the rise of the mafia in 1920’s America. The key to the success of the mafia was the institution of prohibition on January 16 1920. Not only did prohibition not reduce...

Why We Need NAD+

Why We Need NAD+

  NAD+, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, is a coenzyme found in all living cells, and is required for the fundamental biological processes that make life possible. After the birth of my children my metabolism and hormones drastically changed. It seemed I...

Freedom Means Progress So Why Do We Stifle Dissent

Freedom Means Progress So Why Do We Stifle Dissent

In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis a Hungarian Physician first discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever could be significantly reduced if doctors washed their hands before attending to mothers. Despite publication of results showing that hand washing reduced mortality...