Today is Global Handwashing Day, so here is a little history for you. Hand hygiene and hand washing is one of the most important things you can do to prevent the spread of disease. It is not the biggest contributor to the decline in mortality over the last two hundred years- that prize goes to clean water and sanitation – but it’s importance is uncontested- now. Unfortunately that wasn’t always the case, the “father” of modern hand hygiene was Ignaz …
This is something that gets bandied about a lot. But what is informed consent, and what is the history behind it? Hippocrates talked about consent in Ancient Greece. While the Hippocratic Oath is the most well known of his writings, he had others as well. One of these was the Aphorisms. The first Aphorism said “The physician must be ready, not only to do his duty himself, but also to secure the cooperation of the patient.” Unfortunately that term “secure …
I have these beautiful flowers in my garden right now, so must be time for a Passiflora post. Passiflora incarnata is the Purple Passionflower. There are over 500 types of passionflower, many are vines but some are shrubs or trees. This one is the NZ garden variety passion fruit vine, so may be a slightly different species. Homeopathically, Passiflora is not widely used, and when given is prescribed in the “mother tincture”, so is actually herbal with a physical effect. …