GP – Dr Martins Offers Weight Loss Support in Coolalinga NT

November 8, 2015

General Practitioner, Dr Marcellina Martins has recently joined Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre. She has a deep interest in Women’s and Children’s health and is also providing a weight loss service.

What Do General Practitioners Know About Providing a Weight Loss Service?

That’s a reasonable question to ask. Particularly when it wasn’t too long ago that a doctor’s answer to weight loss was to provide a calorie controlled generic diet and a bottle of appetite suppressants. However, times have changed and there are doctors coming to the fore now who are passionate about addressing obesity and are wanting to provide the best support possible. Dr Marcellina Martins is one of those doctors.
So what kind of support can Dr Martins offer?

Personal Support:
Doctor Martins has a deep interest in helping people regain their health through providing personalized weight management support. This will include medical health monitoring.

Motivation:
Dr Martins uses a holistic motivational approach which encourages a healthy self-interest in accomplishing small comfortable weight loss goals.

Clarity:
Many people, who have had ongoing difficulty managing their weight, have come to believe that achieving their desired weight is a complex riddle that they will never solve. They may have had a tendency to jump from one diet to another and ended up weighing more than they did in the initial instance. It’s a pretty common occurrence.

It’s because of past failures and confusion about weight management, that it becomes increasingly difficult to see the forest for the trees. Most people wanting to lose weight benefit greatly from consistent personal guidance and support – particularly when there’s a long history of weight loss failure. Dr Martin’s support will help you to put your old fears into perspective.

Diet Progam:
Dr Martins can provide you with an individualized eating plan with easily prepared meals that the whole family will benefit from – you’ll have access to this both online and offline.

The Cost:
There is no out of pocket cost to you. Right now, Dr Martins is just starting her clinic at Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre and so all visits will be bulk billed.

About Dr Martins:
Dr Marcellina Martins is a family GP Besides her special interest in providing a weight loss support to people in Coolalinga and the surrounding districts of Humpty Doo, Palmerton and Darwin, she has a keen interest in women’s and children’s health. You can read more about her services here….

Dr Martins Talks About Thyroid & Weight Loss , Coolalinga NT

August 7, 2015

Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre –
GP – Dr Marcellina Martins About Your Weight

Could your Thyroid Hormones be keeping you Overweight?

Is it possible that your thyroid hormones are causing you to gain excess weight? According to Dr Michael Elstein, a general practitioner, who writes an anti-aging column in the magazine Well Being, Australia is having a low thyroid epidemic. A low thyroid condition can have the appearance of depression, but by adding up all the symptoms, it can be easy to spot.

What kind of symptoms could you expect to have with low thyroid function?

You can be constipated and notice that your thought processes are slowing down; your circulation also slows down as does your metabolism – which become sluggish. This leads to cold hands and feet – you may find yourself needing to wear socks in bed. You can feel depressed with little or no energy. You will feel so tired you won’t want to do anything especially exercise – which results in weight gain. Unfortunately, if the correct thyroid tests aren’t taken this behaviour can be misdiagnosed and treated with an anti-depressants.

The Common Thyroid Test that doesn’t provide the necessary answers:

What doctors do is measure a brain hormone called thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), which is made in the pituitary, a gland situated just behind the middle of the forehead. As its name suggests, TSH steps in when thyroid hormones falter. TSH levels go up when the thyroid fails us, so, in theory, when doctors want to find out if your thyroid hormones are serving you, they usually just measure TSH – believing that a normal TSH indicates that thyroid hormones are fully operational.

This approach can be flawed:

Unfortunately, this approach is severely flawed because thyroid hormones have a complex relationship with all the cells in our bodies. Brain chemical like TSH try to gauge whether they are doing their job but a lot of time what TSH senses won’t be an accurate assessment of thyroid hormone activity. Using TSH levels as a sole indicator of thyroid function is a very inadequate means of determining if any thyroid hormone treatment is necessary. It is not uncommon to have a royal flush of symptoms suggesting under-active thyroid hormones married with a TSH that is entirely normal.

What you really need is to have all your thyroid hormones measured, including thyroxine (T4)), triiodothyronine (T3) and reverse T3. T3 is the major player in thyroid hormone function while T4 is the source from which T3 is manufactured. T3 is the accelerator that energizes us and stimulates fat burning. Reverse T3 is the brake pedal that significantly slows your metabolism, aborting T3’s drive. When you are stressed or reduce your food intake, reverse T3 is activated.

The Nutrients You Need For Optimum Thyroid Function

To make T4 you need iodine, a nutrient found in oysters, seaweed, salmon and bread made with iodised salt. Iodine then has to go through a series of chemical processes facilitated by B vitamins, calcium, zinc, magnesium and iron, to name some of the key nutrients that help to give birth to T4. Soy, gluten and bisphenol A, found in plastic containers, and tinned foods, together with excessive consumption of kale and broccoli, can compromise this operation.

If you think you think that your thyroid hormones are keeping you tired and overweight you need to find a general practitioner , such as Dr Martins, at our family medical centre in Coolalinga, who will be able to determine if this is the case. Dr Martins provides a doctors weight loss service at the Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre in Coolalinga.

How GP’s Can Provide A Better Service In Darwin

July 22, 2015

Coolalinga Doctors & Health Centre
eHealth Registration in Darwin

Here is All You Need To Know About eHealth

This article is being written because while many people have heard of eHealth, and can acknowledge its advantages, many still haven’t registered their details out of fear of what it may entail. The process is so simple that if you read this article to its end, you will wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.

Health Care Services in Darwin

The Northern Territory is not a state. It is considered by many to be the last frontier in Australia. Darwin, the capital city, could be described as a large country town where cowboys still ride their horses and wrestle cattle; and crocodiles can be found at the bottom of swimming pools. Between our hot and humid weather and a cost of living that can exceed Sydney many wilt at the prospect of staying too long in Darwin and soon return to the comfort of the states in Australia. However, for many of us, Darwin is in our blood, and we couldn’t leave even if logic was to tell us to do so. Where ever I travel in Australia I always feel the place I’m visiting has something missing – and that missing something is the unique intangible energy of Darwin.

However, because of its downside many do come and within a relatively short period of time – they go. This is particularly the case with GPs and other Health Care Professionals. Medical specialists who arrive in Darwin to provide Health Care Services – often leave after a a stint in Darwin and return to the more civilized environments found in the Australian states. It’s common to hear the disappointed question “Why do all the best doctors have to leave?’

I remember seeing a brilliant lady doctor but months later when I tried to make another appointment with her, I was told she had left the clinic. Determined I wasn’t going to give up on a good doctor so easily, I decided to find out if she was still in Darwin. I was surprised to discover she had joined and left 3 different medical centres – but I was overjoyed when I finally traced her to where she was practicing and victoriously made an appointment! What a shock it got when she told me that she was leaving for Queensland within the month and it would be better for me to see someone more permanent!

Now that I work in administration for Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre I know that all the best doctors have not left town. There are good doctors that stay here for the long term. It’s just that they become one of the best kept secrets in Darwin because all their patients stick with them for years – and so they never have any reason to advertise their medical services.

This is the case with Dr. Hauge of Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre, who has been serving the local community for thirty years – and as a GP with his own practice since 1991. He has recently been joined by a lady doctor, Dr Marcellina Martins, who has been with the same medium sized medical centre for the last 7 years and is now wanting to be part of a traditional family practice. These doctors have made Darwin their home.

However, these doctors are a minority; and since Darwin is a very transient place, most of us have come to accept that we will see a range of different doctors for our health issues. The concern is that not all the doctors we see belong to the same medical centre. So our medical history can end up being pretty patchy – which isn’t ideal when our medical history is what provides a doctor with the road map for better diagnosing a complaint.

But this doesn’t have to be such a concern. There is a very simple way to make sure every doctor we see has access to all of our medical records. The way to do this is to register your medical history with the government system called eHealth.

What is eHealth

eHealth is a health care service that keeps a record of all your important and not so important health issues. It mentions any unusual health conditions, severity of any diseases, medical reports, medication, scan results and discharge summaries. Everything that is needed to help a new practitioner get a clear idea about your health history – so that he or she can deliver quick and effective results.

How Do I Register?

Registering an eHealth record in Darwin (or anywhere else in Australia for that matter) is a simple process. . Anyone over 18 years can do it. You can organize it on-line, call the free number: 1800 723 471, or just turn up at a Medicare office and fill out a form.

What Documents Do I Need To Register My Record?

You just need to provide proof of your identity and age – your driving licence or birth certificate will do. If you are applying for your children then you will have to provide the following three documents:

Details of your identity.
An authorization letter on behalf of the children.
The child’s birth certificate or any other proof that validates your child’s age.
The number issued to your child on your Medicare card.

If your applying by phone or on-line you need to send photocopies signed by a Justice of The Peace. It’s not hard an by following these simple steps, anyone in Darwin (in fact Australia wide) can register with eHealth.

Since eHealth was introduced in Australia in July 2012, it has gathered much attention because of the increase in the number of complicated and chronic health issues. Combine this with our unfortunate turn over of general practitioners in Darwin – and registering with eHealth in the N.T. becomes a very simple and personally responsible action to take.

Make sure that every GP has access to your medical records by registering with eHealth soon.

Coolalinga Doctors and Health Centre – GP – Dr Marcellina Martins About Your Weight