Robert Hickson • Apr 17, 2017 •
The oldest person in the world has died, aged 117. Life expectancy in Italy in 1899 when she was born was 44 years. She wasn’t the oldest; the current record is 122. NZ’s oldest living person is 109, although the oldest so far reached 113 years. Life expectancy in New Zealand has, as elsewhere, risen … Read More
Ken Perrott • Apr 16, 2017 •
We are all going to die but fluoridation isn’t killing us. Oh, dear – the local anti-fluoridation people are at it again. More cases of fiddling statistics – and yet again the guilty party is the US anti-fluoridation activist Karen Favazza Spencer. She should really take some advice about statistics. Although I suspect she doesn’t care – she is just … Read More
Public Health Expert • Mar 01, 2017 •
By Professor Nick Wilson and Associate Professor George Thomson Our recently published study on sudden mass fatality events in NZ (10+ deaths per event) found that the occurrence and mortality burden of these events has declined over time. In this blog we consider possible reasons for this trend and make suggestions for improving the knowledge base around these events. … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 02, 2016 •
By Heather Conway, Queen’s University Belfast The idea that your dying or recently deceased body could be frozen in the hope that some future technology could revive you is no longer science fiction. It is now something people will pay handsomely for – as the recent court ruling that allowed a 14-year-old British girl with terminal cancer to … Read More
Eric Crampton • Sep 02, 2016 •
In a recent Dominion Post editorial Doug Sellman’s right about one thing: alcohol consumption does increase your risk of cancer. But unless your family history of cancer gives you a lot more to worry about than your family history of heart disease, you should be looking at the stats on all-source mortality rather than the stats for any particular disorder. The … Read More
John Pickering • Jun 19, 2015 •
New Zealand is the home of Home Haemodialysis and Christchurch the hub. Sending people home to dialyse is not only more convenient for them and more cost effective, but also has been shown to reduce mortality. However, is this reduction in mortality sustained across changes in dialysis medicine over time? This is an important question […] … Read More
Robert Hickson • Mar 29, 2015 •
Imagine, in 20 or 30 years, going to your health preservation service provider to receive your annual injections to remove senescent cells and down regulate selected gene expression in the hypothalamus, alongside a transfusion of synthetic “young” blood to promote tissue repair and healthier ageing. Later on you may take a pill … Read More
John Pickering • Mar 11, 2015 •
“In ancient times the Persian philosopher Avicenna [Ibn Sina] noted that urine may be retained in crisis of fever (s393) and prescribed hot oil baths (s413)(1). Unfortunately, apart from the supportive therapy of dialysis, there has been little progress since in the treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI).”(2) Given that getting AKI at least doubles […] … Read More
John Pickering • Nov 27, 2014 •
Everyone said it did, but how did they know and by how much? Statements like “The development of AKI [Acute Kidney Injury] after CPB [Cardiopulmonary Bypass Surgery] is associated with a significant increase in infectious complications, an increase in length of hospital stay, and greater mortality.” (Kumar & Suneja, Anaesthesiology 2011 14(4):964) are common place […] … Read More
Robert Hickson • Nov 03, 2014 •
With Halloween just past it’s a good time to consider end of life futures. While we are getting better at postponing death (including getting better at bringing those close to death back to life, transplanting “dead” hearts, as well as some successes against cancers), we’re not cheating it. People of European ancestry have in … Read More