Your pharmacist is someone who provides you with the solution you need to recuperate. From the alleviating the symptoms of your cold to lowering your blood pressure, your pharmacist is the last place on your road to recovery but is this the best model for your long term health?

• What if we did the opposite of the current health model?
• What if your local pharmacy actually prevented you from getting sick in the first place?
• What if all areas of health professionals worked together to promote long-term health solutions?

These are the questions we at antidote want to answer. For too long the current medical model has plagued us. We’re waiting for people to get sick and then offering solutions. Why don’t we prevent people from getting sick in the first place?

What if when you came to get your medication for your ailment you also got advice on how to change your lifestyle factors to prevent you from getting sick in the first place. What we at antidote are offering is the opportunity for change. When you enter our stores we want to offer you advice on your long term health not just your medication.

We believe that your health and wellness is something that should be worked on consistently not just when you get sick. Chronic disease has been on the rise in New Zealand for years.  Type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity are all health issues that can be prevented but we’re not doing the right things to stop this.

As a nation we’re going to see our health professionals when we’re sick not when we’re well. We need to reverse this trend and we need to say to our doctor, our pharmacist, our nutritionist, our personal trainer and our other healthcare professionals:

• How do we stay healthy?
• How can I prevent myself from getting sick?
• What do I need to do outside of my medication to make sure I don’t get sick again?

We know the effects of long-term medication use and the implications they have on other parts of your body. They’re not good. If you have indigestion and you’re a long term anti-acid user you can soon suffer from a number of other health issues. Wouldn’t it be better if you made continual dietary changes that prevented you from even needing the medication in the first place?

This is just one of many medications that have long term side effects that can be resolved just by changing some dietary and lifestyle factors.

We want to focus on making sure that you only need medication when it’s really necessary, not when it can be dispensed as a band-aid for a larger health issue. We’re here to help you find out what you can do to improve your lifestyle habits outside of the medication.

We want to work with all health professionals and practitioners to improve your wellness to offer you a long term solution to better health.

This is a conversation we at Antidote would like to have with you. Come in store today and see what we can do to offer you a long term approach to your health.

The morning is often a time in which we spend chasing tasks that seemingly need urgent attention before disappearing into our normal working day. 

What am I going to have for lunch - will I even have time for lunch?

Who is picking the kids up after school? 

What do I need to remember for that after work function? 

These are the questions we ask ourselves before we plunge head first into our day. We often leave the house to face our days in a state of confusion, angst, frustration and forgetfulness. Our day starts in an unstable frame of mind and it places at a disposition to repeat the same feelings we had in the morning for the rest of the day as well.

 A morning ritual gives us the opportunity to make the most of our time alone before we face all of the people, obstacles, difficulties and trials that we can't control. 

There are significant physiological and psychological benefits to a morning routine, it requires time but this is a worthwhile investment for your time spent.  

Using the following routine each morning I've had clients lose almost 2% in body fat in 4 weeks. The best part is that it takes only requires an extra 20 minutes in your morning schedule and you will feel incredible for the rest of the day. 

Have a cold shower for five-ten minutes. The longer the better but aim for five minutes at the very least. This is where you will see the effects of the fat burning come into play.

While your body adjusts to the regular exercise routine exposing your body to cold frequently requires it to warm up to it's normal operating temperature and cold has been theorised to activate brown adipose tissue (BAT) which is the opposite to white adipose tissue (WAT) or what we commonly call "fat".  

BAT contains a much larger amount of mitchondria which are power house for burning our normal fat stores (WAT). The second feel good part comes from the rush of nor-adrenaline when you're surrounded by freezing cold water.

This will amplify the previous feel-good feeling from your physical activity. Trust me this is hard to start but certainly worth the feeling you get once you step out. 

Finally drink a cup of tea. The tea mixture I would suggest is green tea without anything in it. Make sure you only steep the tea for 120 seconds maximum, otherwise you'll get that furry tongue taste feeling. This comes from tannins when you've been steeping your tea for too long.

The science behind this is that the green tea stops the degradation of the nor-adrenaline from the exercise and cold shower by inhibiting an enzyme catechol-O-methyl-transferase. This will extend the benefits of the fat-burning effects from the last two exercises. 

You'll have to spend sometime waiting as the tea cools down. Savour this time as it will give you an opportunity to plan for the day ahead. 

Your routine doesn't have to look like this but it's a good starting point.

​If you want your days to be different from everyone else make sure you start them differently.