Pills, chills and the secret to living long and happily: these were the themes of the health stories that interested Listener readers most of all. Here, we revisit four of our most popular online health articles of 2023.
Russell Brown and the impact of talking about his adult ADHD diagnosis
Throughout 2023, Russell Brown wrote compelling and personal stories about the impact of being diagnosed with ADHD as adults had on the lives of his friends and himself. These stories, and later Brown’s interview with BBC presenter Chris Packham, who is autistic, were some of our most widely-read stories of 2023.
In the story about his own diagnosis, Brown concluded: “If your ADHD falls below the level of a disability – and mine certainly does – what you’re getting with a diagnosis is a better personal model for how your brain works. It’s really not all bad – most of the ADHD people I know have admirable qualities that clearly derive from how they’re wired, the journalist and the writer included. You play to your strengths and make the necessary adaptations as you’re able. But it’s not necessarily everyone else’s business.
“I do worry about people whose neurodiversity leads them to actions that see them before the courts and in prison. One of my jobs brings me into contact with those men and I can’t help but think we have let them down badly. I think about the guy in his 40s who impulsively went off his medication at the age of 16 and was never able to get a prescription again, because he was marked down as a “drug seeker”. I think about the ones who never got a diagnosis at all.
“Perhaps, in the end, it comes down to the thing I learned from my two autistic sons about how we’re all different. Don’t confuse that with the flip, meaningless phrase that “we’re all on the spectrum”, because we aren’t. What it does mean is that your response to something might be very different to mine, because you’re experiencing the world very differently to me. Because our brains are different.
“That insight from my sons has been a personal and professional gift. And in understanding ourselves and others, perhaps a little introspection is no bad thing.”
You can read the full story here.
Medical myths: Common treatments that may be doing you more harm than good
By Nicky Pellegrino
Here, Nicky Pellegrino interviewed Dr Rachelle Buchbinder and Australian orthopaedic surgeon and author Ian Harris who wrote Hippocrasy. Buchbinder and Harris claim that one of the greatest threats to human health is, in fact, the healthcare system. Unnecessary tests are leading to treatments that may not benefit a patient and may even hurt them. Some of those treatments were accepted into practice before being properly evaluated, and the subsequent science is being denied or overlooked.
“The whole medical system is structured so you get paid for doing things,” says Harris. “What surgeons earn from consulting just keeps things ticking over – they get paid to operate, that’s where they make their money.
“Everyone is incentivised to treat. You don’t walk away from a chiropractor having been told that your spine is straight and you don’t have any problems. Every time you see a physiotherapist, there is some muscle that needs fixing. The whole industry wants you to be a high-turnover doctor: the companies that make medical products and drugs, everybody wants turnover.”
You can read the full story here.
Sole survivors: Why active people have longer and happier lives
By Nicky Pellegrino
Here Pellegrino explored how lack of exercise is contributing to a burgeoning health crisis. University of Auckland nutrition professor David Cameron-Smith described New Zealanders as “the undermuscled generation” after research at the university’s Liggins Institute in 2018 sounded the alarm about “an epidemic of frailty”. “We are puny compared with previous generations.
“The loss begins early and for many years we hardly notice. But weakness matters. It’s staggering how frail some otherwise healthy 50-year-old men are,” Cameron-Smith said. “At some point in your life, the hardest thing you will have to do is get up out of your chair or get yourself up off the floor after a fall, and your maximum strength determines whether you can or can’t do that … or whether you’re stuck on the toilet and can’t get up. Weak people at 50 are going to be the weakest people at 70, unless we shift ourselves dramatically.”
You can read the full story here.
Pills and ills: The hard to swallow truth about the vitamins and supplements we buy
By Nikki Bezzant
Bezzant wanted to know why New Zealanders spend a fortune on supplements with little evidence for what works. She talked with Canterbury-based dietitian Claudia Vavasour, who spoke of something she sees in her practice regularly. “Most women who come and see me are taking 10 or more supplements,” she says. “They’ve spent a fortune.
“Popping a pill can feel a lot easier than doing the hard work of healthy eating, exercising regularly, laying off the booze and keeping a lid on stress. Last year, Kiwis spent more than $300 million on vitamins, minerals, herbal and other supplements in pharmacies and supermarkets, a 12% increase on 2021. Vavasour thinks the convenience factor is a large part of the attraction of supplements.
“Unfortunately, healthy eating and getting your two-plus-five [fruits and vegetables] a day is not very sexy,” she laughs. “I don’t think that’s all that appealing to people. But then there’s this amazing supplement that claims to do a whole lot of wonderful things, which sounds like a great solution, and all you have to do is swallow a pill.”
You can read Bezzant’s two articles on the subject here and here.
