Endocrine, Miscellaneous
Can a Fart Kill ?
Ig Nobel prizes are prestigious awards given each year at Harvard University to those engaged in strange scientific research. For instance, Canadian researchers received the award for showing that small farts, known as fast repetitive ticks (FRTs), can be lethal. But why would the Vatican receive one? Rectal gas (flatus) happens to kings and the rest of us, and is a constant reminder that we’re all human. And when the urge to pass flatus happens in delicate situations, we would all prefer to be in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It’s never been easy to obtain medical information on flatus. After all, what doctor wants to be known as a specialist on farts? But my research reveals that most people pass...Read More
Miscellaneous
Financial Justice For All Disabled Canadians
"Do you know there’s financial help for your child?” I recently asked a friend. Like many new parents he and his wife had expected a healthy child. But the fickle finger of fate had ordained otherwise. Now, several years later, they were struggling with the medical, financial and emotional burdens of caring for a child with cerebral palsy, a lifetime disability. Unfortunately, many families are unaware of the new government project providing financial security for all disabled Canadians. Cerebral palsy is one of the most common congenital disorders of childhood. In Canada and the U.S there are over 500,000 children and adults who suffer from this tragic problem. The way cerebral palsy affects children varies. Some children suffer involuntary and uncontrolled movements,...Read More
Miscellaneous
Re Chopping Wood In Northern Canada
I recently suggested the best treatment for OxyContin addicts was Course 101, Chopping Wood in Northern Canada. I asked for a reaction and got it, a ton of e-mails! ML writes, “The things I love about Canada, our compassion and understanding, are also the things I dislike. The back of the hand approach is surely needed. I totally agree with everything you said in the column. I hope others in powerful positions take notice.” GT responds, “I’m a corrections officer. I’ve also seen inmates joking about how they’ve fooled doctors to get large supplies of methadone. I agree with your idea of chopping trees or have them suffer withdrawal in a segregation cell.” From Oshawa, “The methadone clinic here is...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine, Miscellaneous
Rx For OxyContin Addicts:
What will happen to the 200,000 or more Canadian OxyContin addicts now that this opioid narcotic is no longer available? For years these people have embarked on a willful act of self-destruction. Isn’t it about time for society to get its priorities straight? To care more for those who have lived a good lifestyle, paid their taxes and when dying of cancer, suffer needless agony because there’s no money for more palliative centers in this country. Those who are rallying to help OxyContin addicts are making a series of illogical errors. Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin, also made a blunder. It spent needless money producing OxyNEO, an opioid version of OxyContin that resists crushing or liquefying so addicts can’t snort or...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Why Couldn’t This Woman Go To Church?
Several years ago I landed at Nairobi airport in Kenya after many hours in the air. It was an uneventful flight, but one elderly traveller had encountered an embarrassing problem. On arrival, she could not put on her shoes due to swelling (edema) of her feet. So why do legs and feet swell in flight, and when is it dangerous? Also what prevented one woman from going to church? Nearly everyone encounters swollen legs and feet following a long car or plane trip. It’s also more likely to occur on a hot day and to surgeons when standing for prolonged surgical procedures. Normally edema is prevented because our bodies maintain a delicate balancing act between the pressure inside and outside...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
A Pool Table Or a Natural Remedy For Sleep and Snoring?
How much Tiger is in your tank as you start the day? Not much, if you’ve been tossing and turning at night due to sleep apnea. Or if your partner has shaken the foundation with his or her snoring. Insomnia and snoring affect millions of North Americans and can be associated with serious health problems. Now, a natural remedy, “Bell Sound Sleep”, helps this troubling dilemma. You’re in excellent company if you suffer from insomnia. Napoleon, Sir Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison all tried to count sheep without success. Others, such as Marilyn Monroe, used increasing amounts of prescription sleeping pills, with tragic results. Sleep deprivation can also have far-reaching consequences for our environment. It’s believed to have been a...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
Was I Wrong About Losing Weight?
Was my suggestion several years ago of ways to fight the obesity epidemic provocative? Since nothing was working, I proposed using money as an incentive, and tax the obese. After all, for centuries money has been a great motivator. In fact, those with millions sometimes cheat, steal and lie to get more. But no one thought I should be awarded the Nobel Prize for this idea. Some readers said I should go back to medical school and learn something about eating disorders. Or they wondered if I had even graduated. Others denounced me as obesophobic, and said I should get the stupidity award for suggesting such a demeaning tax. But was I a dunce, or just a trifle ahead of the times?...Read More
Miscellaneous
What Did You Learn Last Year?
How much did you learn from this column last year? It’s always the hope of a medical journalist that at least some medical topics didn’t go in one ear and out the other. There’s the other possibility, however, of a lousy teacher. Let’s see how many of these questions you can get right. 1 - The millimeter wave machine, used in the U.S, is a safe human body scanner for airport security. But flyers should refuse to have their bodies exposed to “backscatter” devices and demand that they have a body pat down instead. 2 - The “Baby-Time Mini-Microscope Saliva Ovulation Tester” accurately predicts the best time to achieve pregnancy. But because the company is small, its product can only...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
A Quiz: What’s The Latest Low Carb Product?
How many readers can answer this question? What kills more North Americans than anything else? I’d bet many would answer heart disease or cancer. Authorities claim heart disease is the number one killer. But I’m convinced that calories are the main culprit killing millions of overweight North Americans. Today, let’s see if the following clues help you name the latest low carb product to combat the high-calorie diet. The answer may surprise you. The first clue; this product contains no hidden sugar, a huge benefit for our sweet-loving society. Today, it’s easy to consume sugar without knowing it. For instance, how many are aware that a 10 ounce cola drink contains eight teaspoons of sugar, or realize the...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
A Natural Remedy for
How often do you feel guilty about cheating, not during a card or golf game or trying to pay less income tax, but time and again feeling guilty about cheating on how much you eat? Since readers are always asking me for more natural ways to treat medical problems, here’s one to decrease guilt on cheat-eating days. It’s so easy to “cheat eat”, particularly on special occasions. How often do you consider that there are 14 teaspoons of sugar in a piece of cherry pie? Or, have the willpower to say no to the huge amount of calories on the table? So is it possible to cheat and not gain weight when facing a meal that is impossible to resist? The...Read More
Heroin, Miscellaneous, Pain
Who Says That Heroin is an Illegal Painkiller?
The Globe and Mail was wrong in a recent column about the insite heroin clinic in Vancouver, when it stated that heroin was an illegal drug. Its editors have forgotten that when I wrote for The Globe and Mail, I spent thousands of dollars placing ads in the newspaper during a campaign to legalize heroin. And that Jake Epp, The Minister of Health, announced on Dec 4, 1984 that heroin would be legalized to treat terminal cancer pain. But what happened after that? Obituary columns daily report that loved ones “passed away peacefully”. But this is a downright lie. Most people still die in pain. More palliative care centers are desperately needed in this country. In 1979 I wrote that English doctors had...Read More
Miscellaneous, Surgery
The Best Time to Have an Operation
A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says it’s much safer to time your sickness. If not, there is a good risk of ending up with inferior medical care. So when should you get ill? And what is the prime time to have an operation? Jesse Gruman, president of the Washington, DC. based non-profit Center for Advancing Health, says, “Anybody who’s been in hospital knows that it’s a kind of banker’s hours after six o’clock. You feel really vulnerable if something happens at night because of the sparseness and responsiveness of the night staff.” But is this also a problem in Canada? Dr. David Wilson, president of the Canadian Society of Hospital Medicine, isn’t reassuring. He says, “In comparison with...Read More
Miscellaneous, Pain
BioSil: The Natural Way to Prevent and Treat Fragile Bones
What causes the holes in Swiss cheese? I’m sure the Swiss know the answer, but I don’t. But I do know what makes holes in bones, causing osteoporosis. Today millions of North Americans are taking prescription drugs to treat this devastating disease. But there’s a safer, natural remedy, BioSil tm, to prevent “holey” bones. The figures are frightening. Studies show that one in four women and one in eight men over age 50 have osteoporosis. And with an aging population we can expect more cases in the years ahead. Who develops this crippling disease depends on several factors. Genetics plays a role in certain families. So does being thin, small boned and of white or Asian ancestry. Smokers, those who take three...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Consumers Kill Campbell’s Poster Child
If your company makes soup, what’s the best way to shoot yourself in the foot? Try selling soup with a little less salt. In 2009 Campbell Soup made a brave and healthy decision. Each serving of its soup would have 32 percent less sodium to help tame one of North America’s big killers, hypertension. Now the foolish consumer has forced Campbell Soup to put the sodium back again. For years the medical profession has lambasted food manufacturers for loading our food with salt, thus stoking the epidemic of cardiovascular disease. High blood pressure is the leading cause of death in the world. It’s estimated that 25 percent of North Americans have hypertension and five million Canadians suffer from it. It’s a...Read More
Miscellaneous
Have A Problem With Doctors? But What About Doctors?
Do doctors get better medical care? Today, patients frequently complain that doctors don’t spend enough time with them. Or never communicate after diagnosis. But at a class reunion of The Harvard Medical School I discovered that doctors who are often specialists themselves don’t always end up with adequate care from their colleagues. Several of my former classmates had undergone surgery after seeking the best surgeons and hospitals available. It was uncanny how many had suffered bad results. But high on their list of complaints was the lack of empathy from colleagues. One classmate had a long history of neck pain. Years earlier he had suffered a sudden blow to the head which had left him with a “pins and needles” feeling in...Read More
Miscellaneous
What You Should Know About Pre-Diseases
Samuel Johnson once remarked, “Nothing sharpens the wit so much as the knowledge you’re going to be hanged in the morning.” Today, doctors can predict when medical endings will happen and what can be done to prevent them. But too many patients are using the wrong prescription to treat “pre-disease” problems. In the past, doctors could inform patients they had diabetes, hypertension or a fractured bone. Today, they’ve moved a notch higher and often are able to predict these ailments before they strike. But this ability has pitfalls. What’s the negative? It’s the possibility of being over-treated for a number of common diseases. For instance, blood studies can now tell patients they have “pre-diabetes”. And studies...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Two Words, Irresponsibly Permissive, Tell a Story
How did this country, and the U.S., become such drug-addicted societies? A recent report states that the pain killer, Oxycontin is now the number one drug used by addicts in North America. But whether it’s this drug, crack cocaine, crystal meth, or others, the result is always the same, wasted lives, needless deaths, crime, and tons of taxpayers’ money that should be used for productive purposes. It’s a cop-out when Ministers of Health claim there’s no easy answer. What’s appalling is how Oxycontin , so ill used, is so easily available in Ontario alone. In 2008 provincial pharmacies dispensed prescriptions for Oxycontin that were more than double the national average. Then in 2009-10 the Ontario Drug plan processed 3.9...Read More
Miscellaneous, Nutrition
Do not Forget Double Mashed Potatoes
What shocks my friends when I order a “blue” steak? No, it’s not the fact that it’s extra rare that gets their attention. It’s the fact that I also always tell the waiter, “Don’t forget the double order of mashed potatoes!” Now, a report from the University of California shows I’m not committing a mortal, dietary sin. In fact, potatoes can even help weight loss. Critics of mashed potatoes contend they have a high glycemic index (GI). This means that potatoes are quickly broken down into sugar, triggering a rapid increase in blood sugar and production of insulin. But it’s a myth that the potato’s high GI is responsible for the epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes....Read More
Miscellaneous, Surgery
Surgery Minus Complications
Would you jump at the chance of back surgery that has zero risk of post-operative complications, is free of pain and provides relief of all your symptoms? Or would you choose a back operation that provides none of these guarantees? The first choice may sound like being sold swamp land in Florida. But a recent study shows this is not science fiction. Dr. Rachelle Buchbinder is a researcher at Monash University in Malvern, Australia. She recently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine about an operation called vertebroplasty. During this surgery medical “cement” was injected into a fractured spinal bone to provide extra strength to it. The surgeons hoped that this approach would relieve back pain because compression fractures...Read More
Miscellaneous
Radioactive fallout and potassium iodide
Millions of North Americans are suddenly aware of potassium iodide (PI) since Japan's nuclear plants started spewing out radioactive material. But how much will PI protect us from radioactive particles? Who should take it, and who should not? During a nuclear explosion or meltdown, radioactive iodine (I-131) enters the atmosphere and it has a malignant effect on the thyroid gland. The thyroid normally obtains iodine from iodized salt and shellfish to produce the hormone thyroxin. This hormone acts much like the accelerator of a car, controlling heart rate, temperature and energy level. Too much of it causes hyperthyroidism and too little, hypothyroidism. But the thyroid gland isn't particular where it obtains iodine. It also has no way of distinguishing between radioactive I-131 from...Read More
Cancer, Miscellaneous
I told My Son – Don’t Let Them Do It!
What’s the biggest problem facing airline travellers today? Ask this question and many would say it’s the long wait at airports, removing shoes, extensive screening procedures and that “Damn Pat-Down” by airport personnel. But during the public uproar about airport security some travellers will make a huge mistake. The U.S is replacing many metal detectors with more sophisticated equipment, better described as Personal Exposure Devices. In effect, the technology can detect articles beneath the clothing along with you-know- what, and this infuriates many travellers. There are two types of scanners. The millimeter wave machine is safe, creating an image of the body by using electromagnetic waves. The other, “Backscatter” devices, use low energy X-rays to produce a picture of the...Read More
Miscellaneous
How Smart Are You Starting 2011?
How much did you learn from this column in 2010? I like to believe that it makes you wiser about medical matters. But let’s see how much sank in by answering these true or false questions. And did you miss the column that could save millions of lives? 1 – Cat lovers are less likely to encounter winter blues than those who don’t have “Whiskers” sitting on their lap. They also have fewer headaches, less chance of catching a cold and sleep better. 2 – One percent of Caucasians and 30 percent of those of African descent have a gene that increases the rate at which codeine changes into morphine. This has caused respiratory death in children following tonsillectomy. 3...Read More
Dermatology, Miscellaneous
New Japanese Sponge Treats Acne and Damaged Skin
What comes to mind when someone mentions Japan? Most people envision Japanese superlative products such as cars and electronic devices. But North Americans must expand their vision of this country. The Japanese have now taken a Nobel Prize winning discovery and developed a dual action product to fight acne, brown spots, wrinkles and damaged skin. Acne has plagued the rich and the not so rich for years. Brad Pitt appears to be flawless, but look closer and you will see countless pock marks. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Leonardo Di Caprio have also suffered from acne as well as millions of the less celebrated. Acne affects up to 85 percent of young people and 11 percent of adults 25 and older. The...Read More
Miscellaneous
Medical Myths That Should Die And A New Web Site
A sage African American once remarked, "It's not the things you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's the things you know for sure, that ain’t so". So here are some medical myths that just ain’t so. Myth # 1 - Wearing a copper bracelet cures arthritis. Those who promote copper bracelets say that copper is absorbed through the skin and helps cartilage regenerate. But this notion has never been proven. There’s no evidence that copper regenerates damaged cartilage to reduce pain. Our bodies need only small amounts of copper and we get this in our daily diet by eating vegetables such as potatoes, beans and peas. Copper is also present in nuts and grains such as wheat and...Read More
Cancer, Miscellaneous
xZubi Device Protects You and Your Children From Dirty Electricity
Last week I reported that “dirty electricity”, generated by computers and other electrical devices, has been linked to unexplained aches and pains, depression, sleepiness, ringing in the ears, headaches, and a foggy brain. And that an international group of scientists believes that electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from dirty electricity can cause an increase in brain malignancy. Dirty electricity is produced when transformers convert clean 60 Hertz household current into low voltage power for electronic devices. This creates micro surges of electricity that contain up to 2,500 X the energy of a conventional 60 Hertz system. This electrical pollution causes a negative effect on our health. Dirty electricity is bad for everyone, particularly children. A Swedish study reported that teens who use...Read More
