Our old CMS had not been upgraded frequently enough and attempts to upgrade kept failing. We eventually decided to change to the latest version of completely different software. No doubt there will be a few teething problems going forward over the next little while but we’re confident in our choice and we hope readers are not affected by any future bugs or adjustments. As always, we welcome any feedback.

During the upgrade we improved access. On The Health Gazette site it is now possible to do any or all of the following:

• Register on the blog so you can post comments and questions
• Subscribe to our RSS feed so you can read updates in your chosen RSS reader
• Subscribe through Feedburner to receive site updates by email [NEW]
• Subscribe to receive the monthly Health Gazette Ezine Edition [NEW]

Unfortunately, everyone who had registered on the former blog site will have lost their access. Rather than send an email with instructions about how to convert registration to the new system we have elected to invite anyone previously registered who would like to continue to either contact us or simply reregister. We don’t consider this a great inconvenience and it provides an ideal opportunity to purge the list of people who are no longer interested, registered in error thinking they were subscribing to the Ezine, or were simply hoping to abuse the site with spammy comments.

That said, we warmly invite anyone with an interest in our content who would like to make a contribution, seek clarification or otherwise engage with the content to register.

The recess period includes the Christmas and New Year celebrations. If you don’t celebrate Christmas in any religious sense then perhaps you have a similar celebration, religious or secular. In any case, this is commonly known as the festive season which lasts to usher in the new year.

I will leave the sermons about Christmas to others, but allow me a few words about health. This period is marked by extremes and excesses, and their consequences. Yes, many people blessed with plenty do over eat and probably eat many things that are far from healthful. Unfortunately many people also consume alcohol to excess, always with detrimental and sometimes fatal consequences.

Many people also suffer the mental and emotional anguish associated with loss, loneliness and guilt. Sadly, it is a time when the suicide rate tends to be relatively high.

The rate of serious cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes also tends to be high, as is the rate of motor vehicle accidents. Such tragedies are all the more difficult to deal with since they are avoidable.

So, during this festive season please take care of yourself and those who are close to you. Remember to consume zero alcohol if you will be driving, don’t drive when fatigued and concentrate while driving because other drivers may not be so wise.

By all means, if you have the opportunity, celebrate with feasts and allow yourself some special treats. But stay within reasonable limits, don’t eat yourself to death while celebrating the joys of life.

During the heightened sensitivity experienced by many during this period, if you become distressed, don’t just suffer in silence, deal with the underlying issue. This doesn’t have to be a grand event, it can be as simple as being kind to yourself by letting go of an unpleasant memory, talking over some problem with a trusted friend, or choosing to forgive someone. Of course, if the problem is serious, don’t hesitate to seek professional help.

Finally, allow yourself to enjoy this feative season. Life is wonderful, embrace it.

Of course, if your health is less than ideal, the coming New Year affords a great opportunity to resolve to take positive action in 2006 to make improvements. My tip is to write your resolution on paper and put it somewhere to remind you to do something about it. With each resolution, jot a quick outline of an action plan. Then instead of having just any old "New Years resolution", to be forgotten like millions of others, you’ll have a plan. Resolutions are forgotten, plans are implemented.

So Jenny and I wish you the compliments of the season. Stay safe, be well and truely enjoy your life.

Peter
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Dr Peter Tylee
Editor

Our health products site is called, oddly enough, HealthProductsSite.com.

Our existing network comprises a series of quality health education sites each focused on a particular area. The network currently includes The Health Gazette, which provides independent and original health news, views and reviews from both orthodox and alternative health domains. This site provides syndicated feeds for other sites in the THE Network.

Other sites that offer material from our university level courses in nurse education are provided through Education4Skills.com and include both Primary Health Care and Therapeutic Communication.

Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com provides nutrition education with a strong focus on the use of vitamins and nutritional minerals. Hearb-Health-Guide.com provides alternative health education related to herbal medicine, with a strong emphasis on safety.

All sites in the THE Network reflect professional standards without the professional disempowerment so frequently a feature of our colleagues’ work. We are committed to empowering people through health education to take informed responsibility for their own health.

The new site permits us to provide a venue online for people to purchase the very best quality health products that we have thoroughly investigated and sincerely recommend. This responds to requests by visitors to our above websites for this guidance without having to mix product sales with educational goals on those other sites.

People looking for the finest quality products in the world and those who wish to show support for the THE Network can now purchase their tools for achieving health goals at our HealthProductsSite.com.

The site is published using the Drupal content management system (CMS). This appears to be very powerful software and it should meet our needs well into the future. At this stage we are still learning how the functionality provided by this CMS relates to our planned presentation of content so we will begin somewhat tentatively and expand as our learning and confidence grow.

Initially the interactivity afforded by Drupal will be limited. However, we are excited by the prospect of developing effective visitor, indeed member, interactivity in the future. We expect this will follow establishing a certain critical mass of useful content.

Our Mission Statement

As it says beneath the masthead on the front page: "Our mission is to provide accessible health education empowering you to get the most from life."

What do we mean by "accessible"?

Simply that our health information can be readily reached and be read and understood by a large number of people.

Site content is available by:

• browsing this website
• taking one or more of our RSS XML feeds
• subscribing to the The Health Gazette ezine

We aim to be understood by a wide readership through use of straightforward expression that is technical enough to be read by other health professionals yet non-technical enough to be helpful to everyone with an interest in health. We would love to eliminate (in our dreams) and will certainly strive to minimize (in practice) the barriers to quality health information.

What do we mean by "health education"?

As health professionals we are both clinicians and educators. We are passionate about health and empowering people to achieve the best health possible within their individual circumstances. To actually realize health goals people must learn what health is, how to achieve and maintain it and then take action.

Effective teaching and learning requires change in knowledge, values and attitudes, and behavior. The Health Gazette will provide information to grow knowledge, help steer and develop sound health values, and hopefully stimulate action. Hence, we are truely about health education. We already have a long record of success in this area.

Get the most from life?

Yes! Absolutely. Health is vitally important to the fullest possible enjoyment of life. A real sense of wellbeing adds immeasurability to quality of life.

Welcome to Our Family

The-Health-Gazette.com is a welcome addition to the family of sites by Dr Peter Tylee and Dr Jenny Tylee. In a sense it will become a central hub for the existing and future sites. The Health Gazette ezine version is the online newsletter relating to both Healthy-Vitamin-Choice.com and Herb-Health-Guide.com which are already operating and it will supply those sites with blog facilities.

Of course, we also welcome you, dear reader, to The Health Gazette site. Thanks for reading about our launch. Please bookmark us, visit often and join and contribute as soon as we are able to make joining available. In the meantime, why not subscribe to our ezine?

Best of health to all.