Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Nutrition
Protecting Eyesight with the Right Food
It was 200 years ago that Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer and culinary writer, first wrote “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” It’s a simple and enduring message. But people are not being watchful of what they eat, and it is having far-reaching consequences, not just around the middle. Like other organs, the eyes are affected by diet. Many research teams have shown that a poor diet increases the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) of the eye. Today AMD is the leading cause of severe vision loss for those over the age of 65. By 75 one in three North Americans have early signs of AMD. A command given to American soldiers at the...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
What’s the Rub of Dry Eyes?
If having recurring headaches, most people go see a doctor. Or, for severe chest pain, it’s a rush to the emergency room. But when people are constantly rubbing their eyes, there’s no trigger of alarm. It’s just itchy eyes! But Dr. Clara Chan, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto, says it could be a problem called dry eye syndrome. Neither lethal nor curable, sufferers simply need to keep the annoyance under control. Dr. Chan reports the sooner you see a doctor and start treatment the better the result. It’s surprising that an estimated 1 in 5 adults have personal experience with dry eye syndrome. Dry eye syndrome is more common in women, but aging is a cause in both...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Infection, Lungs
All Stuffed Up for the Holidays
There’s a lot of “stuff” this time of year – the stuffing in the turkey, for example, or all the meaningless commercial stuff we buy for the holidays that ends up in landfills. The holidays are a good time to look around and assess what is good stuff and what is bad. It might disappoint some readers to learn that this week the “stuff” we are choosing to look at is the mucus in your nose. There can be quite a volume of this sticky, or runny, or plugged up stuff at this time of year. A very stuffed up nose can be symptom of trouble. Our thoughts are with the many anxious families dealing with young children battling respiratory syncytial...Read More
Cancer, Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Miscellaneous, Neurology
What A Dog’s Nose Knows
What a wonderful world if people could be as generous to humankind as dogs. Regardless of our faults, dogs provide unfailing loving care. A new study suggests dogs may be able to use their sniffing powers to know when someone is having a really bad day. Who knew there is an aroma to being stressed, but dogs seem to detect it. In this, they have a huge advantage over humans. The nose of a dog has 220 million smell cells compared to a meagre 5 million in humans. The powerful sniffers of dogs have long been effective in detecting cancer. A report years ago in the British Journal Lancet reported that a woman’s dog repeatedly sniffed at one mole on her thigh...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
Bright Promise for the Dark Disease of Glaucoma
Beware the “silent thief of sight”. Glaucoma sneaks up on people causing irreparable vision loss before diagnosis. Over 3 million North Americans have glaucoma – about half don’t know it. For society, the economic and social consequences of stolen sight is large. For sufferers, when glaucoma progresses to blindness, it is life-changing. But is a cure in sight? The field of stem cell research is moving at lightning speed. In the search for a cure to glaucoma, adult stem cells, as opposed to the more controversial embryonic stem cells, are the focus. There are two types of adult stems cells. One type comes from tissues such as the brain, skin, or bone marrow. This type only makes more of the same. A...Read More
Cardiovascular, Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Rake Up the Leaves this Fall
What’s the most absurd image of healthy living? It’s a picture of a young woman using a leaf blower to clean up leaves in her yard while wearing ear protection, eye protection, and a mask covering her nose and mouth. The only thing that makes good sense is the mask. It’s the leaf blower that is most offensive. The first offense is the condoning of laziness. A leaf blower nearly eliminates the physical effort needed to clean up the leaves. In the past, we may have looked upon this as a good thing. Less work equals better life. False! Raking up those leaves offers a wonderful cardio workout, in the lovely outdoors, resulting in the satisfaction of a job well done. It’s exercise...Read More
Dermatology, Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Infection
Tattoos and Piercings Still Come with Risks
Jack London, the American novelist who wrote Call of the Wild in 1903, said, “Show me a man with a tattoo and I’ll show you a man with an interesting past.” But in 2022, with tattoos found on more than a third of North Americans and on nearly one in two young people, what is the great allure? And what are the risks? According to the Wellcome Collection, a museum and library specializing in the connections between medicine, life and art, tattoos date from 5000 BCE. They permeated ancient societies, often representing battle valour or sacrificial rituals. Some tattoos seem to have resulted from scaring from medicinal treatments and others seem to have been purely decorative in purpose. Piercings have a long...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
When Is the Right Time to Hang Up the Car Keys?
Helen Keller, the disability rights advocate who lost her sight and hearing at 19 months of age, famously warned of “having sight but no vision”. Hers was a metaphor on living. But what happens to our eyesight as we age? And how common is it to have sight, but poor vision? More specifically, how do we know when we need to make changes in our lives because we are not seeing as well as we used to? Driving, for example, is an intensive visual undertaking. But glare sensitivity and reductions in visual field are significant predictors of involvement in a crash. No amount of wisdom will help in the seconds before an accident you did not see coming. Macular degeneration is a...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Infection, Vitamins
Viruses Love a Weak Immune System
Justin Bieber, the mega-successful pop icon, has had better days. His mental health and addiction issues are common to many superstars. He’s had Lyme disease and infectious mononucleosis. COVID infections interrupted concert dates. Now, he is suffering from a viral disease that has affected his speech and made him cancel more concerts. At only 28-years of age and all the wealth one could want, what’s going wrong? Doctors have determined his latest problem, a condition known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome. It occurs when the same virus that causes chickenpox activates in the ear and facial nerves causing facial paralysis and hearing loss in the affected ear. He is being treated and will be back on the stage soon. But Ramsay Hunt syndrome is...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Miscellaneous
What Could Go So Wrong at a Holiday Luncheon
The immortal Shakespeare wrote in the play Macbeth, “Each new morn new widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows strike heaven on the face.” He was not wrong. Readers may wonder how I am faring as I near the start of my 99th year. I am glad to report, while getting older is rarely much fun, my medical training remains useful! At a holiday luncheon with long-in-the-tooth friends, one started to cough. It was nothing to attract attention. But the situation suddenly changed. His coughing became intense and breathing more difficult. Food had become stuck in his throat, probably lethally so. I knew what I had to do. As a surgeon, I’ve faced many crises: heart attacks, strokes, and other life-or-death situations. But during my...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
What’s Wrong with Hearing Aids
Peter Drucker, the management theorist, who wore hearing aids later in life, famously remarked, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” The hearing aid industry would be wise to listen in. For all the big noise about what can be heard when people with hearing impairment are fitted with aids, is an important message being missed? Hearing aids, in general, make life better for people with mild to severe hearing loss. But has the development of ever smaller technology made it needlessly difficult for people to enjoy the benefits? Does it seem as though the aids are designed to hide, for vanity’s sake, or worse, as if in shame, a hearing disability? The focus should be on ease...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Nutrition
Is North American Diet a Recipe for Blindness?
How often have we been warned, we are what we eat? A book by Dr. Chris Knobbe, Ancestral Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Macular Degeneration, is an eye-opener. Knobbe claims doctors have been taught for years that macular degeneration “MD” which destroys the macular, a tiny spot on the retina responsible for central vision) is due to aging and genetics but it’s an absolute untruth. Rather, he claims the leading cause of blindness in North America is actually due to the garbage we’re eating. Dr. Chris Knobbe Knobbe, an ophthalmologist, reports that before 1925 there were about 50 cases of MD in the world’s medical literature. But by 1975, 8.8% of Americans over the age of 50 had this disease. Dr. William Osler,...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
What I Learned Watching My Wife’s Cataract Surgery
As a surgeon, giving medical advice to a family member, particularly to your wife, is a difficult task. Moreover, since she’s also my editor, Susan is well aware of my advice to readers. Namely, that it’s prudent never to agree to surgery for a painful hip or any chronic condition until it affects your quality of life. So, how did I react to her cataract surgery? According to The National Eye Institute, by age 80 half of North Americans have a cataract, or have required the operation to replace a foggy lens. In Canada 250,000 such surgeries are performed each year and an estimated 1.5 million worldwide. Many people are unaware they have cataracts in the early stages of growth. Since cataracts...Read More
Cancer, Cardiovascular, Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Neurology, Pain, Vitamins
What Did You Learn From Me in 2017?
I hope my columns during 2017 have helped readers live longer and healthier. So which of the following are true or false? There’s evidence that regular activity lowers the risk of dementia. Also a suggestion that high daily doses of vitamin C can decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at The Harvard Medical School report the magical ingredient in fish to decrease the risk of heart disease is omega-3 fatty acids, which like Aspirin, add oil to the blood making it less likely to clot. The survival rate of cancer of the prostate has little to do with the type of treatment. Rather, it’s related to the biological nature of the malignancy. Some cancers are pussy cats, others raging...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
I’ve Emerged from the Hearing Loss Closet!
Why is it that we accept the fact that everyone should see their dentist twice a year to detect dental decay? That we should get regular eye examinations and a checkup by our family doctor once a year? But ironically we rarely, if ever, hear that we should do the same for our ears! So why is this? And why am I not going to tell anyone that I can now finally hear? By interviewing a number of experts my research revealed an interesting fact. Even in 2017 large numbers of North Americans continue to hide in the hearing loss closet. And I’m embarrassed to tell readers I’ve also been hiding in the same closet for years. But I’ve had a lot...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
Need Cataract Surgery? So What Should You Know?
Do you remember the Holiday Inn ad? It stated, “There Are No Surprises at the Holiday Inn.” But, unlike Holiday Inns, there’s no such thing as surprise-free or risk-free surgery. To get an update about Cataract surgery I interviewed Dr. Raymond Stein, Medical Director of the Bochner Eye Institute, and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Toronto. Today, by age 80, half of North Americans have developed cataracts. The only good treatment when visual loss finally affects quality of life is to have a foggy lens removed and replaced with another one. Today, due to improved surgical advances, it’s possibly the safest surgery performed. But I also receive reports from people who are...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Infection
I Hated Picking Peaches
Do you remember the line in the musical “Showboat”, the one that says, “It’s summertime and the living is easy”? Maybe it is for some people. But the worst summer I ever endured was during World War II. We all had to contribute to the war effort and my job was to pick peaches on a farm. But for years I had suffered from Hay Fever! Peaches and their fuzz were a perfect storm! Could I have avoided this allergy today? It’s estimated that 40 million North Americans now suffer from mild to severe allergies. Worse still, for some people, the allergy season never ends. And although there are several factors that trigger these allergic reactions, the main cause is pollen. The...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
Are Your Eyes Mismatched?
Leo Durocher, the fiery win-at-all-costs baseball player, and later manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, once remarked, “I never question the integrity of umpires. Their eyesight? Yes!” Durocher would have questioned their eyesight more if he had known they were suffering from aniseikonia. So, should anyone care about this condition? And why do so many suffer this visual problem when it can be corrected? To find out about aniseikonia I interviewed Dr. Peter Shaw who has been researching this condition for over 25 years. He mentioned one thing we know, that we are all born with a number of anatomical mismatches. For instance, one ear may be larger than the other. Or, one foot longer than its counterpart. But shouldn’t...Read More
Cardiovascular, Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Miscellaneous, Surgery
A Miner Will Save Millions from Blindness
Would I, as a doctor, ever expect to meet a miner? As Mark Twain remarked, “A mine is a hole in the ground with a liar at the top”. Luckily, I accepted an invitation to do just that, and discovered there is something new under the sun. This week, how “DIAGNOS”, a Canadian company in Montreal, has developed what’s called “computer assisted retinal analysis (CARA)”. This computer software will save millions of people around the world from blindness due to Type 2 diabetes. So, did a miner become a retinal expert? The slogan of DIAGNOS is “Beat it in a blink”. Patients simply look into a camera and a photo is taken of their retina, the back part of...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Gastroenterology, Medicine, Pain
Risks of Heartburn Drugs
What can the stomach tell us about the state of the nation’s health? Plenty! A report in the medical publication, “Life Extension”, states that 40 percent of North Americans suffer from heartburn every month! More appalling, 20 percent experience weekly attacks! So every year doctors write 119 million prescriptions for heartburn, generating 14 billion dollars in sales. But big sales can also mean big side-effects for unsuspecting medical consumers. What can go wrong? Proton-pump inhibitors (PPI’s) such as Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid can ease the feeling of a burning fire under the breastbone. It’s due to an over-indulgence in food and drink which pushes protein digestive enzymes and bile up into the lower end of the esophagus (food tube). This condition is...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Nutrition, Surgery, Vitamins
Do I Need Cataract Surgery?
Do I get a lot of E-mail? Yes, tons of it. Do I get letters? Practically never, particularly those without a return address. So I was surprised by a recent one. All I know is the writer lives in Lethbridge, Alberta, and is elderly. She has written that she wants to be an informed patient, so is asking for my stand on cataract surgery. “Ms. X” simply believed she needed reading glasses, but was told by an optometrist that she required cataract surgery. She remarks, “I hesitated, so he sent me to an ophthalmologist for a second opinion. He also agreed that surgery was needed, suggested I simply sign on the dotted line, then called, “Next patient, please”. But the writer asked...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
Glaucoma: Could Low Blood Pressure be a Cause?
Three million North Americans suffer from glaucoma, the second leading cause of blindness in North America. Glaucoma has been called the “sneak thief of sight” as half the people with this disease do not know they have it. Now Dr. Patrick Quaid, Head of the Guelph Vision Therapy Centre, says that physicians treating hypertension must be cautious that blood pressure doesn’t get too low. Fluid is continually forced into the eye to nourish the lens and other structures. It normally dribbles out of the eye at a controlled rate through a narrow channel. But with increasing age the control valve of this channel has an increased chance of becoming plugged. This increases the pressure within the eyeball, squeezes blood vessels, and...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
Is It ADHD, or a Problem With The Eye?
“I’ve just seen two images of the same person on the TV screen” my aging Mother complained years ago. She had developed double vision (DV). But what causes DV? And how many children suffering from attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) are being needlessly medicated when the trouble is in their eye? Dr. Patrick Quaid, an expert in double vision, is head of the Guelph Vision Therapy Centre. He says that double vision must be taken seriously as a diagnosis can range from brain tumour, concussion, inflammation of an artery, to simple dysfunction of ocular muscles. Fortunately, when adults notice DV, they know something is wrong that demands quick attention. But Dr. Quaid says children with ADHD often get either a delayed...Read More
Cancer, Cardiovascular, Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Genetics, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Tight Collar? It Increases Risk of Glaucoma
What's the best way to diagnose disease? Today, as never before, there are many scientific tests such as ultrasound, CT scans, MRIs and more blood and genetics tests available every year. But is it possible to spot a potential disease without using these expensive procedures? Instead, how about the KISS approach (keep it simple, stupid)? Researchers at Britain's Warwick University report in The British Journal of Cancer that prostate cancer kills about 250,000 men every year. But who are the most likely to develop this disease late in life? After studying males with prostate cancer, and those without this disease, researchers discovered an interesting physical finding. Males whose index finger was longer than their ring finger were 33 percent less likely to...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Vitamins
This Week, Monumental Photos to Save Your Life
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, had the misfortune of losing her head. Fortunately, the rest of us still have ours. That's fortunate because doctors are increasingly using the eye to diagnose generalized diseases. In fact, early detection of problems through the eye can prevent heart attack, stroke and save legs from amputation. Today, dramatic photos, just posted on my website, may save millions of lives. The human body has 60,000 miles of arteries and veins, the same length as walking twice around the world. But there's only one place where we can see blood vessels, in the retina, at the back of the eye, just a square centimeter in size. Dr. David Ingvoldstad, a U.S. ophthalmologist and authority on...Read More
