Infection, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Go Ahead and Catch the Travel Bug
William Shakespeare wrote, “In the night, imagining some fear, how easy is a bush supposed a bear!” For many families having lost loved ones to the coronavirus, this has been a devastating year. The death numbers are broadcast relentlessly. Small wonder people have become paranoid about travelling. But does this anxiety make sense? Normally airports are chaotic and unpleasant. Joyless crowds stand toe-to-toe in long lineups through insufferable screenings and baggage checks, only to be herded like sheep onto cramped planes. But now could be the best time to travel. Airports are not crowded and much cleaner. Some flights leave the middle seat empty – a welcome move. Skeptics worry about contact with the coronavirus while seated for hours breathing shared air on...Read More
Infection
Hepatitis C Is Silent Like the Fog
It’s a shame when you are slowly dying from a disease you don’t know you have. To boot, what a tragedy if there is a cure. Yet this ignorance is a reality for many aging boomers who don’t know that they are infected with the hepatitis C virus. For these unfortunate people, their health exists in a state of fog, when it could be all sunshine and roses. Anyone can contract hepatitis C. Infection occurs through transmission of tainted blood. It’s rare to be infected today through the healthcare system, as we’ve gotten much better at screening blood products and of course sterilizing medical equipment. Today, it is likely the reuse of injection needles by users of street drugs that leads...Read More
Infection, Vitamins
How Safe Is It To Send Your Child Back To School?
Parents are wondering if it’s safe to send children back to school when so many are still becoming infected with coronavirus. What are the factors to consider? And what can parents do to help ensure children are protected? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reports the academic, physical, and mental benefits of in-person learning outweigh coronavirus risks. Negative impacts on children during school closures include social isolation, substance abuse, depression and suicidal ideation. In fact, the detrimental effects of children missing out on school are well known, even before COVID-19. Millions of youngsters around the world suffer lifelong social and economic consequences when lacking access to quality education. But when it’s our children, the list of negatives grows longer by the hour...Read More
Dental, Infection
Is It Now Safe to Visit the Dentist?
Visiting the dentist is rarely a high priority, even in the best of times. We can always find reasons for delay. But what level of coronavirus threat should justify more waiting? There is increasing concern that all these closures of “non-essential” healthcare service providers may, in some cases, be doing more harm than good. There’s serious concern regarding delays in some cancer treatments. And some heart attack victims have also been delayed in getting help until it is too late. However, it’s understandable that non-emergency dental care has been on hold. As time goes by though, we must heed the importance of a regular dental cleaning and check-up. And many will need more involved dental work. So as dental offices reopen, how...Read More
Infection, Lifestyle
Can Flushing the Toilet Spread the Virus?
Why do so many people leave the toilet seat up all the time? After all, it’s not the most attractive display object. Now, convincing medical evidence confirms we should cover the potty before flushing. Researchers at Yangzhou University in China utilized computer modeling to show that flushing toilets does not keep all viruses and water in the bowl. They report in the journal Physics of Fluids that spray can fly as high as three feet! Ji-Xiang Wang, one of the researchers, added that the velocity of the spray could be even higher at public toilets. Readers will understand that researching toilet seats has not been high priority for this column. But years ago, a female reader triggered curiosity about potties. She wrote,...Read More
Infection
Lyme Disease – The Black-Legged Tick Can be Deadly
What a relief to be outside after being isolated by the coronavirus. But beware! Warmer weather means that ticks are in the woods around you. Or even in your own back yard. A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows, a tick bite can trigger diverse and deadly consequences. One case involved a 37-year-old man complaining of flu symptoms, fever, sore throat and joint pain. He had been in a tick-infested area several weeks earlier but did not recall a tick bite. His doctor diagnosed a viral infection and the patient improved. Weeks later heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and chest pains sent him to the emergency room. There was no evidence of the typical tick rash. But an ECG showed...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Infection
Sometimes It Takes an Apple to Hit You on the Head
Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity when a falling apple hit him on the head. Now, as the healthcare industry scrambles, an enterprising fruit farmer has discovered a smart way to resolve the shortage of masks. Using technology built to protect consumers from fruit-borne listeria or other bacteria, food industry equipment can be repurposed to sterilize masks in 30 seconds, with tests showing that masks can be cleaned and recycled 50 times. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the bacteria E. coli 0157:H7 is responsible for 73,000 infections and 63 deaths every year. It produces a toxin that causes bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain, lasting 2-3 days, or longer for some people. E. coli 0157:H7 is...Read More
Infection, Vitamins
Ten Cents a Dance: Or Twenty Cents to Fight the Virus
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGOc8f5kd6w[/embedyt] How many readers recall, during World War II, seeing military personnel dancing with women for “ten cents a dance”? Today, we face a different foe, coronavirus (COVID-19). But individuals can decrease the risk of infection and death from the virus. And companies, the loss of employees and the chaos that will create. The cost? Just twenty cents a day. So, why is it not being done? By now, you have heard over-and-over the many ways to practice sound hygiene. Like washing your hands frequently. Keeping distance from people. No more hugging and kissing. Coughing into your sleeve. Avoiding large public gatherings. But more, COVID-19 is changing our way of life. We will be quarantined if we travel, assuming we can even...Read More
Infection, Philosophy, Vitamins
More Research Is Killing COVID-19 Victims
Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, wrote “There is a stupid corner in the brain of every wise man.” The best current example is the appalling lack of action by the Chinese government to fight COVID-19 with high doses of vitamin c – both as a clinical treatment for those who are infected and as a preventative measure to help halt the virus. I applaud the doctor in a Wuhan hospital who announced the start of a randomized, triple-blind clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of 12-24 grams/day of intravenous vitamin C (IVC). But the results won’t be known for months. Meantime, people die needlessly. Why do Chinese health authorities not know that we’ve already got enough research? Why does the WHO, with its...Read More
Infection, Vitamins
A Planeload of Vitamin C to China?
One of my sons has been in the travel business for years. Today he said, “We’ve cancelled all of our tours to China due to the coronavirus scare.” I replied, “That’s unfortunate, but if we don’t send tourists just now, perhaps we should be sending vitamin C. I’ve been arguing for years that high doses of vitamin C is a lifesaver in boosting immune system performance.” The question arose, what would I do if a family member contracted the coronavirus? Last week, several university professors and international viral disease experts reported ways to treat coronavirus infection. Their unanimous opinion was that high doses of intravenous vitamin C would be effective in controlling infection. In China many people have decided to use Chinese...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Infection
People Are Dying Needlessly of Coronavirus
Why “needless” deaths from this threatening virus? Because doctors, health authorities, hospital administrators and politicians have not read history. Not even the Chinese! This week several members of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service (OMNS) were asked, “How would you treat the coronavirus?” Here are opinions of experts who study the potential of nutrients to fight disease. Dr. Andrew W. Saul, an international expert on vitamin therapy, says, “The coronavirus can be dramatically slowed or stopped completely with the immediate widespread use of high doses of vitamin C. Bowel tolerance levels of C taken in divided doses throughout the day, is a clinically proven antiviral, without equal.” Saul adds, “Dr. Robert F. Cathcart, who had extensive experience treating viral diseases remarked, ‘I have...Read More
Infection, Lifestyle, Pediatrics
Are we keeping our kids too clean?
Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence movement, popularized the expression, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Any doctor would agree that cleanliness is on the pathway to health nirvana. But are we going too far in keeping young children isolated from common germs? Are some parents doing a disservice to their youngsters by keeping them too clean? For decades, immunologist have been studying whether exposing young children to a little dirt might strengthen the ability of their immune systems to fight infection later in life. Research by Sir Mel Greaves, Professor of Cell Biology at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, England, shows that children raised in cleaner environments are more likely to have weakened immune systems. But experts are concerned an...Read More
Infection
Why a Sore Throat and a Scratched Knee Might Kill You
A book called, “The Microbe Hunters”, thrilled me as a boy. It explained how bacterial diseases were responsible for killing millions of people in the past – and how years later antibiotics saved them. But even so, the World Health Organization (WHO) still warns that a sore throat or a scratched knee could kill us. The best defense is a strong immune system. Dr. Margaret Chan, former Director-General of WHO, says we are at the end of modern medicine. She claims there is now a global crisis, a slow-motion tsunami, that has been building for years and is getting worse. The problem, super bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. Chan reports that superbugs are great global travellers. They now haunt hospitals...Read More
Cancer, Infection, Lungs
Do You Want to Know What’s in Your Ducts?
Do you have dirty ducts? When did you last look? And while regular cleaning of your ducts may be important for your homeowners insurance policy, what might your ducts have to do with your health? Highly respected authorities on household air quality have studied the relationship between cleaning air ducts and your health. Years ago, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) investigated whether cleaning air ducts leads to healthier air quality in homes, and they concluded it didn’t. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted tests that showed, whether air ducts are clean or dirty, virtually the same concentration of dust can be found in the air. This is because dust and dirt tend to stick to the vents and filters, not...Read More
Infection
I’ve Never Forgotten One Grave
Today, we face a recurrence of measles because some parents have refused to have their children vaccinated. This error reminded me of a time several years ago when I interviewed Professor Etienne-Emile Baulieu, a researcher at the famous Pasteur Institute in Paris. Today, parents and children should be grateful for the discoveries of this great scientist. Before Pasteur’s time, the world was ravaged by plagues. Women in childbirth died of puerperal fever, and surgical operations frequently caused death due to infection. Not too long ago infections had control over us, now we usually, though not always, have control over them. Pasteur’s initial experiments showed that cultures of organisms lost their strength with age. And by inoculating fowl with weak organisms, he could...Read More
Infection
What You May Not Know about Vaccines
Every year readers ask me if I get flu shots. I reply, I don’t. I rely on high daily doses of vitamin C to build up my immune system. But I may be wrong. So, I’ve sought the opinion of experts in the field. Their primary message is that informed consent is vital. Most people believe vaccines would not be advised unless researchers and doctors deemed them safe. But I’ve often stressed, there’s no such thing as 100 percent safe surgery. The same is true of vaccines. That’s why 3.6 billion dollars has been awarded to families due to the complications of vaccines. Here is a typical parent’s story. “My child was healthy, was given a vaccine and then something happened.” The...Read More
Infection
Debunking Travel Myths
What’s the worst of times when travelling? It’s when you’re sitting on a bus tour 100 miles from the next stop and you begin to suffer the bowel spasms of traveller’s diarrhea. If the worst scenario happens, it’s a moment you will never forget. But this common risk, and the chance of acquiring other infections, can be decreased by ridding yourself of several travellers’ myths. Myth: Only in the Amazon jungle do you have to worry about mosquito-transmitted diseases. Fact: That’s not so. In the jungle, mosquitoes spread disease to humans by biting infected monkeys. In a cafe in Paris, Rome or Istanbul, mosquitoes infect you after biting infected humans. Myth: So, to prevent this infection in a Paris cafe, you’ll have two glasses of chardonnay. Fact: I...Read More
Infection, Medicine
The Right Answers about Flu Could Save Your Life
“Get the shot”, is the message now the flu season is here. But how effective is the vaccine? What is the chance of a mismatch? Are there serious complications? Should you get your shot at the local pharmacy? Or treat yourself with over-the-counter products? Should you rely on natural remedies? The right answers could save your life. How Effective is the Vaccine? Australia’s flu season, during its winter and our summer, usually predicts what happens in North America. And during Australia’s past winter, there were 215,280 cases. Dr. Ralph Campbell, reporting in Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, says this increase was most likely due to a vaccine mismatch. In effect, it was the wrong vaccine for the current virus. But suppose researchers achieve a...Read More
Infection
Want a Pet? The Risk and Benefit.
Who doesn’t love the pet who lavishes unconditional affection through thick and thin? President Harry Truman, while coping with the lonely responsibilities of his job, remarked, “If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog!” But there are risks and responsibilities in pet ownership. It’s a matter worth considering since about 57 percent of North Americans own a pet. In the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Paul Cherniack and Angela Cherniack discuss some of the infectious risks in owning pets. Yet it’s amazing that, in spite of these risks, studies indicate doctors rarely ask patients about pet ownership of dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, reptiles and rodents. So what are the main infections to consider? Cats are most likely to infect humans...Read More
Infection
Swimming In 20 Gallons of Pee!
Have you ever wondered what you’re swimming in when someone invites you to a pool party? I’ve always found it hard to turn down these weekend soirees. The weather is usually good, you enjoy cocktails talking to friends, and then a refreshing dip in the pool. Now, an eye-boggling report by Jennifer Clopton in the publication WebMD, shows there’s more lurking in the pool than you imagined. Clopton reports that Indiana Health Officials had to close a water park when two children received chemical burns from chlorine in the water! This resulted when the chlorine equipment malfunctioned. At least this is a fixable problem. But Clopton’s research also shows that fixing human behaviour poses a greater challenge. Her study shows that many...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
Infection, Vitamins
Do I Get a Flu Shot?
Sir William Osler, one of the world’s great doctors, suggested a treatment for the common cold. He said, “Hang your hat on the bedpost, go to bed, start sipping whisky, and stop when you see two hats!” He was stressing humorously that there wasn’t any sure treatment for the common cold. Now, during the flu season, I’m often asked if I get a flu shot. But there’s a big difference between a cold and the flu. So read this column with reservation, and remember I am not your doctor. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi received the Nobel Prize in 1937 for his research on vitamin C. At the time vitamin C could only be extracted from adrenal glands and massive amounts of orange juice. Life...Read More
Genitourinary, Infection
In Europe, Nobody Chides “We Know Where You’re Going”
Have you ever heard of UTI (urinary tract infection) Drops? I doubt it, as these natural herbal drops have just recently been imported from Europe to treat troublesome, acute and chronic E Coli urinary tract infection. UTI Drops have been used successfully in Europe for over 20 years and have now been approved by Health Canada. So why are these natural herbs so effective in combating E Coli, the bacteria that’s responsible for most cases of bladder infection (cystitis)? Every year 30 to 50 million North Americans, mostly women, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, suffer from cystitis. Few ever forget the first attack of severe pain on urination, fever and the constant rushing to the bathroom, or the...Read More
Infection, Lifestyle, Medicine, Sex, Women's Health
“DILI” Is Killing More People Every Year
North Americans must rid themselves of a major misconception. Too much Cabernet Sauvignon is not the only way to damage the liver. Today liver injury is being caused by prescription drugs, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, and some herbal supplements. More than 1,000 drugs and supplements have been associated with drug induced liver injury (DILI) which is increasing every year. Everything we consume, with both good and toxic ingredients, are eventually filtered by the liver. This organ has great regenerative powers, but it is not indestructible. Moreover, advanced age and being a woman can decrease the liver’s ability to metabolize toxic products, resulting in DILI. For example, many people take Tylenol (acetaminophen). It’s an effective pain killer if label instructions are followed, but there’s...Read More
Infection, Pain, Surgery
Appendicitis: It Strikes Kings and Us Mortals
Today, surgery for appendicitis takes a back seat to bypass surgery, knee and hip replacement. But every day in North America at least one person dies due to an attack of appendicitis. This week, an unusual case of appendicitis. And how did England nearly lose a King? A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal tells the story of a 15 year old Philippine boy who immigrated to Canada at age 11. For four months he suffered every week from abdominal pain. Eventually, due to increased discomfort he was seen in emergency. Physical examination and blood studies were suggestive of acute appendicitis, and ultrasound revealed the organ was swollen. Laparoscopic surgery was performed, the ruptured appendix removed and the abscess drained. The...Read More
