Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 23

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013

Hi everybody, So a fortnight ago I put off talking about obesity because it was too big a topic. Like a morning on the crapper after a night at an Indian BYO, though, the subject can’t be avoided, so we might as well load up Angry Birds, settle in and do this shit. Obesity is defined Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 22

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013

Hi everybody, Med students are weird. I have a friend who has a fairly uncommon condition called Diabetes Insipidus, which is completely unrelated to the blood-sugar-related Diabetes Mellitus. When it comes up in conversation, most muggles do the socially acceptable thing and utter a token Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 21

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013

Hi everybody, So we were gonna kick the final quarter of the year off by speaking about obesity in New Zealand. Initially I thought the topic would be a piece of cake, but it turns out there are big issues tied up in big waistlines. Whilst many medics think we’re currently undergoing an Read more...

Blood Donation and Gay Probation

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013

If those filthy Aussies can have equitable blood-donation laws, why can't we? Dr Nick takes a look at the barriers to blood donation that gay men still face in New Zealand today. Australia: it’s a land where the government encouraged child abduction for a century, and only just got around to Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 20

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013

Hi everybody, We love acronyms in medicine. MRI = Magnetic Resonance Imaging; PERRLA = Pupils Equal Round and Reactive to Light and Accomodation; CPILF = Coma Patient I’d Like to … ahem. One of my favourites is IANAN – “I Am Not A Neurologist” – which is usually scrawled before a largely Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 19

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013

Hi everybody, I like to think I’m pretty intelligent. Because I am. I’m also athletic, sexy and humble. And incredibly well-hung. Despite all this, however, I still do stupid things – falling for sensationalist media stories, for example. Recently on my Facebook feed I saw a link describing a Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 18

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013

Pop quiz: what’s the most common mental health disorder in New Zealand? If you’ve seen John Kirwin on TV, you probably answered depression. If you’ve read Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey (or copied from the guy sitting next to you) you might have answered anxiety disorders. Or Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 17

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013

Those of you who aren’t studying some faggy arts degree like philosophy probably had exams before the mid-year break. In the build-up to those exams, you might have undergone what is medically referred to as “shitting bricks.” The anxiety, the stress, the fear – they’re all natural responses to the Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 16

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013

According to Alanis Morissette, irony is like rain on your wedding day. In that sense, cancer is quite ironic: it is an unfortunate thing to happen, but completely unrelated to the literary technique that highlights the incongruity of the assumed nature and the underlying reality of things. What is Read more...

Hi Dr. Nick | Issue 15

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013

To the two-thirds of you reading this in a lecture: take a pen and scribble out the “Dr.” in the “Dr. Nick” – this week I want to speak as a pleb. The other third: just cover the “Dr.” with your thumb or something; don’t go hunting for any makeshift ink in the library toilets. The reason I Read more...