Dolly Good
Ron James, managing director of PPL and the closest thing Dolly has to a father, got his start at New Zealand-spawned pharmo-giant Glaxo. Now PPL is using New Zealand cows in research aiming to produce drugs to…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Deadly Thorn
A thorn in your side could prove fatal according to doctors at Auckland’s Middlemore Hospital. The bug streptococcus pyogenes, present in soil, can enter the bloodstream through small wounds.
Flying Doctor
Mama Daktari spent her life working for the African Medical Research Foundation, co-founded by Kiwi Sir Archibald McKindoe.
Masai Milk
Milk from Asian and African cows is free of the heart disease-linked beta casein protein found in other milk, according to Professor Bob Elliott of the University of Auckland. The healthy hearts of the milk-drinking Masai switched Elliot…
Smart Milk
Breast is best for premature babies according to Christchurch School of Medicine researchers. Brest-fed babies have a slighter higher IQ at ages 7 and 8, compared to their peers raised on the bottle.
Pharming Drugs
“Pharming” is the name for growing drugs in transgenic animals, like PPL’s New Zealand sheep.
Sane Dolly
PPL Therapeutics, the company that brought the world Dolly, hooks up with New Zealand company Celentis to clone cows in a BSE-free environment.
Locally Better
Staying awake with a local anesthetic may reduce surgical complications by 30% states an Auckland University study published in the British Medical Journal.
Nail ’em Up
Calcium supplements don’t prevent broken nails according to an Auckland study. Back to the snake oil…
Into Africa
“These flying doctors, as they are sometimes known, were the inspiration of Wood, Sir Archibald McIndoe of New Zealand and Tom Rees of America. They perceived that the only way to cope with casualties and sickness…
Heartening News
New Zealand researchers have found Pravastatin, a drug that helps control cholesterol, also helps ward off heart disease. Bring on the Xmas pav…
Cut Short
Can you catch apotemnophilia, the desire to become an amputee? A spate of recent “voluntary amputations” performed in Britain take their cue from work by ground-breaking but controversial New Zealand sexologist John Money.
Menopause Rescue
University of Auckland scientists have identified a gene potentially responsible for thousands of cases of premature menopause world-wide.
Sweaty Surgeons
Operations are hot work: surgeons sweat, drop skin flakes and contaminate their patients, according to an Auckland study. Space suits are a possible solution.
Pot Luck
Marijuana causes disease, phlegm and coughing fits, as well as mild euphoria. The wacky backy is as damaging to the lungs as tobacco according to research studiously carried out at Otago University.
Come Here, Deer
Deer velvet’s aphrodisiac properties are being scientifically tested. Positive results will lift an already firm export market.
Pain Buster
Dr Abbey recommends New Zealander Robin MacKenzie’s Seven Steps to a Pain-Free Life to tame the back pain of Chicago.
Honey Cures Tummy
New Woman confirms a “traditional New Zealand cure”: eating manuka honey to banish stomach ulcers.
Gender Bender
Questions continue to be raised about surgical gender re-assignment, a la Kiwi sexologist John Money.
A Teaspoon of Honey
Search under ‘Honey New Zealand’ to view Waikato scientist Peter Molan thinks honey doesn’t just help the medicine go down, it is the medicine. Honey from New Zealand’s Leptospermum tree kills bacteria, reduces inflammation and encourages re-growth…
BSE Breakthrough
Professor Roger Morris of Massey University suggests Britain’s BSE epidemic may have come from “a wild animal commonly found outside Britain that was chopped up for cattle feed”.
Disease Beaten
Polio has been eradicated in the Western Pacific, which stretches from China to New Zealand to French Polynesia.
Repair Bill
New Zealand vet Deborah Saunders describes the revolutioary bill-binding putty she used on Deidre the duck: “it’s nice and hard and keeps the two parts of the bill together and well supported”.
Ultra Careful
Sarah Buckley, a New Zealand-trained family doctor looking into pre-natal care, has produced research that challenges the safety of ultra-sound scans routinely performed on pregnant women.
Cancer Clue in Birthmarks
New Zealand researchers led by plastic surgeon Swee Tan have found a gene they believe helps shrink a benign tumour. The gene, they hope, may do the same thing in cancerous tumours. Their research involved investigating…
Learning from Grandma and the “Notorious” Truby King
A expectant grand-daughter ponders generational attitudes to child-rearing, musing on her grandmother’s strict training under New Zealander Truby King”: ” is the Aunt Sally for almost all post-war child-rearing books … His doctrines were adopted across the…
NZ Research Finds Anticholesteral Drug May Modify Stroke Risk
Pravastatin, a drug used to help lower blood cholesterol levels, may have a role to play in stroke prevention according to research (published in The New England Journal of Medicine) led by Dr Harvey D. White of…
‘Human’ Cow Milk an MS Aid?
The lush pasture of some of New Zealand’s finest farming land will soon be home to a special herd of cows. New Zealand’s state-owned agricultural research institute has just won government approval for a five-year field trial…
Human Gene in Kiwi Sheep
We get enough flak for our supposed close relationship with sheep, but this is ridiculous. Thousands of sheep are walking around with a gene inside them which, it turns out, came from a blood sample donated…
Fortified Cereals May Reduce Heart Risk
Researchers from University of Otago report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that folic acid supplements and fortified cereals are more effective than a diet rich in naturally occurring folates in reducing levels of the heart…
Want Twins? Ewe May be in Luck
New Zealand scientists at the AgResearch Institute have found a gene responsible for twins in sheep, a discovery that could lead to understanding human fertility treatments and contraceptives, as well as increased agricultural production. Sue Galloway…
NZ Study Shows Women on Pill Face Increased Health Risk
Dr Skegg from the University of Otago, (in a study published in medical journal Lancet) found that although the risk of a fatal clot is still extremely low, women on the pill are nearly ten times more…
Odious Vampire’s Kiss: NZ Researchers Investigate Garlic Mystery
Kiwi research team Rex and Christine Munday claimed in New Scientist magazine that eating half a clove of raw garlic a day could help protect against cancer. They believed the key ingredient was a substance called…
From the Edge to the (Medical) Centre: Kiwi Brings Tibetan Medicine to Chelsea
New Zealand born Christopher Hansard, is medical director of the newly opened Eden Medical Centre in London’s King’s Road. It aims to blend Dur Bon, a Tibetan form of medicine, with Western conventional and complementary systems.
Kiwi Goes AWOL with Marvel of Medical Handiwork
After acquiring a new hand in a revolutionary operation, he was meant to lie back, take his drugs and recover. Instead Clint Hallam hit the US chat shows, spent 20000 pounds on another patient’s credit card, then…
Counting on Sheep
A flock of mentally deficient sheep in New Zealand are providing scientists with vital clues in the search to find a cure for Batten disease. Dave Palmer of Massey university has spent nearly twenty years breeding sheep…
Grey Power? Not Unless You Drink More Milk
Auckland University researchers have found that women who go grey earlier have lower bone density and are more at risk from osteoporosis.
Mucho Loco Baby! Children’s TV Stigmatises Mental Illness
Auckland University researchers have found that children’s television programmes create a negative stereotype of mental illness which encourages young people to develop prejudice.
The Weigh to a Perfect Body
Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter: A study from the University of Auckland has found that the secret to satisfying those hunger pains may not be calories or fat content, but how much the food weighs.
Model Health Campaign
I’ve been thinking … Supermodel Rachel Hunter is launching a health education campaign for women in the wake of her recent cancer scare.
Home Environment Can Affect Puberty
Research jointly undertaken by researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee show that Moms may have more of an effect on their daughters’ lives than they realize – or even…
The Wired Doctors
Free medical consultations for a year are being offered by a group of Internet doctors to a small rural town in New Zealand. The New Zealand-based Doctor Global is offering to give “virtual housecalls” and adopt…
Aspirin is Lifesaver for Patients After Major Operations
Dr. Anthony Rodgers of the University of Auckland, is leading an international study that has found that low-dose aspirin can save the lives of people having major surgery.
Sweet News About Honey
Biochemists at the University of Waikato in New Zealand have found that the tea tree has a nectar with bacteria fighting properties that can neutralise the staphylococcus aureus bacteria.
Vaccine Hope for Epilepsy
University of Auckland… A vaccine that protects against the effects of epilepsy and stroke has been successfully tested on animals.
Gene Therapist Develops Vaccine Against ‘Brain Insults’
Kiwi Dr. Matthew During, in articles published in the New Yorker and Science reveals ‘revolutionary’ research that could limit brain damage caused by epilepsy and strokes.
