As the weather cools, the winter sniffles and sneezes start to come out… and these minor ills have a more significant side-effect.
Blood donation traditionally drops off in winter, says Kathy Bowlen, spokesperson for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, and not just because people are reluctant to leave warm homes and offices.
‘There’s always a drop-off in winter because when people have a case of the sniffles they can’t donate, generally for the welfare of both the donor and the recipient,’ she says.
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Pharmacies can have a strong role to play in raising community awareness of cystic fibrosis, says chief executive officer of Cystic Fibrosis Australia David Jack: despite the growing success of 65 Roses Day (18 May) as a fund-raiser and awareness campaign, community understanding of the condition is still not good.
‘The pharmacy is one of those places people frequently visit, and so any help with awareness is appreciated,’ David says.
‘There’s a couple of ways that retail is getting involved: first, the sale... Read more
Like many Australians, Poh Ling Yeow used to take her health for granted – until she had a cancer scare 4 years ago.
‘Until then, I always took my health for granted and avoided going to the doctor even though I had been experiencing intense abdominal pain for years,’ the Masterchef runner-up and star of Poh’s Kitchen, told PSi.
‘I was lucky – after 3 months of uncertainty, numerous blood tests and an intense surgery, it was ascertained that I did not have cancer.
‘A short while after, my Mum was... Read more
As far back as Hippocrates, the original ‘father of medicine’, physicians have guessed at the medical importance of silver as an antiseptic, a disinfectant and even as a food preservative. In the early 19th century, surgeons used silver sutures to close incisions in surgeries and in ancient Greece, silver was used as a disinfectant for the storage of water and the Greeks even drank wine out of silver cups to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases.
Indeed, while we know the expression ‘born with a silver... Read more
Australians are slowly coming to realise that heart disease is the number-one killer of women – but there’s still a lot of work to be done, says the Australian Heart Foundation.
Helping women understand this risk is a key focus for June, which the Foundation runs as Go Red for Women month, incorporating events, publicity and a six-week Healthy Heart Challenge.
‘Last year over 20,000 women participated in the campaign either through the Healthy Heart Challenge or through attending a Heart Foundation “red... Read more
