Category: Complementary

Upfront: Traditional healing and mental health: measuring the effectiveness of rongoa from ‘best practice’ June 2010 Professor Sir Mason Durie writes about traditional healing (rongoa) with respect to mental health.
Feedback on the quiz with BPJ 27 from ‘best practice’ June 2010 Feedback on the responses to our quiz on: Stopping medicines in older people; Medicines for weight loss and Paediatric oral health
Correspondence from ‘best practice’ April 2009 Are fish oil supplements recommended during pregnancy? CVD and cholesterol
Commonly used pregnancy multivitamins - comparison of ingredients from ‘best practice’ December 2008 Table 2 from BPJ18 article: Nutrition and supplements during pregnancy. Commonly used pregnancy multivitamins - comparison of ingredients (per recommended daily dose).
Is a vegetarian diet healthy for a child? from ‘best practice’ December 2008 Vegetarian diets are becoming increasingly popular, but is this type of diet healthy for a child? The answer is that a well-planned and balanced vegetarian diet which includes adequate amounts of important nutrients can be healthy and nutritious, without any detrimental effect. However vegan diets which exclude dairy products and eggs are more complicated to manage.
Nutrition and supplements during pregnancy from ‘best practice’ December 2008 Pregnancy outcomes can be improved by following important nutritional guidelines; achieve a healthy body weight prior to conception and maintain appropriate weight gain during pregnancy, take a folic acid supplement and consider a low dose iron supplement, use iodised salt and if taking a multivitamin supplement, ensure that excess vitamin A is not consumed.
Symptomatic management of osteoarthritis from ‘best practice’ October 2008 The key treatment of osteoarthritis is to provide information and resources that help patients to cope, including advice on exercise and weight loss. Safe pharmacological options include paracetamol, topical NSAIDs and capsaicin. If pain is not controlled, oral NSAIDs, opioids, steroid injections and ultimately surgical options, can be considered.
The nutritional management of diabetes from ‘best practice’ August 2008 Managing diet is a priority for the health and wellbeing of people with diabetes. Measures such as glycaemic index, glycaemic load, carbohydrate counting and introducing soluble fibre into the diet can be useful in managing glycaemic control. The purchase of special "diabetic" foods is unnecessary. It is more important to read and understand food labels.