From feeling a little bloated after breakfast, to experiencing a burning sensation after a spicy curry, to dreading the acid rise after a night out indulging in alcohol—if your tummy is upset from time to time, you are not alone! Around two million Aussies experience heartburn and discomfort from indigestion, every day.Presenting at the recent CP Expo in Sydney was Dr Brett MacFarlane, Education and Research manager for the Australian College of Pharmacy, says upper and lower GI conditions and their diagnosis in a pharmacy environment is a perplexing area.Brett focused on the latest studies on treatment efficacy and... Read more

New research by Cenovis Kids has shown that despite the best intentions of parents, more than a third of Australian children aged four to 11 aren’t eating their minimum daily amount of fruit and vegetables – and nearly a quarter of eight to 11 year olds aren’t eating any vegetables at all.

When it comes to nutrition, parents have some incorrect beliefs about what their children should eat, the survey found. And there was a growing trend towards ‘family food anxiety,’ with parents worrying frequently about their... Read more

NPS MedicineWise has created a new patient information leaflet on vitamin D deficiency, which will be available for GPs to give to patients. The leaflet is one of a range of resources NPS MedicineWise has created for its educational program on preventive activities in general practice.

Vitamin D testing is one of several medical tests appraised in the program, which focuses on preventive health in Australians aged 40 to 49. It encourages GPs to prioritise evidence-based risk assessments and tests and avoid... Read more

Consumers may be misled by ‘biased’ articles which fail to recognise the consumer benefits of complementary medicines, says the Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia (CHC).

The CHC slammed reports in the Fairfax media as ‘one-sided’.

‘They fail to offer any insight into existing proactive measures and future developments that could increase the volume of research to support complementary medicines, and related therapies, as is supported by the Australian industry,’ says Dr Wendy Morrow, executive... Read more

The Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), commissioned by the National Eye Institute and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has shown that the addition of lutein/zeaxanthin provides a benefit in helping prevent Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).

The study built on the original AREDS study which demonstrated a 25% reduction in the risk of AMD in selected high-risk patients by following the AREDS formulation. AREDS2 evaluated whether adding lutein/zeaxanthin and/or the omega-... Read more

As a young girl, Janella Purcell always struggled with her weight. Her family ate ‘beautiful, home-cooked’ meals prepared by her Lebanese mother, but Janella kept gaining weight, developing digestive problems and endometriosis as a young girl.

‘I would lose weight, but then put it back on,’ she told postscript.com.au. ‘I was always dieting and fasting. It turned out there was a lot of food I just couldn’t tolerate, and in the 70s and 80s in Brisbane it wasn’t trendy like it is now!’

After discovering she had... Read more

Pages