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"I`ve lived in Bribie for 67 years. I came here when I was eight years old when my Dad drove the barge to and from the mainland before the bridge ever existed. I`ve been on dialysis for 11 years now, and I`ve been coming to Bribie Satellite Health Centre since it opened. Before that, I used to have to drive to Brisbane three times a week; so it`s great having access dialysis so close to home. My daughter is a psychologist and lives in Adelaide, she comes to visit me three or four times a year. I also have friends that call me every week to keep me company while I`m here. If I could give advice to my younger self, it would be that you`ve got to put up with what you`ve got, there`s no use whinging about it."

💭 Monday Mantra, Gary, Bribie Island Satellite Health Centre dialysis patient ...

Mandy has one of the most important roles at Redcliffe Hospital, but you`ve probably never heard of it!

She`s the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Mortality who ensures that care continues beyond the end of a patient`s life.

"I sit under the patient safety team and review all of the deaths in the hospital, I do an analysis and clinical review of the care that was provided, looking at what was done well but also if there were any issues," Mandy said.

"Each day I see who we`ve got in the morgue and work with mortuary supervisor, the mortuary only holds 15 so we need to ensure everything is reviewed before releasing the body to the coroner or the funeral home.

"I didn’t even know that this role existed to be honest, I got into nursing because I loved being a nurse and I`d look after every patient like they were my family.

"It’s really important to be a voice for someone that can’t have a voice anymore."

Shoutout Saturday to Mandy, a vital part of patient care at Redcliffe Hospital. 👏 ...

Healthmaxxing, more like exxhausting! 🫠 The latest trend to sweep the internet, incorporating ‘Looksmaxxing’ and other health and physical wellbeing goals to maximise your health, is likely doing you more harm than good.

The trend is encouraging everything from starving yourself to eating dangerous amounts of protein and fibre, ‘dryscooping’ where pre-workout is consumed dry without water, through to illegal steroid or drug use.

RBWH Dietitian Helen unpacks the toxxic trend all over our feeds, sharing her thoughts on some of the big impacts on our health to beware of, including:

1. Protein toxicity: Excess protein ends up being stored as fat. High protein foods are often highly processed too, with added sweeteners, emulsifiers and additives – which can have a negative impact on gut health!

2. Nutrient deficiency: Maxxing up one nutrient risks creating deficiencies in others. Nutrient deficiencies can result in skin conditions, brittle nails and lacklustre hair (which may be the opposite of Looksmaxxing!), and that’s just the start.

3. Steroids and hormonal ‘T-maxxing’ issues: T-maxxing is adding testosterone, but our bodies have finely tuned mechanisms to keep our hormones at optimal levels for health. Testosterone levels both too low and too high disrupt the balance and have consequences – that’s why our bodies work hard to keep our hormone levels stable. Too much testosterone, or T-maxxing can cause acne, mood swings, baldness and increased risk of high blood pressure and prostate cancer.

4. Liver failure from vitamin stacking: Supplement stacking and vitamin stacking uses combinations of supplements and vitamins that have never been tested to work together. The stacked nutrients may be competing for the same binding site in the gut, or interact with each other with a bad outcome, such as extra stress on the liver, kidneys and nutrient deficiencies. They are a biohack that seems like an easy fix, a way to bypass the things we all know are really helpful, but veg-maxxing is a much harder sell, right? 🥕🌽🥑 ...