Do you ever walk into a room and forget what you went in for? Forget the names of people or misplace your keys? Thankfully, that is no cause for concern and is common for people of all ages. However, dementia affects 43,000 New Zealanders and their families. Dementia occurs as a result of physical changes in the structure of the brain, affecting memory, behaviour and emotions.
Cold sores may not be a serious health condition but are painful, annoying, and often embarrassing for those who get them. First exposure to the virus is often in childhood, normally appearing on/near the lip. The virus lies dormant until later in life when triggered to become active and cause cold sores to appear.
Digestion is the body’s way of taking food, breaking it down into small molecules that can be absorbed into the body and excreting the waste. The first sign our digestion isn’t working as well as it should is a shift in normal bowel habits and pain. Other symptoms may include reflux, heart burn, bloating, cramping, wind, tender abdomen and constipation or diarrhoea. It is common for people to simply put up with them.
But these symptoms can act as a warning sign that our digestion is not working properly and of future ill health...
Every 90 minutes one New Zealander dies of heart disease, accounting for 33% of deaths annually. This is a problem for men and women alike but in May, the Heart Foundation are focusing on women because heart disease is the single biggest killer of women in New Zealand. They are aiming to have women take control of their health and work together to reduce these statistics.
Often when we see bones, they are dry and brittle but in our bodies they are living, growing tissues made of a soft collagen framework and minerals for strength and hardness, to be strong and flexible under stress. As we age our bones can become less dense, leading to Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis increases our risk of fractures and breaks but, in many cases, is preventable.
