Archive, Miscellaneous
Sharing a ride to health and safety
We all hope for a breakthrough in the cure for cancer. Thankfully, scientists are making progress in the fight against this and many other devastating diseases. But on occasion, an innovation well outside of the healthcare sector can make a big difference in matters of life and death. And is there one such innovation where older people are missing out? New research shows that the introduction of ridesharing services has dramatically reduced trauma stemming from car accidents. This isn’t the first such study, but it adds to a mounting collection of studies with finding that allow for better planning and decisionmaking. Ridesharing companies, like Uber and Lyft and another 88 or so competitors globally, have been in operation for about a decade,...Read More
Archive, Philosophy
The Math Of Medical Ethics 101
"What an incredible story" I thought as I read the article. But it wasn't published in a prestigious medical journal. Rather, it was an article in the New Yorker Magazine written by Ian Parker about about Zell Kravinsky. Zell had given away almost his entire 45 million real estate fortune to charity. Then he donated a kidney to save a young stranger's life. He had even considered donating his other kidney and subjecting himself to kidney dialysis to save another young life. This is Sacrifice with a capital S! Yet thousands of his fellow citizens refuse to donate organs even after their death to those who desperately need of them. Why did Kravinsky do it? He says people simply don't understand...Read More
Archive, Psychiatry
Lincoln and Churchill Lived Lives of Quiet Desperation
Abraham Lincoln once wrote, " I am the most miserable man alive. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or get better." Winston Churchill echoed the same reaction when he told his doctor, " I don't like to stand by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A second's action would end everything. Is much known about worry, Charles?" Today, Lord Charles Moran, Churchill's physician, could answer, "Yes, Winston we now know a good deal more about depression and what's called "Generalized Anxiety Disorder" (GAD). This is good news for the millions of Canadians from all walks of life who, like Lincoln and Churchill, live lives of quiet desperation. It's unfortunate that psychiatrists don't label...Read More
Archive, Surgery
“Critical Mass” Is The Name of the Game In Surgery
Suppose you need a radical cancer operation. Or angioplasty to remove a blockage in coronary arteries. Or a coronary bypass operation. Who should perform these procedures? Where should they be done? These are questions that patients and families of an aging population are asking more often. The answers may mean the difference between life and death. One component of the answer is "Critical Mass". Or, put another way, the old dictum is still true, "Practice makes perfect." Whether you're a plumber or a surgeon the more work you do the better the results. Dr. James Hollis, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, stressed this point at a meeting of the American Heart Association. Patients, he said, were more...Read More
Archive
Bad Boys Have Big Balls
How do you know if your male partner is cheating on you? Some women look for evidence of lipstick on the collar. Or suspect a clandestine affair when he returns home at 1:00 AM night after night. Still others hire a detective at great expense to follow their partner week after week looking for proof of infidelity. But now there's a unique and inexpensive way to assess promiscuity. All you have to do is buy a pair of plastic callipers. Then at the right moment you make your move. He'll be in for the surprise of his life when you say, "Darling tonight I want to measure your testicle?" Dr. Robin Baker is an evolutionary biologist and popular science author. He recently...Read More
Archive
Beware of Flatus this Christmas
Why would anyone spend time studying rectal flatus? After all, hell would have to freeze over before this research would win the Nobel Prize in Medicine. But it is rather refreshing, if you will pardon the pun, to learn that a researcher is investigating this malodorous human problem. So none of us should turn up our nose at this unique study. Or get careless at a Christmas party. Dr. Albert Tangerman is a Dutch gastroenterologist at the University Hospital Nijmegen. He must also be a super salesman who could sell refrigerators to the Inuit! Dr. Tangerman persuaded six adults to collect their flatus. I must admit I would have relished being a fly on the wall watching this experiment. The subjects were asked...Read More
Archive
It’s time to give thanks for medical advances
IN 1842, DR. WILLIAM Ferguson, a young, ambitious surgeon at King's College Hospital in London operated on eight patients, each suffering from a strangulated hernia. One patient, in preparation for surgery, had been strapped to an operating table. Opiates helped to dull the man's senses to a slight degree, but as the surgeon's scalpel cut into flesh, terrible screams reverberated throughout the hospital. Like most patients in those days, he finally fainted. The operation was successful, but when he awakened he faced yet another life-threatening peril — post-operative infection which was routine then and which few survived. Unlike most surgical patients he recovered, and to show his gratitude asked the doctor to let him become his servant. At this Christmas, 1982, we should all...Read More
Archive
Readers support criticism of refined sugar
What's the verdict? Several months ago I warned people of the dangers of refined white sugar in processed food products. The Canadian Sugar Institute was not amused. It charged that I'd made false, misleading and exaggerated statements about its product. M. W. Davidson, president of the Institute, publicly contested the statements, and sent a formal request to the College of Physicians and Surgeons that I be disciplined. I've since received numerous enquiries about the final verdict. A man from Toronto wrote, "I'm concerned that the CSI would resort to this tactic. Dr. Gifford-Jones should not be disciplined for telling it the way it is. This unwarranted attack indicates his comments hit too close to home. Me thinketh the CSI doth protest...Read More
Archive
Statements about sugar rile industry spokesman
One of the world's most powerful industries says I should be punished for misleading you. The president of the Canadian Sugar Institute, M. W. Davidson, has sent a letter to the Ontario College of Physicians and surgeons. As a representative of the sugar industry he charges that I've made "exaggerated, misleading and even false statements about sugar," that I'm "misinforming Canadians," that I have "a disregard for fact in a quest for headlines" and that I should be disciplined by the College. Why is the sugar institute annoyed? They say there's no verification of 10 miIlion sugar-induced diabetics in North America or that sugar per se causes obesity. And that Canadians do not consume 130 pounds of sugar a year. Who is...Read More
Archive
Canadian diets need more fiber foods
Last week I told you that I had taken a calculated guess when I bluntly asked Mrs. Gifford-Jones if she was trying to do me in. Why had I taken such a gamble? Because I had examined my own household to see if we were practising preventive medicine. My findings owed that some dietary habits needed a change. The research was the simple task. But how could I convey the delicate message to Mrs. G-J? At the least provocation Mrs. G-J will happily abandon the kitchen. And I'd be left wearing the apron. I decided that the best approach was to appeal to her logical mind. Did she know that appendicitis, varicose veins, hemorrhoids and constipation were extremely rare in rural Africa? That diverticulosis...Read More
Archive
Many questions raised about Swine Flu
Last week I talked about the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918. It killed 21 million people in 11 months, more than twice as many as died in years of war. The problem is will it happen again? Even if it does, there are many questions to answer. Will it be as lethal a disease with the availability of present day antibiotics? Will it be the swine flu virus that causes the influenza? Could the vaccine be worse than the disease for some people? In essence, should Canadians run for the woods or roll up their sleeves for the shot? The current fear of Swine Flu stems from a happening at Fort Dix in New Jersey in January 1976. Several healthy recruits...Read More
Archive
You should know about Swine Flu vaccine
Most Canadians are in a no-man's land state of mind about the Swine Flu vaccine. Some patients quickly say they don't believe in flu shots. Others conclude they don't want to risk having a reaction from the vaccine. Still others say that they will ask their doctor what to do. If they follow this latter course. I wish them luck. Doctors I've asked seem as non-plussed about whether or not they would take the vaccine as patients. One surgeon thought it might interfere with his operating for a day or two. Many were undecided on the issue. A few thought they would wait until an epidemic seemed more likely before they rolled up their sleeves. And a couple had a novel...Read More
Archive, Medicine
Consumers Beware
Is it possible to believe what the doctor tells them? Or are there too many "Water-gate-type physicians" around, who too frequently lead patients up the primrose path? It is a question more and more North Americans are asking these days and ending up with incomplete answers. A few people still have implicit, faith in the medical profession. Just look at their track record. Antibiotics save untold thousands from dying of pneumonia and a host of other diseases. Cortisone enables other thousands to be free of wheelchairs. Cardiac pacemakers add years to the lives of heart patients. Surgeons are transplanting hearts and kidneys. But others feel doctors have fallen from their exalted perch, that you simply can't and shouldn't believe them. How much truth...Read More
