John Pickering
Back to school Mr Prosser - Kidney Punch
Feb 13, 2013 •
I once stood as a parliamentary candidate in the Waimakariri electorate as did Richard Prosser. I got more votes than he did, albeit a few years earlier (Compare electoral results 2011 & 2005)). If I were to appeal to the same level of logical reasoning as does Mr Prosser, more votes makes me more of … Continue reading »
30,000 - Kidney Punch
Feb 08, 2013 •
Today’s number brought to you by 
How many times do you wash your blood each day? - Kidney Punch
Feb 01, 2013 •
Stop Kidney Attack. See this great short video from last year’s World Kidney Day as to why it is so very very important to look after your kidneys. Or as Fred Dagg may sing “If it weren’t for your kidneys, where would you be? You’d be in the hospital or infirmary.” Tagged: Acute Kidney Injury, … Continue reading »
A plea to fund a drug - Kidney Punch
Jan 24, 2013 •
Quite a coup this morning for a group of 8 sufferers of a rare disease to get a plea for Pharmac to fund a new drug in to both the Herald and the Press. I’ve since discovered that Radio NZ and TV3 have picked up the story. There are also some slick videos on vimeo.com These people … Continue reading »
Lives to be saved on March 14th 2013 - Kidney Punch
Jan 23, 2013 •
Kidney’s are being attacked every day. Yours could be next. So common and deadly are kidney attacks that the theme for this year’s World Kidney Day is “Kidneys for Life: Stop Kidney Attack!“ Kidney Attack, or as Physicians and scientists call it “Acute Kidney Injury,” is a syndrome which affects several thousand people a year … Continue reading »
Time to get rid of drug advertising - Kidney Punch
Jan 17, 2013 •
New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world where pharmaceutical companies are allowed to advertise to consumers directly. I believe this is detrimental to our health and I call on the government to ban the practice immediately. Drugs are not like any other consumer product. There is one reason and one reason … Continue reading »
An implantable artificial kidney - Kidney Punch
Jan 16, 2013 •
$100 Dialysis is my vision. University of California San Francisco researchers are doing some exciting research that may well be a step on the way. They are developing an implantable artificial kidney . They have a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ArtificialKidney for those wishing to follow progress. $13M is needed to bring it clinical trials – I … Continue reading »
Deadly ignorance - Kidney Punch
Dec 14, 2012 •
How many deaths does it take? We hear that question asked time and again following a tragic event. We also hear it with calls for changes to our public health priorities. Well, I am now asking it with respect to Acute Kidney Injury. Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is one of the most common hospital events (4-5% of … Continue reading »
Do we talk about the right cancers? - Kidney Punch
Dec 12, 2012 •
We all want a cure for cancer. This is evident in the ideas put forward for the NZ Science Challenges (http://www.thegreatnzscienceproject.co.nz/home). Will these ideas reflect the true need in New Zealand? Are all cancers equal or are some more equal than others? Does the public perception of what is most important reflect the true health … Continue reading »
Nuclear war v Climate change - Kidney Punch
Dec 11, 2012 •
A nice little post by Peter Griffen on people preparing for doomsday reminded me of an ngram I generated a few weeks ago … we seem to talk as frequently about climate change now as we did nuclear war 25 years ago…ahhh, those were the days. Tagged: climate, climate change, doomsday, ngram, nuclear war