Genetics
If Clinton Becomes President Will Her Hair Turn Gray?
What is it that makes our hair turn several shades of gray as we get older? I’m sure many of us recall the first streaks of gray and realize we are older whether we like it or not. It’s a time when we start to wonder, “Is it age that’s causing the gray? Or have we been doing something wrong?” Maybe too much stress or excessive work? Or is the result, according to one 19th century dermatologist, due to overindulgence in sexual appetite? But why will Hilary Clinton never have white hair if she wins the White House? We’ve all heard stories about people going gray overnight due to overwhelming anxiety. For instance, there are historical reports that this happened to...Read More
Cardiovascular, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
Are Hens An Endangered Species?
Headlines fool a lot of people. In March 1984 the cover of Time Magazine caught everyone’s attention. It read “Cholesterol, Now the Bad News”. It reported that cholesterol had been proven deadly and our diet should never be the same again. Researchers have since found little or no correlation between cholesterol in our food and our blood cholesterol. But since eggs contain more cholesterol than most other foods, hens have taken a brutal beating. So why have North American Egg Associations failed to defend hens more vigorously? And why have they ignored scientific facts about heart attack? At one point it looked like the hens were getting a welcome break. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) has since ruled that it...Read More
Cancer
Waiting to Treat Prostate Cancer?
Doctors have stressed for years it’s vital to treat all cancers early to increase the chance of cure. But one rogue malignancy rarely obeys the rules. Now, a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says, “active surveillance” is increasingly used to treat prostate cancer. The big question is how many patients want to wait when told they have a malignancy? But why is this currently a choice? Autopsies show that 50 percent of men over age 59 have prostate cancer, and three in four over 85. One in seven North Americans will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, yet only one in every 28 men will die of it. Obviously, not all need to be treated. Why does this...Read More
Cancer, Medicine, Pain
Why Cancer Patients Will Suffer to Protect the Lives of Addicts
How history repeats itself! Today, politicians are once again ignoring the pain of terminal cancer patients. At the same time, they are shooting themselves in the foot by making illogical remarks about pain. This human folly takes me back 37 years. In January 1979, I wrote a New Year’s resolution in this column to petition the government to legalize medical heroin to ease the agony of terminal cancer patients. I knew that heroin had been used in English hospitals for 90 years, so why not have this painkiller available in North America? But rather than being applauded for my compassion, all hell broke loose. One well-known cancer specialist labelled me “a misinformed headline-seeking journalist”. The Cancer Society argued that morphine was as...Read More
Gastroenterology, Lifestyle, Medicine
An Update on the Risks of Heartburn Drugs
Pogo, the cartoon character, was right when he remarked, “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.” A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that North Americans are devouring PPIs (proton pump inhibitors). These drugs decrease the amount of hydrochloric acid in the stomach to ease heartburn. But, as always, medical consumers tend to overdo a good thing and trigger a number of unintended consequences. Numbers tell the story. A few years ago doctors prescribed PPIs, such as Prevacid, Nexium and Priosec, to over 4 million Canadians and 15 million in the U.S. Now, the number is higher as some PPIs can be obtained over-the-counter. The cost? Over 80 billion! The winners are the owners of big...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Keeping Well While Cruising
I should hate being at sea. In 1952, during my first trip as a young ship’s surgeon, I sailed to Germany to bring persons displaced by the war to Canada. I did not know that during the voyage I would have to remove the Captain of his command, for medical reasons. Nor did I realize how many medical problems I would encounter with 800 very ill passengers. Still, I’ve always loved being at sea. Now I’ve just returned from a cardiology seminar aboard a cruise to Alaska. During it I pondered how to keep well while cruising. First, get rid of misconceptions. Some people decide not to cruise for fear of Norovirus infection. But such infections are rare...Read More
Surgery
Unexpected Complications of Joint Surgery
It’s been said that, “All would be well if there were no buts.” Unfortunately, life is full of “buts”. A prime example is joint surgery. Today, an increasing number of people are being relieved of chronic pain by hip and knee replacements. Others are being helped by lesser laparoscopic procedures. But patients should be aware that these are major operations sometimes associated with unintended consequences. For instance, several years ago Dr. Justin de Beer, an orthopedic surgeon at the Henderson site of Hamilton Health Services in Hamilton, Ontario, reported this unexpected finding. A worrying number of patients after hip and knee replacements had suffered heart attacks following the operation. The majority of these coronary attacks occurred within three to five days of...Read More
Cardiovascular, Vitamins
What They Don’t Tell You about Baldness and Heart Attack
A Czech proverb says, “A good man grows gray and a rascal bald”. And Thomas Dekker wrote in “The Gull’s Hornbook” in 1609, “How ugly is a bald pate! It looks like a face wanting a nose”. Now, a Japanese report says that men with baldness should be less concerned about how it affects their looks. Rather, is the lack of hair associated with increased risk of coronary attack? The Japanese findings were published online in the British Medical Journal, “Open”. The study involved 40,000 males whose hair pattern was graded as either frontal, crown-top baldness or a combination of the two. The conclusion was that not all bald men are created equal. Men with frontal baldness had a 22 percent increased...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Sex
The Big T: Could It Get Me to 95 +?
Should aging males use testosterone therapy to increase overall health and longevity? It’s a question I’ve pondered after interviewing Dr. Malcolm Crowthers, an early pioneer of testosterone therapy, in London, England, years ago. Now, Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, Clinical Professor at The Harvard Medical School, agrees the benefits of “big T” should not be denied to men, even those with prostate cancer. And would big T get me to 95 +, I wonder? I vividly remember talking to Crowther’s patients. They were happy campers, hoping to be shot by a jealous lover at age 95! But sex is only part of the big T story. Low testosterone is present in 40 percent of men over age 45. Its loss is associated...Read More
Lifestyle, Women's Health
Wired Bras, Unwatchful Parents And Summer Tragedies
An African proverb says “There is only one kind of common sense, and 40 varieties of lunacy”. Unfortunately, this summer will again prove it right. There’s also an old song, “Summer Time and the Living is Easy”. But it’s theme can be a prelude to disaster. Every summer what’s supposed to be fun turns into a lifetime as a quadriplegic, or with other severe injuries. And it happens to all ages. It is mind-boggling that every year 1,400 children drown in wading pools!!! It could not happen if parents and grandparents were watching children every minute by the water. Women can fall victim to an unusual injury while water-skiing at high speeds. The impact of a fall is like hitting a brick...Read More
Women's Health
Who Sent You These?
Years ago in my medical office I was convinced that tight jeans and panties were causing repeated pelvic infections in women. So, in jest, I wrote a column about it suggesting that Yves St Laurent should design better jeans and panties. Then I forget about the article until my wife asked with astonishment “Who sent these panties?” One day a package had arrived at my office and I tossed it into my briefcase. Later that evening while enjoying a pre-dinner drink with my wife, I opened it. To my surprise, I pulled out a pair of pink panties. They were sent by a reader who had a design solution. It was not the ideal way to start the cocktail...Read More
Lifestyle, Sports, Vitamins
Fight Infection like an Olympic Athlete
How hard would be the disappointment? You’ve trained for years to acquire a medal at the Rio Olympics. And then the unthinkable happens. You develop a respiratory or intestinal infection just before the event. It’s an unmitigated disaster of unparalleled proportions, never to be forgotten. So, how do Olympic athletes avoid this catastrophe? An article published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine stresses it’s not just luck that prevents infection. Rather, according to Ida Svendsen, physiologist with the Norwegian Olympic Committee, it’s attention to detail. As Leonardo Da Vinci wrote centuries ago, “Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle”. Svendsen reports that a study of 37 elite Norwegian skiers, over a nine year period, showed that those who had won...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Pain
How Readers Would Treat 42,000 Addicts
Eureka! Last week I reported it was impossible to write this column. I had asked readers to respond to how I believe 42,000 addicts on methadone should be treated. Then my computer developed terminal cancer and I thought all your responses had been lost. Fortunately, the “Geek Squad” resurrected them. From a Times Colonist reader, “Your suggestion that sending addicts to northern Canada to chop wood caught my eye. I was impressed by your research. The addicts I have known have no interest in getting off methadone and improving themselves. I say, enough of this nonsense. Why not have them chop wood? We all do some form of work to eat.” This reader then added, “I initially believed that the practice of...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Doctor Assisted Death
It’s been aptly said that “Wars are too important to be left to Generals. I would add that assisted death is too important to be left to politicians and doctors. One of the first columns that I wrote 41 years ago was titled, “Why cab drivers are smarter than doctors”. I was convinced then that on social issues taxicab drivers had more common sense than many in the medical profession. Now, looking at the unadulterated mess surrounding assisted death, I realize I was right 41 years ago. Now I would add bartenders, plumbers and those that pick up our garbage. I also wrote years ago that the problems of society are caused by so-called intelligent people who are largely...Read More
Cancer
Has Anyone Felt Your Testicles Lately?
How many women will have their breasts examined this year? I don’t know the exact figure but it will be in the millions. But how many men will have their testicles examined during 2016? Again, I don’t know the exact number but it will be miniscule compared to that of the fairer sex. Is this sexual discrimination? If so, we need a class action lawsuit to protect men’s rights or, more to the point, our testicles. But more important, an increase in TSE (testicular self examination) would increase the survival rate of this malignancy. We don’t know what triggers testicular cancer. But males at greatest risk are those between the ages of 15 and 35. There’s increased risk if the testicle...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine, Miscellaneous
How To Cure 42,000 Addicts Quickly
How could this medical and social disaster ever be allowed to happen? If authorities had told me that Ontario, just one Canadian province, was treating 400 addicts in methadone clinics, I’d believe them. But, the actual number is 42,000. But how many of these addicts need methadone? And what is the solution for this madness? Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, is not an arm-chair commentator on addiction. Rather, he’s an internationally renowned expert, a British psychiatrist, and prison doctor who has treated thousands of addicts over years. In his book, “Romancing Opiates”, he writes that heroin is not as highly addictive as claimed, and withdrawal not as difficult as treating an alcoholic. He claims, “It’s a myth that treating the heroin...Read More
Miscellaneous, Pediatrics
Guarding Against a Devastating Telephone Call
What should parents fear most when raising children? You could compile a list as long as your arm. But, while travelling in the U.S, I happened to read a column written by Bruce Feiler in The New York Times. The greatest fear, he claimed, should be that fateful call that a child has been killed while driving a car. So how can parents decrease this risk? Feiler’s article reminded me of a night I’ll never forget. I was working on a column in upper state New York. It was high school graduation time. Following one ceremony a few parents and graduates decided to celebrate. One teenage girl, a new driver, offered to drive four other girls to the event. A short...Read More
Surgery
The Perils of Being a Patient
What is one of the major health hazards today? It’s being a patient. Because there are so many pitfalls, and it’s easy to fall into them. Modern medicine has much more to offer today which makes life better for millions of people. But it can also create problems, unless you know where the traps are and how to avoid them. I’ve never forgotten an incident that happened years ago. I’d completed a successful surgical procedure and returned to the recovery room to check on my patient. But I noticed several doctors crowded around one bed, which is never a good sign. A male patient had undergone a gallbladder operation and was experiencing difficult, labored breathing. His surgeon and anesthetist were concerned. They...Read More
Diabetes
Cholesterol Drugs Linked to Type 2 Diabetes
What is the last thing our health care system needs? More cases of Type 2 diabetes. According to the Diabetes Association, more than 33 million people in North America suffer from diabetes. More millions are unaware they have pre-diabetes. This disease is associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries), blindness, kidney failure, heart attack and amputation of legs due to gangrene. But a recent study published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, indicates we are going to see more Type 2 diabetes. Finland researchers tracked 9,000 men without diabetes between 45 and 73 years of age for six years. One in four men were taking a cholesterol-lowering drug at the start of the...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine, Miscellaneous
Reading History Could Save a Child’s Life
What is a parent’s greatest tragedy? It‘s the loss of a child. Recently parents in Alberta were charged with failing to provide their 19 month old boy with the necessities of life after he died due to meningitis. So how can parents avoid such a horrendous loss? And what can doctors learn from history about this lethal disease? A loving couple believed their child had croup or the flu and treated him for two weeks with natural remedies such as garlic, onions, horseradish and smoothies with hot peppers. But he finally stopped breathing and died after being rushed to the hospital. Fifty percent of cases of meningitis occur in those under five years...Read More
Cancer, Gastroenterology, Lifestyle, Nutrition
Can Fiber Decrease the Risk of Colon Cancer?
Humans don’t learn from history. Dr. Denis Burkitt, a British researcher, showed years ago that African natives, consuming large amounts of fiber, did not suffer from constipation, appendicitis or problems of the large bowel, such as diverticulitis (hernias of the colon). Now, a new British report states an increase in dietary fiber decreases the risk of large bowel malignancy. Being of Scottish heritage, I always consider ways to save money for our health care system. Luckily, there’s no need for expensive MRI’s to determine whether the diet contains sufficient fiber. A rectal examination that finds rock-like stools quickly provides the answer. Stools that don’t float are also a good sign more fiber is needed. Students of history may remember the World War...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
No Government Should Own Your Life
Mao Zedong, the Chinese revolutionary leader, was right when he remarked, “The power of government comes out of the barrel of a gun”. The recent Canadian law of Doctor Assisted Death guarantees that some people must still suffer before they have the right to die peacefully. Politicians have fired a merciless gun at helpless patients. And what does the Canadian Medical Association say about this inhumane decision? I agree we need a government and laws. So I agree to stop at a red light, not to rob a bank, not to kill my neighbor, not to sexually assault children, and with great reluctance even pay unfair taxes. But I will never agree politicians own my life. The government’s decision states that...Read More
Gynecology, Sex, Women's Health
STD: The Horizontal Mambo Has Hidden Hazards
A member of the Russian ski patrol was asked on TV what he did first on his arrival home from work. He replied, “I make love to my wife”. “I understand, as you’ve been away a long time”, said the interviewer. “But what do you do next?” “Oh, I make love again” he replied. Frustrated, the interviewer said, “But what do you do next?” “Oh, I take off my skis!” The elderly can only dream of this scenario. As one wise sage remarked, “in every older person there is a young person wondering what the hell happened!” But there’s evidence that more seniors have learned to do the “horizontal mambo.” Senior sex comes as a surprise to younger people. One University survey...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Miscellaneous
Did I Get My Medical License Back?
Several weeks ago I wrote that something happened that I thought would never happen. And what was the reaction of readers? At 92 years of age I had asked the Registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to reinstate my medical license which I had reluctantly given up at the age of 87. Why? Because of a shameful and despicable medical event in Alberta. A resident of Alberta was dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease, totally paralyzed and close to choking to death in her own mucous. It’s a malady as close to hell as you can ever get. She had requested doctor assisted death and was granted by a judge the legal right to die if she had the...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Medicine, Philosophy
Medical Care Main Cause of Death
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, may be rolling over in his grave. Why? He preached “First, do no harm.” I recently read a report in the Journal of Molecular Medicine called Death by Medicine. It’s the most damning medical report card ever issued. It claims huge numbers of patients are being injured and killed by conventional medicine. There’s also a big surprise there. A huge, meticulous study concluded that every year in the U.S conventional medicine kills 800,000 patients. Compare this figure to 700,000 that die of heart disease and 500,000 from cancer. The report claims that 7.5 million medical and surgical procedures are unnecessary. Another 8.9 million patients are admitted needlessly to hospital and 2.2 million patients suffer adverse reactions to...Read More
