Guest Work • May 16, 2018 •
Caroline Smith, Western Sydney University and Robert Norman, University of Adelaide Acupuncture has become a frequently used treatment prior to and during in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). Women hope it will increase their chances of having a baby, but also provide support with reducing stress, and feeling relaxed and well while undergoing treatment. Several small clinical trials … Read More
Guest Work • Apr 24, 2018 •
Gita Mishra, The University of Queensland and Judith Stephenson, UCL This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Maternal and child health in Australia, like most countries, has traditionally focused on health during pregnancy and in the early years of life. But this approach may be missing a key opportunity … Read More
Jean Balchin • Mar 29, 2018 •
According to a study published recently in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, exposure to epilepsy drugs in the womb is linked to significantly poorer school test results among 7 year olds. Evidently, prospective mothers need to be fully informed of the risks of treatment. However these risks need to be weighed against the need for effective seizure control during … Read More
Ken Perrott • Mar 14, 2018 •
First, thanks to Mary Byrne and FFNZ for this response (see Anti-fluoride group coordinator responds to my article). Hopefully, this will help encourage some good faith scientific discussion of the issues involved in my original article (Paul Connett’s misrepresentation of maternal F exposure study debunked). I am pleased to promote such scientific exchange. I will deal with the issues Mary … Read More
Ken Perrott • Mar 13, 2018 •
My recent article Paul Connett’s misrepresentation of maternal F exposure study debunked got some online feedback and criticism from anti-fluoride activists. Mary Byrne, National coordinator Fluoride Free New Zealand, wrote a response and requested it is published on SciBlogs “in the interests of putting the record straight and providing balance.” I welcome her response and have posted it here. Hopefully, this will … Read More
Ken Perrott • Mar 06, 2018 •
Anti-fluoride campaigners are misrepresenting a recent Mexican study claiming its findings should cause governments around the world to abandon community water fluoridation (CWF). Their claims are unwarranted because the study has a high degree of uncertainty. Activists are misrepresenting the accuracy of the studies findings. Because Mexico has areas of endemic fluorosis the study itself is not relevant to CWF. Read More
Ken Perrott • Feb 22, 2018 •
Data from Bashash et al., (2017). Despite a statistically significant relationship of child IQ with mothers prenatal urinary fluoride, this explains only about 3% of the huge scatter in the data. I haven’t followed the latest speaking tour of Paul Connett – organised by the local Fluoride Free NZ organisation. But I watched a TV interview with him this … Read More
Public Health Expert • Jan 30, 2018 •
Prof Nick Wilson, A/Prof George Thomson The United States has many major health problems – including declining life expectancy and an exorbitantly expensive health care system. However, the large number of state and local governments provide a wealth of potential lessons that NZ could learn from. In this blog we briefly consider some of these, particularly in the domains of … Read More
Alison Campbell • Oct 03, 2017 •
Today I was on leave and, the weather being bad, thought I’d do a bit of catching up on the news. And so it was that I found, on the Stuff FB page, an item about the (lack of) funding for cutting-edge cancer drugs. So far, so innocuous (although also somewhat sad) – until I read the comments. For there, I … Read More
Guest Work • Sep 22, 2017 •
By Ruth Walker, University of Waikato and Liezl van Zyl, University of Waikato Starting a family through surrogacy is fraught with stresses and uncertainties. For heterosexual couples it is often the last resort after a history of disappointment and even tragedy. Gay couples remain subject to discrimination and stigma when it comes to planning a … Read More