Hillcrest Pharmacy is proud to sponsor the local bowling club, some would say the heart of Hillcrest community. Hillcrest bowling club is one of the largest left in Hamilton consisting of 2 greens and a massive club room for the all-important scones and pies after the matches.

The tournament on Wednesday 14^th of September was no exception of how well loved this club is. We were lucky enough to sneak away from the pharmacy for a few minutes and see all the lovely folk on the green. The green was packed with a total of 24 teams playing and the weather could not have put on a better day for them all.

Bowling is not only a great social event but also a fantastic way to keep active, with both of these helping to keep you in good health. So if you have ever thought about giving bowling a go we highly recommend heading over to the Hillcrest Bowling Club you will definitely find yourself in great company!

Photos from the tournament and Tom handing over the cheque to the club president Mr Kerry Margan

Be into win a Ziegler & Brown Twin Grill BBQ this Spring at Hillcrest Pharmacy! One of our customers will be enjoying  this BBQ this summer. The ‘Ziggy’ offers endless cooking options; mixed grill feast, yummy breakfast fry-up or perfectly grilled seafood. Close the hood to create perfect pizzas, moist baked treats or a super succulent roast. This is a BBQ plus more!

Valued at $799 this is a promotion not to be missed.

Simply spend $30 in-store at Hillcrest Pharmacy this September and you are in the draw to win!

*Prescriptions are not included, see in store for further details.

Breathe Better September! This month is all about lung health and how we can all take action to ensure better breathing and healthier lungs.

Respiratory disease (or lung disease) includes asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, bronchiolitis, pneumonia and countless other conditions. With such illness affecting 1 in 6 New Zealander’s and being our 3^rd leading cause of death it is time we raise awareness and talk about how we can all work together to breathe better.

There are lots of small things everyone can do to improve their breathing.

Better breathing starts with healthy eating, regular exercise, warm and dry housing, healthcare and being smoke free.

While many improvements need to be made at a wider national level, these are simple things everyone can do to look after their lungs.

Be Smoke Free

Being smoke free is easier said than done for many New Zealander’s and with most cases of COPD being linked to smoking it may be time for you to quit. If you are wanting to quit smoking to improve your health and the health of your loved ones around you, you don’t need to be alone.

Here at Hillcrest pharmacy we offer support in helping you to quit. Our trained pharmacists will work with you to come up with a treatment plan to help you stop and support you throughout the process. Nicotine patches, gum and lozenges are provided as part of your quit smoking plan and if these are not suitable we will find you the right solution. You don’t need to struggle through alone, we are here for you.

Warm and Dry Housing

Unfortunately, not all Kiwis have these things such as warm and dry housing, making their day to day life harder to maintain healthy lungs. Find out what you can do for yourself and your family for healthy lungs, or make a donation to support those in need.

Join us in supporting Breathe Better September!

http://www.breathebetterseptember.co.nz/

If you believe respiratory health is important and want to see the statistics change, join us and sign photo petition in support of better respiratory health for NZ. Write ‘Breathe Better September’ on a piece of paper and take a photo then upload to http://www.breathebetterseptember.co.nz/photo-petition.html

Thanks to everyone who entered our Olympics competition. A massive congratulations to the winner Evan Hastings!

Here is Evan collecting his prize from Hillcrest Pharmacy shop manager Sarah, we hope you and your family enjoy the pack.

As far as the Olympics go we are still celebrating the overall greatness that was New Zealand’s best games yet. To all our athletes you have done our nation proud.

Bring on Tokyo 2020!

A big congratulations to the winner of the Fieldays winter wellness pack Amy Gera!

Here is Amy and her daughter picking up her prize from Hillcrest Pharmacy owner Tom! We hope you enjoy the pack, and the Fieldays!

Thanks again to everyone who entered the competition!

I remember eating bunches of these straight off the tree when I was a boy. Little did I know that elderberry has been used for centuries in folk medicines for influenza, colds and sinusitis. Elderberries are rich in bio-active flavonoids. The main flavanoids being the anthocyanins cyanidin 3-glucoside and cyanidin 3-sambubioside. It has been suggested that these flavonoids stimulate the immune system by enhancing the production of cytokines and monocytes.

Elderberry has also been shown to inhibit the haemagglutination of the influenza virus and thus preventing the adhesion of the virus to cell wall receptors. If the virus can’t stick to the walls of the cells then the virus can’t inject its DNA into the cell or take over the cell to replicate itself.

Anthocyanins commonly found in Elderberry and Tart cherry have been found to have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

In a small double blind randomised controlled study conducted at the Department of Virology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem on 60 subjects with Influenza A virus confirmed by laboratory assays the researchers found that the subjects treated with the standardised Elderberry extract (Sambucol®, Razei Bar, Jerusalem, Israel) had pronounced improvement in influenza symptoms three or four days faster than the placebo group with a mean recovery time of 3.1 days ± 1.3days compared to the mean recovery in the Placebo group of 7.1 days ± 2.5 days. (Zakay-Rones et al, 2004)

I think it is important that we a careful with our claims based on one small piece or research. The writers themselves site the size of this study as a limitation. Another issue that is worth considering is that the study was sponsored by Razei Bar the manufacturers of Sambucol®. However, as a multicentre randomised placebo-controlled study conducted according to the revised Declaration of Helsinki this study provides a very high level of evidence and reliability.

I think it would be great if we could get a larger study done on Elderberry right here in New Zealand considering that this small study showed such promising results.

As for me I can’t afford to be away from work due to illness so I face the winter Cold & Flu season with a seasonal flu jab, a daily dose of vitamin C and the elderberry extract product Viraforte® in the cupboard to start at the first signs of a viral infection.

(Reference, The information provided in this article has been gleaned mostly from the following article: Z ZAKAY-RONES, E THOM, T WOLLAN AND J WADSTEIN; J Int Med Res. 2004 Mar-Apr;32(2):132-40. Randomized study of the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry extract in the treatment of influenza A and B virus. )

Hillcrest Pharmacy will be holding a competition shortly where you will be given the opportunity to win a prize pack which includes a double pass to the Waikato Fieldays! Check out our Facebook page for updates about the competition so you can get your entry in quickly!

Included in the prize hamper (pictured below) is 2 Fieldays tickets, plus 2x winter multi-vitamin, 2x berocca kick, 2x deep heat back patch, 2x thermos mug, 2 pairs of thompsons bed socks.

What is the Fieldays?

The New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays® was born through the vision and determination of a small group of individuals in 1968, after Nuffield Scholar John Kneebone wrote to the Waikato Times promoting the idea of a Town and Country show for farmers complimenting the then successful ‘Ruakura Week’. The idea pitched was to create an event whereby farmers could meet and view products and services, innovation in farm machinery creating the concept for the first Fieldays event and the inception of the NZ National Fieldays Society Inc.™

The first Fieldays events were held at the Te Rapa Racecourse with the event rapidly outgrowing the venue due to its immediate success. Fieldays’ home site at Mystery Creek was purchased in 1970, financed by a 100% mortgage secured against the organising committee’s personal assets and farms, such was their belief in the event.

Through this passionate group of volunteers, some of whom are still involved today, Fieldays’ home at Mystery Creek was created and developed into what is now the home of the largest agribusiness expo in the Southern Hemisphere. The 114-hectare site at Mystery Creek, Hamilton is arguably known worldwide as the home of New Zealand agriculture, grown through the efforts of the Society’s members, staff, volunteers and loyal supporters.

We are proud to honour our heritage and continue the legacy created by Fieldays’ founders, while looking to the future continuing to work for the advancement of agriculture, agribusiness and agritech, supporting our primary industry, our community and New Zealand.

The NZ National Fieldays Society Inc.™ would like to give special acknowledgement to our Society Partner, Hyundai New Zealand, for its support of Fieldays, the Society and our mission to advance agriculture. Through our relationship we work together through Hyundai’s Pinnacle Programme, a unique scholarship, backed by Hyundai New Zealand, which provides talented young New Zealanders with the foundations for success.

The above information is copyright NZ National Fieldays Society Inc. The original article can be found here.

Check out episode 4 of Tom’s Talks! Today we are talking about sore throats and how strep throat can lead to rheumatic fever.

Click here to read about Pine’s story and how a throat infection can lead to further health issues later in life.

Pine has a heart condition that was caused by a throat infection when he was a child living in Wairoa.

After reacting to a Group A streptococcal throat infection (commonly known as strep throat), Pine’s Mitral valve located in his heart was damaged as his own immune system reacted to the infection.

This is the Acute auto immune reaction we know as rheumatic fever which affects about 150 to 200 New Zealanders every year and can leave the person who has had Rheumatic fever with the permanent long term condition called Rheumatic Heart disease. Rheumatic Heard Disease kills about 145 New Zealanders every year.

Strep Throat → Rheumatic Fever → Rheumatic Heart Disease → Poor Health or Death

Rheumatic Fever can be undetectable

The unusual thing about Pine’s strep throat infection is that neither he nor his family knew that he had it. It was actually Pine’s brother that had been diagnosed with a strep throat infection and was treated with antibiotics. Pine’s infection was silent. He didn’t have any symptoms that were obvious. No sore throat, no temperature, nothing out of the ordinary, so no-one thought to check if Pine needed antibiotics or treatment.

What we now know is that strep. bacteria can trigger a rheumatic fever reaction in those infected by it and not everyone who gets rheumatic fever has symptoms of a sore strep throat prior to having this autoimmune reaction. The most at risk are young people between the ages of 4 and 14 years of age and Maori and Pacific island children are more likely to get Rheumatic fever. There is no genetic link to rheumatic fever but it is thought to be more associated with living in poor housing conditions. It is more common in the North Island regions of New Zealand. If a child is living in close contact with someone who gets a strep throat, like Pine and his brother’s situation, there is a greater chance of that child getting Rheumatic fever.

How did Pine find out he had rheumatic fever?

Pine was 44 years old when he discovered that he had damage to his heart. He had grown up playing Rugby, swimming and running and would push himself hard. When he was doing intense exercise he thought it was normal to taste blood in his mouth and to be breathless and for his heart to miss beats. He would push through the discomfort. On a night in 2006 Pine’s heart was missing beats and he was feeling lightheaded and dizzy. Pine had had these symptoms before but usually they went away. This time they didn’t stop and Pine went to bed with his heart in Atrial Fibrillation (AF). The next day Pine drove his Kuia to Raglan and on the Waikato expressway he suffered a stroke. It wasn’t until the cardiac specialists started to look at his heart and study his history they realised that Pine was a Victim of Rheumatic Fever.

Unfortunately, the damage has been done to Pine’s heart valve and Pine now requires regular treatment with a blood thinning medicine to prevent any more strokes associated with his heart damage. The blood thinning medicine he takes requires regular blood tests to make sure that it is keeping the blood thin enough to prevent blood clots. Pine keeps himself extremely fit with daily exercise, however the Rheumatic heart disease and the medicine he is on prevents him from participating in the more intense exercise or sporting activities that he once enjoyed.

Take every sore throat seriously

It is NOT “JUST A SORE THROAT”. Get your children’s sore throats swabbed at the pharmacy or doctor’s clinic. If you are diagnosed with a strep throat make sure that the people, particularly children, who you are in every day contact with get their throat swabbed as well. A free throat swab can be provided from a pharmacy to anyone who is 4 to 35 years old and is a close contact of a person diagnosed with Strep throat.

Free Swabs for Children

The team at Hillcrest Pharmacy can swab your 4 to 18 year old children’s throats for strep infection free of charge and if a diagnosis of Strep throat is confirmed we can dispense the appropriate antibiotics to treat that infection under the direction of our local Public Health Officer.

Strep Throat → Pharmacy Throat Swab → Antibiotics → Healthier Life

Thanks Pine for sharing your story and working with us at Hillcrest Pharmacy in building a Stronger, Healthier Community. If you have just read Pine’s story share it with as many people as you can.

Reference Data Source: http://www.bpac.org.nz/BPJ/2011/august/docs/bpj_37_rheumatic_fever_pages_22-33.pdf

To celebrate Savar we have a Savar Luxury Gift Set worth $75 to give away, just read about the two products below featured in the gift pack and answer a simple question via our facebook to go into the draw.

Savar is a 100% New Zealand made and operated company who use many native New Zealand ingredients in their skincare formulations, each with special and unique qualities.

There is no compromise in their exotic ingredients and formulations where each product is individually formulated to provide the very best results.

Savar have a range of products from skincare, hair and spa products with new products always being released.

Savar Energising Body Wash

Beautifully fragranced, 100% biodegradable and non drying, Savar’s best selling premium body wash refreshes and conditions all skin types. Soap free, ultra nourishing and hydrating it will soothe even the driest skin and is great for all skin types including sensitive and skin prone to eczema. Fabulous for both men and women it leaves your skin feeling wonderfully soft and invigorated.

ENRICHED WITH:
New Zealand lemon balm – soothes, calms and refreshes your skin.
Organic sugar cane – increases moisture content and helps with dry and flaky skin.

Advanced Hand Repair Cream

The fastest way to beautiful hands, our Savar anti-aging hand cream is a hand cream like no other that strengthens nails, makes a wonderful cuticle cream and works wonders on dry and cracked heels! Fabulous for dry and sensitive skin and other skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, this fast absorbing hand treatment will leave your hands wonderfully soft, smooth and protected.

ENRICHED WITH:
New Zealand avocado – one of natures true wonders that’s anti-aging, fast absorbing, uber-nourishing, softening and protecting.
Organic violet – soothes inflammation and helps improve skin condition.
Lime flower – hydrating and refreshing.

If you would like to know more about the Savar range, please enquire with the staff here at Hillcrest Pharmacy.