Health Report - Separate stories podcast

Substituting your table salt for something with lower sodium could drive down your risk of heart attack and stroke. Also, what expectant parents might not know about screening for genetic diseases before conceiving. Artificial intelligence (AI) could soon be used to help predict decisions a person might make at the end of life. And a look back at the year: Make America Health Again. ReferencesSalt Substitution and Recurrent Stroke and Death: A Randomized Clinical TrialMackenzie's MissionNationwide, Couple-Based Genetic Carrier Screening - NEJMUnlocking the secrets of your DNA - the Health ReportCan Artificial Intelligence Speak for Incapacitated Patients at the End of Life?Should artificial intelligence guide surrogate decisions in healthcare? - Journal of Medical Ethics blogA Personalized Patient Preference Predictor for Substituted Judgments in Healthcare: Technically Feasible and Ethically Desirable

VicHealth is the world's first health promotion foundation, with the goal of preventing people from becoming unwell. The Victorian Government plans to absorb the foundation into the government, threatening its independence. Also, an agency in the United States changes its recommendations around hepatitis B vaccination in babies. 

Up to 30 per cent of Australian adults could be living with metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD).Most of those people won’t be aware they have the condition, and for those that are aware, the diagnosis can come as a shock.So what can be done to treat fatty liver disease? And can it be reversed entirely?Guest/sProfessor James O’Beirne, consultant hepatologist at Sunshine Coast University Hospital in Queensland ReferencesEating For Your Liver - Liver Foundation

While Australia is still determined to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035, there are early warning signs emerging.Rates of vaccination against HPV, the commonest cause of nearly all cervical cancers, have fallen. And they’re still lagging in boys.Experts suggest school vaccination programs are struggling because of rising absenteeism.They want more young people to know that they can receive a free HPV vaccine up to age 25.Guest/sProfessor Julia Brotherton, cancer prevention policy and implementation at the University of Melbourne References2025 Cervical Cancer Elimination Progress Report

A study has found Indigenous babies in remote Australia are born with more diverse gut bacteria. While this is a key marker of health, it's still unclear why these babies will grow up to have an increased risk of chronic disease. It highlights how Westernisation could be having a detrimental impact on the health on First Nations people. Guest/sProfessor Leonard Harrison, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and the University of MelbourneReferencesIndigenous infants in remote Australia retain an ancestral gut microbiome despite encroaching Westernization