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Australia is Number Two in Global Health Rankings – But for How Long?
Periodically, the US-based Commonwealth Fund organisation compares the US health system to that of other countries, including Australia. The Australian health system ranks very high in its performance and i2P believes there are two major reasons for this outside of the criteria established by the Commonwealth Fund. The first is the diversity of health practitioners…
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Behind the Scenes in Natural Therapeutic Medicine
Did you notice the new name? I’ve decided that “natural medicine” doesn’t hold much credence any more. I’m saying that if we can have a therapeutic benefit in an option to powerful medications, then let’s call a spade a bloody shovel!. A meeting of many of the modalities in Melbourne last weekend, attended by some…
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Has Professional Pharmacy descended to a new low?
The Pharmaceutical Society has come out of hiding and expressed again their ongoing concerns about the quality and control of complementary medicines in Australia. They have a crack at the TGA once again, and imply that pharmacists are unprofessional if they support the sale of these products in a pharmacy setting. If they have the…
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MEDICAL CURIOSITY: Where Has It Gone?
What happened to curiosity as it pertains to searching for causes of poor health? Maybe it’s payback. Lack of curiosity leads to the next step: complacency. Some doctors and patients have retained their curiosity, but many more have not. Over the last several decades, there has been a cultural shift in attitudes about healthful living…
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Dementia – can we educate and reduce risk?
At the inaugural Swisse Preventative Health Symposium held in Melbourne last Friday, I was privileged to hear a fascinating address by Professor David Smith, Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford on “the role of nutrition in the prevention of cognitive impairment”. He classes dementia as a disease – not an inevitable part of ageing and certainly…
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Soil Health Impacts Human Health – A New Perspective to Consider
Are pharmacists fully engaged with the full spectrum of health and an understanding of their patient’s lifestyle? Some information currently appearing in this edition of i2P suggests that Health Literacy ought to be a prime focus for pharmacists to assist their patients in understanding what impacts exist that are involved in health changes that can…
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Complementary Medicine – Are You In or Are you Out?
I’m tired of the same old, same old criticisms of complementary medicines being thrown by sensationalizing media like 4Corners and the like. Mind you, some of their research shows that some pharmacists are happy to bank the dollars generated by the slick marketing of these products by a variety of companies. Where do you sit…
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Fracture – are we involved enough?
The Journal of Internal Medicine has published some views on hip fracture. The statistics behind this unfortunate and common injury is ignored as we dispense bisphosphonates to many of our female patients – fearful of the adverse effects after reading about them, and fretting after getting feedback from their friends. Do we do enough when…
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Coincidence?
Medical media recently has highlighted the bad news for back pain sufferers – analgesic don’t work! As reported in 6minutes newsletter to GPs, “NSAIDs such as ibuprofen are no better than placebo. And perhaps do more harm than good.” The news release goes on to say that “previous research has already demonstrated that paracetamol is…
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What can we learn from Thyroid Pharmacist?
It was just over a year ago, when I was starting out in a busy suburban pharmacy as a professional services pharmacist, when I noticed something a bit weird…literally every second person I spoke with for about a full week was on thyroxine tablets. I stared back at these patients. A lot of them were…