Winter 2023
Monday, 26 June 2023
A couple months ago, I wrote about my top tips for being winter strong this year. One month into winter 2023, I can tell you that it is one of the worst starts to the winter season for colds and flu in a long time. It always starts with the youngest members of the family, and I can definitely confirm that the kids are getting sick this year. So much so that the country has run out of the most popular strength of kids Paracetamol available on prescription. No masks and immune systems that have been protected by COVID restrictions means that the kids are literally petri dishes this winter, prime for viral and bacterial growth. And the general trend is kids first, then adults second - usually the grand parents that are on after school duty.
Chrissie, one of our pharmacists, has 3 littlies and they have been in a cycle of bugs since June 1st. A comment made to her from a hospital nurse is that many nasal swabs for kids with cold symptoms and nausea are coming back positive with Influenza type A. This is a flu strain that we can protect the kids against, with a flu vaccine. This is the perfect reminder of my number one winter strong tip: keep up to date with Flu and COVID boosters. You can find all our vaccine information here. Children as young as 6 months can get their flu jab at the doctor's. As (a very tired) Chrissie said “4 weeks' worth of anguish, all for the sake of a flu jab“.
Roslyn Pharmacy is part of the Hardy’s Health network across the country, and one of our key advantages is that we are able to tap into the knowledge of some amazing Naturopaths. I reached out to Diana Burgess, top Naturopath of the group for her top 3 Winter strong tips to get back on track:
- Eat plenty of nutrient rich whole foods including those that are Vitamin-C rich to support immune health.
- Prioritise your sleep. Sleep is essential for wellbeing, including physical and mental health and our immunity. Aiming for quality sleep is the key.
- Take a high quality multivitamin and mineral to give you a great base. I like to add an adrenal support formula if you are crazy busy or under stress and for extra reassurance most importantly take an immune defence support formula that includes: vitamin C, zinc and vitamin D, also known as liquid sunshine.
Di also adds “move daily and laugh often”. Some really great tips there from Di.
No more prescription co-payments from July 2023
July 1st marks the end of the $5 prescription co-payment for all of our patients. We want to take this moment to send out a massive THANK YOU to all our patients for their continued loyalty and support of our family run, independent Community Pharmacy. We know that you have always had a choice and we are very grateful that you have continued to choose us as your Pharmacy. We promise that we will continue to push on with our goal of providing our clientele with the best and most innovative Pharmacy services in NZ. As a token of our gratitude, for the month of July we want to give our customers some FREE PEANUT BUTTER from our nut butter grinder (see in store for terms and conditions).
Thanks again, and as always don’t hesitate to be in contact with me.
Take care,
Andy and team
