Pharmacy News

There is considerable scientific backing for the health benefits of a diet with a high proportion of starches. National health targets suggest that carbohydrates should provide about 55-60 per cent of daily energy. Unfortunately, carbohydrate intake in most Western countries has declined this century with the increased consumption of fat. Fibre intake in most Western [...]

Just because you have endometriosis does not necessarily mean that it is the only cause of your inability to conceive.

Most doctors will want to do a number of tests to check that everything else is as it should be.

First, you will be asked to have your hormone levels assessed. This is usually done as a [...]

Many of the symptoms of endometriosis are also the symptoms of other conditions — particularly other gynaecological conditions — and therefore endometriosis is easily confused with them. These include pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), irritable bowel syndrome, ovarian cysts, appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy and occasionally cancer.

Pelvic inflammatory disease

Pelvic inflammatory disease, often known as PID, refers to any [...]

Live yoghurt contains ‘friendly’ bacteria which form lactic acid in milk, suppressing the growth of harmful bacteria. Some of the bacteria which are used to make yoghurt are Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The bacteria in many yoghurts are still alive, but are kept dormant by refrigeration. However yoghurts which have been pasteurised [...]

Just as depression tends to cast a grey pall over everything in your world and in yourself, so there is an irresistible tendency to project that gloomy view into the future. The depressed person will always find something to be pessimistic about. And as with one’s view of the present, these gloomy predictions are often [...]

Plastic has become increasingly common, one might say all-pervasive, since the end of World War Two. The chemically susceptible person, however, should try to avoid unnecessary exposure to plastics wherever possible. The sources of plastics are explored in Chapter 6. As a simple preventive measure, one should go through one’s house and make all obvious [...]

While petting frogs is a harmless childhood activity, handling toads can be dangerous, the New England Journal of Medicine (314:1517) reports, since the skin of some types of toad secretes a poison which, when conveyed to the mouth, causes drooling, convulsive seizures, and serious disturbances of the heart rhythm. The Colorado River toad is the [...]

Emergency symptoms: Apply emergency treatment immediately.

Important: A child with heatstroke who does not revive within minutes after treatment is in danger and requires immediate emergency care.

Symptoms: feeling that lungs and muscles are “on fire”, dry mouth, breathing difficulty, dizziness, nausea blurred vision, hot, dry skin, high fever, absence of sweating.

Emergency treatment

1.     Call for emergency help [...]

For the past 50 years or so, we’ve been killing ourselves with a silent bang. It’s a little-known fact that suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in this country and the fifth leading cause among men ages 25 to 44.

There is no simple answer for why men commit suicide, says John L. McIntosh, [...]

 
Non-steroidal drugs

Non-steroidal drugs, other than the salicylates, are used as anti-inflammatory, analgesic or anti-pyretic agents. Some have a combination of more than one of these properties. In general, the way in which these drugs work is not known, although it is possible to demonstrate the relative efficacy of one versus another by special trial procedures.

These [...]