The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute is dedicated to reducing ill health and mortality caused by the effects of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. With a focus on diagnosis, prevention and treatment, Baker’s work also extends to wide-scale community studies. Baker IDI and its researchers interact with and obtain funding from a variety of external partners, including government, private donors and industry partners.
Of the 22,713 weight loss operations performed in 2014-15, about 90% were performed in private hospitals, highlighting the difficulty in accessing this type of surgery through the public system.
Our heart works hard for every second we are alive. Eventually its processes will wear out.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Given our increasing lifespan, we need to better understand how and why the cardiovascular system ages and whether we can slow down the processes involved.
Ms Dhu died on 4 August 2014 from staphylococcal septicaemia.
Richard Wainwright/AAP
Metformin has been used to treat diabetes since the late 1950s. It is now on the World Health Organisation’s List of Essential Medicines needed for a basic health care system.
We are seeing type 2 diabetes more and more in leaner groups at a much younger age.
DAN PELED/AAP Image
We are seeing increasing numbers of young, slim children with type 2 diabetes. This means obesity and lifestyle factors may not be the whole story behind the disease’s rising rates.
Footballer Adam Goodes was daring to speak of things that many Australians would prefer to be ignorant of.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Until we see a marked change in the stories that are told, together with a shift from inclusion to social justice, the national story of Australian sport will remain very, very white.
Birth registration is required for many activities throughout a person’s life yet in some states up to 20% of Aboriginal children aren’t registered.
Marianna Massey/AAP
Around 20% of Aboriginal births in Western Australia between 1996 and 2012 weren’t registered, new research shows. This has many social and health ramifications for their future.
Birthing on country generally refers to an Aboriginal mother giving birth to her child on the lands of their ancestors.
Skylines/Shutterstock
Where birthing on country is not offered, women leave their families weeks before birth. Or she can choose to give birth in her community without skilled birth attendants, which is risky.
Diabetes is characterised by higher than normal levels of glucose in the blood.
Leon Ephraim/Unsplash
Merlin Thomas, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and Paul Zimmet, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
Diabetes is a leading cause of death as well as of heart attacks, strokes, amputations, kidney failure, depression and severe infections – all of which themselves contribute to premature death.
Coronary heart disease is almost always a consequence of atherosclerosis; a build-up of cholesterol and other material in the walls of our arteries.
Heart Attack Heaven/Flickr
Global deaths from heart disease rose from 12.3 million in 1990 to 17.3 million in 2013. Most of the increase occurred in developing countries and in disadvantaged people in developed countries.
Indigenous people have poorer health outcomes than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Clive Hyde/Northern Territory Government
Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand, despite the distance separating them and varying histories, have one disturbing issue in common: poor health.
Most heart attacks aren’t ‘massive’.
from shutterstock.com
The numbers listed on your packaged foods replace the chemical or common name of food additives. These are used to enhance the colour, flavour, texture or prevent them from spoiling.
From hot to cold and cold to hot, the weather can make a difference to our health.
Michael Levine-Clark/Flickr
Merlin Crossley, UNSW Sydney; Andrew Siebel, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute; Brian Schmidt, Australian National University; Frieder Seible, Monash University; Gustav Nossal, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) ; Les Field, UNSW Sydney, and Peter C. Doherty, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
The scientific community reacts to the news that Dr Alan Finkel has been appointed Australia’s New Chief Scientist as of 2016.
We’ve known for some time that too much sitting increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease. But until now it’s been unclear how much standing during the work day may counter this risk.
Interventional Cardiologist, Alfred Hospital; Professor of Medicine and Immunology, Monash University; Professor and Head, Department of Cardiometabolic Health, University of Melbourne; Lab Head, Atherothrombosis and Vascular Biology and Deputy Director, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute