Dementia will touch the lives of almost every Australian at some time in their life, either as a person with dementia or as a family member or carer. We investigate the latest evidence on what causes dementia. Tonic TV | T-S154 | S06Ep07
This segment focuses on the astounding statistics about the chances of developing debilitating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from common medical emergencies. With Karen Carey. Tonic TV | T-S152 | S05E06
three part series on anxiety – an incredibly common psychological problem that often goes unrecognised and untreated. This week we look at the time in life when anxiety often begins and is missed – in childhood. We meet a young boy who suffers from anxiety...
Depression is very common – a high percentage of us will experience it at some point in our lives. It often presents in adolescence, and the trouble with that is that it can be difficult to decipher between normal teenage angst and a depressive illness, making...
One of the best and most natural ways to lift your mood if you’re feeling depressed is to take regular exercise. In fact, exercise is thought to prevent depression in the first place. The question though is what kind is best, which is what a group of British...
Who would’ve thought that addiction to substances like nicotine, heroin and alcohol could have similarities to an extreme anxiety disorder like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD? That’s the finding from fascinating research at Johns Hopkins University School of...
Chronic fatigue is a mysterious condition. Rather than simply being knackered, something many of us are familiar with, sufferers experience a disabling level of fatigue that’s present on most days and stays with them for months and even years. It’s often associated...
A sense of fairness is considered by many to be crucially important to how we govern our lives and make decisions. Some people call this a sense of social justice, and research has found that humans are hard wired with it, and have discovered the area of the brain in...
Rich considers pop-cultural affliction FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. It comes from our desire to belong to a group. Surprisingly, this isn’t built on insecurities, but on our survival instinct. Tonic TV | T-S045 | S02E07
Bipolar disorder is one of the most misunderstood and least recognised mental illnesses. It comes in various forms but at its core is a cycling between deep and dark depression and elated moods or even outrageous and flamboyant behaviour. There’s a belief that the...
Part two of our three part series on anxiety – childhood Last week on Tonic we started a three part series on anxiety – an incredibly common psychological problem that often goes unrecognised and untreated. This week we look at the time in life when anxiety...
Norman speaks with Dr Lee Ritterband, one of the creators of an exciting and experimental online intervention for insomnia that forms part of Tonic’s real world insomnia trial. Tonic TV | T-S072| S01E10
A staggering one in two of us will have a mental illness sometime in our lives. For most people that means anxiety or depression but a significant proportion will have severe mental illness. Many of those people have children, so how does their condition affect the...
Being obese can have a number of harmful effects on your body – from cholesterol problems to diabetes right through to things like strain on the joints and osteoarthritis, but what about the brain? Research from the University of California suggests the amount of...
There’s more to stuttering than just physical symptoms and a decreased ability to communicate. Professor Luc De Nil, a world expert in speech pathology from the University of Toronto explains the underlying psychology of why people suffer from stutters and how it...
Diagnosing Alzheimer’s earlier, new tests and what they mean for the public There are a lot of conditions that cause memory loss, but Alzheimer’s is probably the one that worry people most. There’ve been recent developments in testing, but is the ability to diagnose...
Research from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm has given us another reason to not let those added kilos creep on over the years – being overweight or obese in midlife can increase your risk of dementia in later life. Casey sits down with world expert Professor...
Can the vitamins and minerals you get through food as a child affect your brain as an adult? Researchers at the University of California have looked at the development of young brains and found that iron can play a significant role in creating healthy adult brains....
Postnatal depression is common in women after they’ve given birth, and it seems to make sense that if women receive professional support after giving birth it would reduce the chances of developing depression. However research at the Institute of Psychiatry in London...
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD is a common condition that affects people’s ability to complete tasks and stay focused. Parents of children with ADHD are driven nuts by their impulsivity and inability to control their own behaviour. World leading...
New research is explaining why many adolescents have trouble sleeping and need to be dragged out of bed in the morning, and what impact it’s having on their lives and their behaviour. Tonic TV | T-S97 | S02E09
We’re constantly in pursuit of happiness, so what exactly is happiness and what factors count when it comes to obtaining (and maintaining) this elusive emotional state. Casey Beros speaks with world happiness expert Professor John Helliwell from the University of...
Peer group pressure is a massive problem for parents and children alike, made only more frustrating by the fact that not a lot is known about its neurological specifics. Why is peer group pressure such a big issue, and are some of us more susceptible to it than...
There’s growing evidence that young people’s brain’s keep on developing right into their twenties. How much brain power you have is at least in part determined by how many nerves you’ve got connecting to each other in your brain, they’re called networks. The more...
There’s a strong cultural belief that positive thinking is good for your health, but is there any evidence to support it? Rich explores the power of positivity. Tonic TV |T-S010 |S01E12
The brain benefits from speaking more than one language There’s really good news about bilingualism or speaking two languages in terms of improving cognitive function. We’re not just talking about spoken languages, there are significant benefits with sign language...
Depression affects men and women differently, making it more difficult to identify and diagnose effectively in males. It’s estimated one in six men will suffer from depression in their lifetime – and far fewer are treated. Tonic speaks to Clyde Rathbone, a former...
