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Health & Wellness

Health & Wellness
The Founders: Fixing fragmentation in the mental health space
Fragmentation between services in the mental health industry has been making it harder for people to reach out for help. Doctor of clinical psychology, Kylie Henderson, noticed this and decided to create the Humanity Health Group in 2013. “I saw young people with drug and alcohol issues with five different workers all working with them, but no one was coordinating it,” she tells Azzet. “I wanted to start Humanity Health Group as a way of integrating really good care into various systems so that we could coordinate services much more efficiently and effectively.”Mental health sector growthHumanity Health Group currently services people in Australia and the United Kingdom and has grown to eleven brands in eight years. The estimated cost of mental ill-health in Australia is estimated to be around A$220 billion per year, and £300 billion (A$567.3 billion) per year in the UK. Research from Murdoch University also found structural issues in Australia’s mental health system. The research highlighted the need for increased Medicare support for mental health services and found that as mental health worsens, people’s healthcare costs rise. Murdoch University’s College of Business associate professor Khurshid Alam said A
Health & Wellness
The Founders: Using business expertise to make a change
Kirrily Dear decided to take her business experience and apply it to charity work to give back to the community. Around a decade ago, Dear founded volunteer-based charity Run Against Violence to raise awareness and funds for domestic violence prevention. Among the G20 nations, Australia ranks eighth for the rate of domestic violence against women, according to OECD and Dear was inspired to take action in 2012 while hearing about domestic violence on the news. “It was during that news cycle that I heard the statistic of one woman a week being murdered and over the, you know, the subsequent months and learning more about the problem,” she said. “Up to that point, I'd been largely oblivious that we had an issue with domestic and family violence in Australia.”Broken Hill to Sydney - 500km mark. Credit: Pure Public RelationsHer activism started with the success of the White Ribbon Ultra Marathon in 2014, where Dear ran 860km over 12 days. “I ended up doing a charity run in 2014, and it was during that charity run that I met a young man who had grown up with horrific violence in his home,” she said “It was really the conversation I had with him that became a turning point. I then decided to use everything that I had wi
Health & Wellness
Australia falls short of top 10 in active vitality index
New analysis of WHO data by Compare the Market finds the majority of countries in the top 10 of the active vitality index are in Europe. The scores are based on a combination of a country's average life expectancy, average healthy life expectancy and physical activity levels of a population. The only three non-European nations in the top 10 were Singapore, New Zealand and Bhutan. Australia narrowly missed out on the top 10, ranking 13th overall. A study found that Australia has the fifth highest average life expectancy of 83.10 years, and the 12th highest healthy life expectancy of 70,13 years. Despite this, Australia was let down by the physical activity level of the population with 27.96% of the population not meeting the recommended time spent exercising. There were 102 countries ahead of Australia in activity levels. Compare the Market AU’s Executive Manager of Health Insurance, Steven Spicer said there were many countries in the same boat as Australia with high life expectancy but missing the mark on activity levels. “What was usually common across these countries was that they had higher-quality healthcare available,” Spicer said. “Australia has some of the best healthcare in the world, with a public and
Health & Wellness
COS finds 20% of employees do not feel safe at work
New research has found a growing number of employees believe health and safety are priorities in their workplaces. This is despite rising claims to Safe Work Australia. Commissioned by COS, Australia's largest family owned office and education supplies business, over 1000 workers nationwide were surveyed. The results found that more people believe their workplaces prioritise health and safety than they did two years ago, coming in at 80% now compared to 70% in 2023. However, underlying this is a growing rate of serious claims to Safe Work Australia over the last decade, an increase of 20.5%. Azzet spoke to COS co-CEO Belinda Lyone to find out how 80% of workers can continue increasing and practical plans to do so. The leading reason for those who reported not feeling like health and safety was a workplace priority was an expectation to keep working through illness, with 46% of people reporting stress over the thought of catching something, which is up 32% from 2023. "The pandemic was a major turning point when it comes to how employees perceive health and safety in the workplace. It heightened awareness across the board — not just around hygiene, but also mental wellbeing and psychological safety," said Lyone.
Health & Wellness
Amazon is testing out AI in shopping and health
Amazon is pushing deeper into generative artificial intelligence (AI) through testing shopping and health assistants. The new Interests feature for shopping allows users to enter personalised shopping prompts based on their interests and price range. Amazon’s store then sends them notifications of products that are relevant to the prompts. The feature is available to some U.S. users through the app or mobile website in the “Me” tab. Amazon plans to roll out Interests to all of its U.S. users in the coming months. The company is also exploring ways to use AI for medical needs through testing a chatbot on its website and mobile app called “Health AI”. The aim is for the Health AI to be able to provide common care options and suggest products. Unlike Amazon’s Rufus, which can suggest products like ice packs and ibuprofen, the Health AI will also be able to provide medical guidance, such as common ways to treat cold symptoms or the flu. After Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical for roughly US$3.9 million, the Health AI can also steer users to Amazon’s online pharmacy and clinical services offered by the clinical care provider. The chatbot uses Bedrock, a service created by Amazon’s cloud unit that accesses AI mode

Health & Wellness
$7m injection for private health transparency website
Australia's Federal Government is set to announce a $7 million upgrade to the $24 million Medical Costs Finder (MCF) initiative this morning, where private medical specialists reveal their fees and show consumers their potential out-of-pocket expenses before receiving treatment. The little-known MCF, launched by the Coalition in 2019, would also lead to stronger obligations for health insurers to provide greater transparency around how much they cover doctor’s fees and let consumers know what kind of value they’re getting from it. It does already, yet to-date just 70 out of Australia’s 11,000 medical specialists have signed up to the platform - a paltry 0.63% - as doctors are under no obligation to disclose their fees - and this does not apply to general practitioners (GPs).More collaboration neededNational health lobby group the Australian Medical Association (AMA) says that while it welcomes the news, upgrades to the MCF alone would not fix the systemic issues contributing to increasing costs for services. “Labor’s commitment to upgrade the MCF website has the potential to improve transparency for consumers on possible out-of-pocket costs, if the changes include relevant information about all factors that contribute to
Health & Wellness
'Sold like wine': Colombia's Petro calls for legal coke
Against the backdrop of a recent spat with the United States over illegal migrant deportation, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has suggested the global cocaine industry could be “easily dismantled” if the drug was legalised worldwide. Petro had recently incited President Donald Trump to threaten tariffs on the country after he took to X a couple of weeks ago saying “I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory”. “The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.” At the time, two planes full of migrants that were due to land in Bogota were denied and Petro subsequently demanded that the migrants be returned on civilian aircraft instead of military planes and that they be "treated with the dignity a human being deserves". Wielding tariff threats like a sword in battle, Trump swiftly threatened to impose a 25% levy on Colombian goods entering the U.S. and rise it to 50% by the end of the week if the deportation flights were not accepted. Petro’s government hastily backpeddled and allowed the migrants to land two days later. Not worse than whiskey, it can sell like wineNow, in an address to his government, Petro has call
Health & Wellness
Weight-loss drug market to soar on positive side effects
A groundbreaking study of weight loss medicines has revealed links to improvements in heart health and a range of other conditions - accelerating their demand for a market projected to be worth US$77 billion (A$123 billion) by 2030. The comprehensive 3.5-year observation on human health conducted by Washington University analysed data from almost two million people on weight loss pills - mostly Veterans - showing that not only did it shed weight, but also a 12% reduction in people with Alzheimer's disease. The results, published in the journal Nature Medicine, also revealed lower cases of chronic kidney disease and liver cancer, and lower reported fevers and bacterial infections. Not only that, it indicated a drastic reduction in the risk of substance abuse from things like alcohol, marijuana and opioids - as well as showing fewer signs of suicidal thoughts, seizures and schizophrenic tendencies.Bad with the goodHowever, adverse side effects were prevalent too. Signs of stomach pain and inflammation, intestinal bulges and haemorrhoids were more common using the more popular weight loss drugs such as Wegovy and Ozempic. Data compiled from the comparable metropolis number of humans also pointed out increases in fainting,
Health & Wellness
Zyn gets FDA greenlight as tool for quitting smoking
The United States Food and Drug Administration has authorised Zyn nicotine pouches to be sold to as a tool to quit smoking. The agency says that even though this decision gives the products permission to be legally marketed in the U.S., it “does not mean these tobacco products are safe, nor are they ‘FDA approved’”. In a statement the FDA said that Zyn supplied data from a study that demonstrated "a substantial proportion of adults who use cigarette and/or smokeless tobacco products completely switched to the newly authorized nicotine pouch products". The pouches, made by tobacco company Phillip Morris, have been on the U.S. market for over decade as the FDA reviewed whether to formally allow them and the latest decision allows 10 Zyn flavours, including mint, coffee, cinnamon and menthol, to remain. Nicotine pouches do not contain any actual tobacco and is placed between the gum and the lips where it slowly emits nicotine, much like nicotine patches or chewing gum. While E-cigarettes were also authorised as a device for quitting smoking before seeing a huge spike in use by children, but there has been no evidence that teens are migrating nicotine pouches in the same manner, with less than 2% of American students re