Top yachtsman Dean Barker says hearing of men he knew battling prostate cancer and wanting to see his young children grow up was what pushed him to the doctor.

I bought a new kettle this week. A fancy glass one with four pre-set temperatures. I know, I know, we are living life on the edge here at Thompson Towers.

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has been criticised for serious failings in the care it provided a mental health patient who later committed suicide.

While in Britain last month I stayed with my good friend Sarah and her husband Nick from university days. It was so good to see them, we talked long into the night reminiscing, and howling with laughter about our long-gone student days.

Worrying is a pointless activity. Fact! Worrying is focusing on a fear that is not currently present. It's worrying about a thing that may or may not happen later.

Call me crazy but I love hearing when clients or friends are "totally over it". When they can't look at another "fat picture" or drag themselves into the office for another soul-destroying day.

Kiwis have cut back on the amount of jogging, cycling and other "sweaty" activities they do, and researchers say that's partly to blame for our packing on extra kilos.

Being away in fabulous Turkey has been a blur of sunshine, family, laughter and new sights, smells and tastes. A total break from the usual routine, any stress has melted away in the lazy Turkish summer heat.

In the past six years the number of New Zealanders taking antidepressants has doubled, and a psychiatry professor says the drugs are being over-prescribed.

What is it really like to suffer from depression? Emma Gilkison, now 34, spent seven years battling the illness. Here she recounts her darkest days and her eventual triumph. Her hope is that other sufferers may also find a way through.

Here’s the thing. Our brain is like Google. It’s an incredibly efficient search engine.

Worrying about our problems is an almost constant occupation for many of us. The worry that we are raising our children right, or that we are doing a good enough job at work, that our parents are healthy and independent, that our spouse is happy.

A 32-year-old British mother of three woke from a coma believing she was 19 again, with 13 years of her life erased from her mind.

Trekking to Machu Picchu is a once in a lifetime experience, and I am so glad to have been able to do it. Once in a lifetime, that is, unless you are a guide or a porter on the Inca Trail.