The Boothroyd Surgery in Inala, Queensland | Medical and health

The Boothroyd Surgery

Locality: Inala, Queensland

Phone: +61 7 3372 4145

Address: 44 Corsair Avenue Inala 4077 Inala, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.boothroydsurgery.com

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• Family medicine practice
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24.01.2022 Its been a long pause in posts as I have been travelling around the country teaching other GPs and have been crazy busy but heres a little titbit that has been in the news about aspirin. Finally we have some decent evidence that if you dont have anything wrong with you then taking 100mg of Aspirin very day will NOT stop heart attacks or strokes but WILL increase risk of harmful bleeding. There are some important caveats on his research: 1. If you have heart problems or a previous stroke and your doctor has told you to take aspirin then stay on it, it works for you. 2. The research did not follow people long enough to answer the question as to whether aspirin reduces the incidence of cancer which previous studies suggest may be the case. It will be another ten years before we can expect an answer to that question.

24.01.2022 Im one of the doctors who signed a letter to our politicians asking to help these desperate kids. When the Nauru government threw out Medecin Sants Frontiere ( Doctors Without Borders is a wonderful, completely impartial medical aide organisation) then you know that place must be terrible.

24.01.2022 Janine and I are travelling home early to be sure to be able to start work next week. We are already planning the changes needed to make the Surgery safe. Some of the things that will change is having our front desk team ( Wendy, Ngaire and Mary-Anne) ask you about your reason to want to see us. We will be providing telephone and video-call consultations for those eligible. We will also be providing a number of measures to reduce your need to come to the surgery. When you co...me to the Surgery there will be a completely new way of streamlining your visit. Social-distancing is VITAL to control this epidemic and we are devising a system to avoid use of the waiting room if possible. There will be hygiene measures also imposed on those who visit. Much of this is fluid and evolving and I will post details in next few days. For those with a scientific interest I will post links to Tomas Pueyos excellent explanation of this pandemic and why we must act very strongly now ( two in-depth articles). Obviously: Stay inside, stay 2m apart and wash your hands at least 11 times a day. See more

23.01.2022 We are open again. We are hoping to do most of our consultations by phone or video link. If you need to see us face to face that will be fine. If you are sick with a respiratory illness( cough, fever, aches and pains, sore throat etc) then tell the receptionist and we will call you quickly and discuss what to do. We will be seeing people with possible contagious illness at the end of the day in a special room via a seperate entry. As you are reading this then perhaps Facebook Messenger is a good platform to use with us. We also can do Skype, Whats App, Signal, Line, Apple Facetime (Pheww, so many platforms ). Plus a good old fashioned phone call! Looking forward to helping you with all your health issues again.

23.01.2022 Following up on a theme from a few weeks ago, Id like to talk further about a group of drugs called Proton Pump Inhibitors( PPIs). These drugs are potent blockers of the production of acid in your stomach. Some examples of these are omeprazole, esomeprazole, pantoprazole , lansoprazole ( yes they all end in azole), some common trade names of these are Losec, Nexium, Acimax, Somac, etc. These drugs have become overprescribed, including by myself . Because they are asto...nishingly effective at rapidly alleviating any problem caused by stomach acid it is hard to deny access to such a remedy. However, there are problems. Once the drug blocks nearly all the acid in your stomach, your stomach fights back, desperate to produce acid, it causes a massive increase in the number in acid-producing cells in the lining of your stomach. This means that once you stop this drug, there are heaps more acid-producing cells than you have ever had before and they will blast out more acid than ever. This feels like a terrible recurrence of the original problem and therefore the patient believes they have a persistent disease and goes back on the drug. Your stomach produces acid for important reasons, primarily to sterilise your food but also to start digestion ( actually digestion starts in your mouth, but I digress) and aid in the absorption of an important vitamin, B12. Vitamin B12 is used for making blood cells and for the proper functioning of all nerve cells- so deficiency causes anaemia, die-back of your nerves and dementia ! You can only absorb B12 from you food if it gets attached to a special molecule made by your stomach and this binding of the vitamin to this molecule can only occur in an acidic environment. 30% of regular long term users of PPIs become B12 deficient and eating more of it wont help. If you take these drugs, ask me when did you last check my B12 level?, Do I still need these?, How do I get off them? See more

22.01.2022 Here is some fascinating and depressing news about sleep. Personally I struggle to get enough sleep and this talk will prove to you that this is a serious problem, affecting ALL aspects of our bodies and minds. Lack of sleep will kill you. All sorts of diseases are worse with sleep loss, from cancer to heart attacks to dementia. Listen to this talk and then go to bed!!! Sleep is your superpower https://www.ted.com/ta/matt_walker_sleep_is_your_superpower

21.01.2022 This years Flu season has been the worst for quite some time. This frequently brings up the issue of the use of antibiotics in respiratory infections. As Im sure most of you know, there are two main types of germs that cause infection: bacteria and viruses. The bacteria, tiny single cell organisms, are involved in pus producing infections such as boils, tonsillitis, urinary tract infection, most pneumonia and some sinus infections and some meningitis etc. Viruses are a fa...r tinier germ, so small in fact that they infect bacteria! They are just a little packet of genes with a coating and no actual cell. By many definitions they are not even alive. Viruses are responsible for causing colds, influenza ( a specific group), most sinus infections, bronchitis and some pneumonias. They are also responsible for other illnesses you have heard of such as chickenpox, measles, herpes, rubella, and many others. Antibiotics only kill bacteria. We do have a few specific antiviral medicines for herpes and a couple of others but generally speaking, we have no cure for viruses. Your own immune system has to fight them off. So antibiotics are not useful for all those runny noses and most of the coughs and sore throats that plague us in the winter. They are useful for some but we know from research that too many antibiotics are used. "So what", you may say? For starters, we are fast running out of effective antibiotics for some serious infections due to excessive use for minor problems ( I can explain how this works if you are interested). But also, antibiotics are not as harmless as many believe, many people die from antibiotic side-effects every year and we now have increasing awareness of the very damaging effects that antibiotics can have on the bacteria in our gut. These gut bacteria have profound effects on our health, even our mental health!!( perhaps thats another post on its own). "Probiotics", I hear you call. Well, whilst there are definitely good uses for probiotics for quite a number of things, we only have a handful of species of bacteria used as probiotics. Your bowel, however, has thousands of different species. Our knowledge is very limited (at present) about the consequences when antibiotics kill off vast numbers of your healthy intestinal bacteria . So what does all this mean? Have a think about the pros and cons before racing off to get antibiotics for your next respiratory illness and ask me lots of difficult questions if I offer a prescription . See more

21.01.2022 For those of you interested in the latest developments in medicine, health and well-being, I highly recommend this podcast to you. It is presented by Dr Norman Swan, the best health journalist in the world ( IMHO). He is incisive, unbiased, careful to avoid drug company propaganda and skilled at getting difficult concepts across without jargon. Try it. https://itunes.apple.com//health-report-full-p/id74842478

18.01.2022 Well what a busy few months it has been. The surgery is still working in a socially distanced style. I do think that being super vigilant is essential at this point. Queensland is enticingly close to eradication of the SARS Cov2 virus but people are arriving here from Victoria for various reasons and low level community spread is quite possible here in Brisbane right now. If you or any of your family or friends get ANY symptoms of respiratory or other illness it is vital th...at we test for the virus. That means ANY sniffle, cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, altered taste or smell. No matter how mild, call us to arrange a test. We arrange these over the phone, send a photo of a request form for the test to your mobile. You go to thr pathology collection centre and they will accept the photo as a valid request. The lab will text you your results directly within 24hrs. Self isolation is not essential whilst awaiting your results but most workplaces prefer you to stay at home if you have any respiratory illness. We can send you a medical certificate to your smartphone as well. For an excellent daily update on the science of the pandemic I recommend Coronacast on the ABC podcast site Thank you for your patience and understanding in these trying times See more

17.01.2022 As promised here are the links to 2 excellent in-depth analyses of this pandemic. The first is a primer on understanding the whole thing https://medium.com//coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-d

17.01.2022 There are not enough organs donated in Australia, we have one of the poorest rates in the world. I promise you that you wont need them after you have died. Ive just re-confirmed my donation status. https://register.donatelife.gov.au/

17.01.2022 We have been away whilst the Coronavirus has come to us. This will be a huge problem for our community. If we get this right then we may save a million Australian lives. There will be VERY big changes in how the surgery will be operating in the next few months and when Janine and I get back to work in another week we will post again with the details. Our main concern is to keep you safe and do our best to control the spread of this virus. When we get back to an area with reliable internet I will post more details

16.01.2022 From 1/5/18 we will be changing our opening hours: back to 8am start on Thursday but opening longer on a Wednesday evening (6:45pm) to cater for those coming after work. Hoping this improves our accessibility

16.01.2022 We finally have a website, nothing fancy but will improve with time. Have a look and suggest improvements https://www.boothroydsurgery.com

16.01.2022 Anxiety is one of the commonest mental health problems plaguing Australians. Why it is such a problem has many causes and most of them are related to the way we live. An excellent but poorly used treatment for anxiety is Internet Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or iCBT. This is a form of psychological therapy that teaches you how to reduce the effects of your anxious thoughts on your life and being internet based, private and mostly free. The evidence suggests it is as good as seeing a psychologist with half of users being cured!! Good free one is MindSpot and a paid ($60) one is This Way Up. Janine and I are off to a Lifestyle Medicine conference in June so we will come back with all the latest ideas on turning around the chronic lifestyle problems that fill 70% of our days at work.

15.01.2022 Osteoarthritis patients: New evidence unfortunately suggests Paracetamol is not as effective as previously thought for arthritis pain ( some people do find it helps) and Codeine ( and all the other narcotics like Oxycodone) is more dangerous than was thought ( research shows a higher death rate from using it). This does make pain a bit more difficult to manage but on the plus side..... Exercise and strength training reduce pain and improve function better than pills and the humble walking stick reduces pain from knee and hip arthritis more powerfully than any pill . We can show you how to use a walking stick effectively if you decide to use one.

15.01.2022 If you have high blood pressure and are on one of the group of medicines whose chemical name ends with sartan then you should call the surgery. There has been a minor contamination problem with a few batches of some of these medications. The issue is not particularly serious ( they have traces of a bacon curing chemical in them!) and does not require you to come off the tablets, just get new ones.

14.01.2022 Salt and Blood pressure Often we are advised to eat less salt to lower blood pressure and reduce chances of heart attack and stroke. The average Aussie eats 10g of salt a day but the World Health Organisation recommends 2 g per day. A recent huge study has tried to sort this out and it found that blood pressure was lowest when daily salt intake was 5g per day. However it couldnt find any clear signs that people who ate less salt lived any longer than those who hogged it! We do know that if you have High blood pressure already then reducing your salt intake to 4g a day (2/3 teaspoon) can have a dramatic blood pressure lowering effect ( often more than a tablet). Food for thought .

13.01.2022 This year has been somewhat surreal for us all. Whilst much of our day to day life may seem the same, the loss of so many of our social activities is having profound effects on our wellbeing. I have, for many months now, been confronted every day with people suffering all sorts of sadness, fatigue, depression, frustration, anxiety. Many of these people have not felt this way before. Humans are intensely social animals, one of the worst punishments we inflict on people is i...solation so it is not surprising that radical reduction of our social activities is causing us pain. So what can we do now to feel better without spreading germs? ( this does raise the surprising realisation of how much disease we were willing to spread to stay connected before COVID) I think the first thing is to look deep inside and find the pain and loss within ourselves. Admit that we are struggling sometimes and we need connection, then try to see it in those around us. What is missing? What made us smile? What does touch and closeness do to us? Next, I think we need to think outside the COVID cage! Once we see how vital connections are to our happiness, we realise how hard we must try to fill the void. It is not OK to sit alone and watch TV, there is a load of research proving that this is psychological poison. We need to get creative, reach out to others using whatever means we can for their mental health and our own. This may be just a phone call but what about writing a letter?(old school I know but think of the pleasure you got when you got a nice note from someone), how about embracing technology and trying video connections? Going outside and meeting people in the park? There are countless ways to connect and I urge you to reach out as much as you can safely. At the surgery we have been providing video calls to patients since March but only a few take us up on this. Whilst phone consults are great, convenient and safe, we all know that seeing someone is so much better than a phone call. I have found video consultations much better I had expected and for those who struggle with the technology, we can help with how to do it. So if you feel safer staying at home, (and I think that is very sensible) but need a consultation, please ask us how to use video consultations. More importantly, get creative with reaching out to your friends. See more

13.01.2022 Second article showing why we MUST come extremely hard on this virus NOW. https://medium.com//coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-b

12.01.2022 Heres a non-medical post, some of you may know that Rockley sings in a local community choir (Ignite). Ignite choir has a cabaret concert every year with a theme and this year its Sixties and Soul. These are great fun concerts, you get to dress up if you like, sing along if you like and eat and drink and dance. Its BYO food and drink ( alcohol OK). Ideally get a few friends together and make your own table ( book under the same table name).... Its on Saturday 27th April 6:30pm for 7pm start at Sherwood State School, Oxley Rd. Tickets can be purchased at www.ignitechoir.com.au Come along and have a giggle and sing with me See more

12.01.2022 Im often asked if the flu vaccine works or is worthwhile. The answer to these questions is yes and yes BUT perhaps not as effective as some think. To give a decent answer to this question is actually quite complex. First the situation is that there are about 200 common viruses that cause flu -like illnesses and generally the influenza virus only accounts for about 10% of these illnesses ( more in an epidemic year). Many of the trials of the vaccine were funded by drug com...panies ( likely biased). So lets look at the best case scenario in adults between 16-65 years old. If two groups of young adults are randomly split to either receive the vaccine or a dummy vaccine, about 1.5% of the vaccinated group got flu and 10% of the dummy group got it ( assuming an average flu year and a well matched vaccine). So the difference between 10 and 1.5 is 8.5%. These 8.5% of people are the ones that actually benefited. Most of the others would not have got the flu anyway. In the medical world we change this statistic to a number called NNT ( number needed to treat). For the flu vaccine in young adults the best NNT is 12. That means I have to give 12 vaccines to prevent one case of flu! The situation is more complex for older adults and I will cover that in part 2 See more

11.01.2022 Recently, one of our patients had a slight stroke but didnt realise it was a stroke and didnt seek help straight away . It is very important that everyone knows that URGENT treatment in a stroke unit makes a HUGE difference to the outcome of a stroke. Minutes count. So how do you know if you or your loved one is having a stroke? Well an excellent little mnemonic is FAST. ... F is for face, can the patient move their face evenly on both sides? Is one side drooping? Can they lift both eyebrows? Smile evenly? A is for arms, can they lift both arms evenly? Can they squeeze your fingers with equal strength on both sides? S is for speech, is their speech slurred? Can they find the correct words? T is for time, time is crucial. Getting to a major hospital that has a stroke unit within 1 hour can allow doctors to actually completely cure some strokes and many can be minimised if you get their within 4 hours. DO NOT go to your GP, call on ambulance immediately. So remember FAST. And remember we are holiday until 12/2/18.

11.01.2022 Forgot to mention we are closed over Easter but will open as usual on Tuesday 3/4/18 at 8am. Thanks to all those who have reviewed us, we try our best and its nice to know it matters

11.01.2022 Two tid-bits from the Cochrane Database today, one for and one against exercise as a treatment! Just what is the Cochrane Database? Its a huge but not exhaustive review of high quality medical evidence for a wide variety of medical treatments. A Cochrane Review involves a group of experts in a field collecting ALL the evidence around a treatment, then throwing away all the studies that were not designed well or have likely bias ( about 80-90% are usually worthless!), then d...istilling the meaning of the remaining results to give our best understanding of what works and what does not. So the two Cochrane Reviews today : One showed that surgery and exercises were both useless for treating impingement syndrome in the shoulder ( this is a common cause of pain where the tendons in the shoulder are NOT torn). The other review looked at falls prevention in the elderly and showed that exercises are highly effective in reducing falls but he exercises that really work are practical, that is , practicing everyday balance movements like getting out of a chair, squats. I have an interest in this area ( naturally!) and can tailor a set of exercises for you if you are over 40 and cant stand on one leg with your eyes closed for 30 seconds ( dont try this without someone to keep you safe!) Again, thank you to Norman Swan and The Healh Report for these insights See more

11.01.2022 Merry Christmas everyone, we are closed till 6/1/20 for a break. Unfortunately the phone message wont reflect this (telstra dramas)

10.01.2022 Most of us will get low back pain during our lives and many of you have it now. Often people ask for x-rays when seeing me about their back pain. Many people will tell me that their previous X-rays have shown bulging discs etc etc. Unfortunately, when someone is told that they have degenerated/bulging/ prolapsed discs they will be alarmed and decide that they have a bad back. Once this idea takes root, many people avoid exercising and make it more likely that back pai...n will recur or persist. The astonishing fact is that vast numbers of us have these changes on our back X-rays when we have never had a problem. They are a part of our normal ageing process and dont necessarily imply any pain at all. Below I have added a picture of a table showing the percentage of normal people without any back pain who will have these changes on a back X-ray or CT. Just have a look at how many 20 year olds have these changes!! By 60 years old its nearly all of us. The X-rays involve a lot of radiation exposure and rarely help. Hopefully this explains why I try not to order back X-rays. See more

08.01.2022 Santa came early to the Surgery this year, bearing treats that will fatten us (does this mean weve been naughty or nice). Nevertheless I think I prefer Santa with a beard. Best wishes for good health over the holiday season. We are closed from Saturday 22/12/18 and will re-open on Thursday 3/1/19 at 8am. I will be able to answer text messages for most of that period if you need advice.

08.01.2022 This is more about the health of our children than ours. As many of you know, I am worried about what sort of planet I am leaving for my children and their children. As we are currently consuming 4 Earths worth of resources,things are likely to be desperate for those left to clean up after the party is over. So Ive joined the Inala Residents Climate Action Group and we are hosting a Meet your Candidates Q and A meeting at St Hughs Church Hall, 105 Poinsettia St Inala, Fr...iday 17 November, 7pm. All welcome. Right now we are focusing on stopping the Adani coal mine, whether you are right or left wing in your political leaning, it is a bad idea but environmentally this has become a line in the sand, time to turn around and start caring for the future and not what makes things easy right now. As a doctor, I see all this like a health problem - our society is an overweight, heavy drinking, chain smoking, drug using person who cant see anything wrong with their way of life and in denial about the consequences of their behaviour. Its time for our society to Get Healthy! See more

06.01.2022 I love these super-drawing talks. The medicine he describes is more powerful than any pill I can prescribe.

06.01.2022 Its been a long time since Ive posted anything, not because I have nothing to say . Ive just drifted away from social media lately. This isnt a medical education post but I wanted to share the story of a fire-fighter in NSW. I grew up on a small farm and fire was part of how we managed the land and twice I had to fight a wild fire. The terror of facing a wall of flame with a shovel and a wet sack stays with you so my admiration for our volunteer firefighters is extremely high. So I thought I would share this.... https://smarterthancrows.wordpress.com//no-scott-morrison/

06.01.2022 Many of you have asked where I was walking today ( Lizard Point) and wonder why I go to places that scratch me to pieces, cover me in dirt and leave me with no shower and hardly any water for 3 days..........

05.01.2022 The flu vaccine is very topical at the moment. As usual, the media had us all on the brink of extinction! Unfortunately this does lead to a rush on vaccines. This year is a little different for two reasons: 1. The government suggests EVERYONE has a flu vaccine! 2 There are different vaccines for different age groups. We do have stock of most of these vaccines but if you are over 65 years young, ( free high dose vaccine), please ring us a put aside your dose as these are in ...short supply. We have plenty of stock of the vaccines for other age groups. I will put up a post later about effectiveness of the vaccine. See more

03.01.2022 There was a news report recently about a type of acid-blocking tablets increasing your risk of stomach cancer. The type of medicine is the proton pump inhibitors, drugs like omeprazole (Losec, Acimax, Omepral), esomeprazole (Nexium), pantoprazole (Somac) and a few others. The research was not a proper double-blinded trial but was more of a look at people who had been treated for a Chronic stomach germ called Helicobacter and then watching how many of them got stomach cancer o...ver the following years. They did find that the longer you took these acid blocking drugs the greater your risk of getting Stomach cancer, with people who had taken the medicine for more than 3 years having 8 times the risk of people who never took it (this still only works out to be a 1 in 416 chance of getting the cancer if you took it for 3 years). The other concern I have with long term use of these medicines is that they prevent your body from absorbing Vitamin B12. Whilst we have large reserves of this vitamin in our bodies, a third of people who take these drugs long term become B12 deficient. The older group of acid-blocking drugs, ranitidine and famotidine(Rani, Zantac,Pepcidine) do not cause either of these effects but are no where near as strong. So if you are taking these medicines and are not sure what is best for you, come and talk to us and we will work out the best solution for your situation. See more

03.01.2022 An interesting bit of research recently confirmed that calcium tablets are generally not good for you. They are not effective in the treatment or prevention of osteoporosis and increase risk of heart disease. So if you are taking them and are not sure what to do please ask us at your next appointment ( there are some medical conditions that need them)

02.01.2022 I did promise a critique of flu vaccine in the elderly but havent researched the numbers. So how about something related to the flu.....FEVER! Many people are afraid of fever especially in children but its actually your friend ( mostly!) Firstly, what is fever? An oral temperature of 37.4 deg C or more is a fever ( or more than 36.9 if an armpit temperature). Why do we get a fever? Well its not generated by the invading germs themselves. Fever is part of your bodys imm...une response to infection, your body deliberately raises your temperature because many of the parts of your immune system are more effective at a higher temperature. Your body raises temperature by increasing metabolic rate, tricking you into thinking you are cold when you are actually hot ( this makes you go and huddle under the blankets to get warm) and making you muscles shake (shivering raises metabolism up to 400%!). If you dont treat your fever you get better faster ( people with the flu who treat their fever with Paracetamol or Ibuprofen take about an extra day to get better over a weeks illness). So why do we treat fever? Mostly because it feels yuk, shivering under the blankets is particularly miserable in my opinion! Some of us fear fever in kids because some children under 5 have a seizure with a rapidly rising temperature. Whilst these seizures are terrifying to watch, they are generally harmless BUT, more importantly, Paracetamol will not prevent these seizures ( they are all over before the Paracetamol works). So just treat your fever if you or your child is miserable but otherwise let your body do its job See more