Building Better Babies

and straight from London … the Baby Gaga

Jan Roberts — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:02:18 +0000

On a recent Lifestyle program I watched a renowned Sydney pâtissier create his signature macarons with a hamburger flavour. Not my cup of tea since I certainly don’t associate my macaron treats with meat, but then there’s no accounting for some folks’ tastes. These days in the world of celebrity chefs, the weirder the better [...]

The milk of human kindness … for premie babies

Jan Roberts — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:52:50 +0000

So now Melbourne has a milk bank! The powers-that-be have recognised that there’s nothing better than mother’s milk for premie babies (or for that matter, for babies of any age!). While I’m all for sharing Nature’s bounty and Mums who are in good health and successfully breastfeeding their own offspring will have no issues donating [...]

The rise and rise of the super bug …

Jan Roberts — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 06:36:06 +0000

So now we’re threatened with near-extinction and a return to pre life-saving chemotherapy and organ transplants. How’s that then? The rise of the super-resistant microorganism that resists every antibiotic that modern medicine can throw at it! Good grief, how will we ever manage? Well maybe, just maybe, we might see the sense in making sure [...]

Mum always said – vegies are good for kids!

Jan Roberts — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:11:12 +0000

Would you believe it? Doctors have now shown that kids who eat a healthy diet with lots of fruit and vegetables have higher IQ levels. Kids who eat lots of processed and sugar-laden foods do much more poorly in the intelligence stakes. And the earlier that kids (and they studied 14,000) start on a healthy diet [...]

And the vaccination debate goes on…

Jan Roberts — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 22:51:24 +0000

Dr Julie Leask, a senior research fellow and manager of social research at the University of Sydney’s National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance sounds like a moderate voice in the over-heated vaccination debate. ”We know the vaccine issue is grey. It’s not a simple case of vaccines are perfect,” Leask said and continues…”again and [...]

Dribs of this and drabs of that don’t work!

Jan Roberts — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:26:07 +0000

A Cochrane Systematic Review suggests that antioxidant vitamins C and E might not protect women from pre-eclampsia! When are researchers going to recognise that adding a pinch of that and a taste of something else is NOT the way to optimise reproductive outcomes or general health and wellbeing for that matter? It’s a holistic approach [...]

Killing your fertility

Jan Roberts — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 05:44:46 +0000

This week I was asked by an old friend from the NSW Police School Liason Team if I’d make a presentation to teenagers at a couple of High Schools on the North Coast. She told me the culture was all about drink, drugs and sex. It got me thinking … firstly about synergies and secondly [...]

What matters most.

Jan Roberts — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:52:51 +0000

This afternoon, while taking advantage of a break between storms and a waterside “exercise station” I struck up a conversation with a full time Dad. He was relaxing on the inclined situp plane. He wasn’t doing situps – just enjoying a beautiful afternoon while his daughter played. It reminded me of all the afternoons I’d [...]

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water

Jan Roberts — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:27:27 +0000

I remember when I was a community pharmacist before becoming a full-time mother, in Sydney’s vibrant Chinatown! It was one of the most interesting periods of my career – a wonderful mix of both Australian and Chinese culture. I received my first understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine and thanks to my Chinese staff who were [...]

Orgasmic babies? Oxytocin can’t be beaten.

Jan Roberts — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:22:07 +0000

“Experiments have shown that a nasal squirt of oxytocin enhances trust and tunes people into others’ emotions…” Dr Larry Young. I’ve actually been telling the oxytocin story for some time. Goodness knows we all need more of it and as an antidote to the adrenalin/cortisol flight/fight pathway – into which most of Western society is [...]