It always puzzles me when I see people treat their pets better than treating themselves. For instance, I regularly come across people picking up prescription medicines for their pets. The fact that people are willing to spend a fortune to see a vet but question the $5 government tax for their own prescriptions proves the point that they appear to … Read More
Imagine yourself as a pharmacist. Actually, it is hard for people to have an accurate image of what a pharmacist does. Because quite frankly, besides associating us as someone who counts pills and prepares prescriptions, people don’t know. I don’t blame them because they’ll need to have an extraordinary imagination to come close to fully understanding what their pharmacist does. … Read More
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on the 8th March that the government has secured an additional 8.5 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on top of an already ordered 1.5 million doses, bringing our total Pfizer vaccine order to 10 million doses. This literally means that we’ll have enough vaccines to vaccinate our team of 5 million. These vaccines are expected … Read More
If you have been keeping up with the latest news regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, you will know that the first shipment of 60,000 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived 2 weeks ago and the latest shipment of an additional 76,000 doses arrived last week. By the end of March, NZ would have received a total of 450,000 doses of the vaccine and the … Read More
I went for a morning stroll this morning down at the St Heliers Bay on the first day of our week-long level 3 lockdown. As I was ordering coffee from our usual favourite spot (Jack’s Coffee), I overheard conversations from multiple groups of people who were waiting in line for their morning dose of caffeine. The general feeling was that … Read More
Just as our memories of the impact of COVID-19 started to fade and the peak of the pandemic seemed to be well and truly behind us, another lockdown was enforced. Auckland went into its first level 3 lockdown of 2021 and the third since March 2020. This somehow reminded us that normality is not yet within sight and we’ll still … Read More
When I talk to my patients about vitamin D, almost all of them know exactly what it does – it keeps our bones healthy by maintaining an adequate level of calcium in our bodies. Vitamin D not only can strengthen our bones, but studies have also shown that it can reduce cancer cell growth, help control infections and reduce inflammation. … Read More
Over the past 6 months, I’ve noticed that there has been a large number of prescriptions for vitamin D. Also, recently, many of my patients have been asking me about vitamin D supplementation in response to COVID-19. Hence, I wanted to take the opportunity this week to give you all a brief summary of what vitamin D is and its … Read More
One of my favourite pastimes is to watch people. Observing people, studying how they interact and respond to others’ behaviour is fascinating. The number of things that you can learn from simply observing others is quite astonishing. My ability to read and understand people is a skill set that I have acquired and developed from my years of listening, talking, … Read More
I love Auckland during the holidays. It’s the best time to be in the City of Sails. The roads are clear, the streets not crowded and there’s no line to my favourite coffee shop 😉 Over the Christmas and New Year period Auckland turned on an amazing summer for us. My wife and I have a ritual of going down … Read More
