Lifestyle
What You Don’t Know About Tylenol Can Kill You
Socrates, the Greek philosopher, cautioned in 410 B.C. "Nothing in excess". Others since that time have added, "Too much of a good thing is worse than none at all." But North Americans don't believe it. Every year people unwittingly poison themselves with excess acetaminophen, better known by the brand name, Tylenol. It's easier than most realize to damage the liver and cause death. They do it to themselves and sometimes their children. In the U.S. Federal health officials report that 56,000 Americans end up in emergency rooms each year due to a Tylenol overdose. And that 16,000 die from complications related to over-the-counter painkillers. These figures may be higher since some cases are not reported. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...Read More
Philosophy
I’ll Loan You My Daughter If This Doesn’t Worry You!
`What can we learn from history as we start 2005? Thirty years ago I filed away an article and forgot about it. An editorial in The Ontario Medical Review claimed that people were becoming obsessed with health. It suggested that if the U.S Declaration of Independence were written today it would declare that it was the pursuit of health, rather than the pursuit of happiness, that would be the third inalienable right of Americans. Another old clipping reminded me of Kissick, his Law and his daughter. The OMR article written by Dr. Samuel Vaisrub claims that years ago people tended to disregard symptoms, fight off problems themselves, were lackadaisical about disease prevention, and doctors had to prod people to look after...Read More
Nutrition, Orthopedics
It’s “Calcium Balance” That Causes Osteoporosis
Why would I give my wife a new cook book when she's often threatened to turn the kitchen into a den? I took a calculated risk that I wouldn't end up stirring the pot. But I believed that she would see the benefits of "The Everyday Calcium Cookbook". It's loaded with sound advice on calcium-rich nutrition for whole-body health. And why normal amounts of calcium in the blood is causing an epidemic of osteoporosis (brittle bones). Helen Bishop MacDonald is Assistant Professor at the Universite de Moncton and nutritionist for the Calgary Flames hockey team the year they won the Stanley Cup. She says, "It's no secret that most Canadians do not get enough calcium for optimum bone health". TV talk shows,...Read More
Medicine
Amevive – A New Biologics Drug to Treat Psoriasis
It's been a long time coming. But finally there's a new revolutionary treatment to ease the suffering of those afflicted with psoriasis. This infuriating skin disease plagues one million Canadians and treatment has never been easy. But recently at the annual meeting of the Canadian Dermatology Association, doctors reported that a new drug Amevive would help subdue this physically and emotionally taxing disease. What causes psoriasis has been debated for years. In normal skin it takes 30 days for the deepest layer of skin cells to reach the surface where they are eventually cast off. But for patients with psoriasis these cells reach the surface in a mere seven days. This accelerated growth results in the typical raised, thickened, circular, red plaques...Read More
Cardiovascular
Vioxx – Super Aspirin Not So Super
In 1673 J.B. Moliere wrote, " Nearly all men die of their medicines, not of their illness". And while imprisoned on the island of St. Helena Napoleon commented, "Take a dose of medicine once and in all probability you will be obliged to take an additional hundred afterward". So neither party would be surprised at the bombshell announcement that Vioxx, heralded as the "Super Aspirin" for arthritic pain, has been found to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, and removed from the market. It's the old story of "caveat empor", let the buyer beware. But think again if you naively believe Vioxx is the only problem. Remember that the new kid on the block is not necessarily a better...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
The Tight Necktie Syndrome
A 55 year old businessman complained of headaches, blurring of vision and a tingling sensation in his right ear. Harvard professors failed to make a diagnosis. So he journeyed to the Mayo Clinic , then to a famous Harley Street doctor in London, England. But none could diagnose his problem. Several years later he was at a convention in Atlantic City still suffering from these annoying symptoms. Having forgotten to pack enough shirts, he walked into an unremarkable men's store and asked for a size 15 shirt. A young salesman suggested a size 16. Irritated, the man replied, "Look here, young man I've been buying shirts since you were in knee pants. I want a size 15". The salesman replied, "That's fine...Read More
Medicine
A New Treatment For Difficult Rheumatoid Arthritis
For people free of pain it's hard to envision the problems suffered by those who have severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Those with joints so swollen and tender they're unable to do simple things like buttoning up a shirt, unable to walk down stairs unless they do so backwards holding railings with both hands. The psychological trauma when the condition gets steadily worse is also crippling. Now, a new drug, Humira, is restoring these patients to a normal life. Many famous people have suffered from RA. Pierre-Auguste Renoir the famous 19th century painter developed RA in mid life. His hands became so crippled that his paint brush had to be wedged between his fingers. But he kept his sense of humour. He...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
Cancer, Genitourinary
Darling, I Decided To Get a Second Opinion – Prostate Cancer
"How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" That's a tough question to answer. Almost as hard as providing logical answers to questions of the PSA test used to detect prostate cancer. A recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) claims that the accepted normal PSA value of 4.1 misses 15 per cent of prostate malignancies. To correct this problem it's been suggested that the normal level for PSA should be lowered to 2.5. But a Texas study of 3,000 males aged 62 to 91 revealed that 6.6 per cent of these males with PSA levels of only 0.5 had prostate cancer! It appears no value is totally safe. The PSA test measures the level in...Read More
Cancer, Philosophy
A Bus Advertisement May Be The Answer
"Why must I wait so long for a cataract operation?" one reader asks. Another angrily asks why her mother had to die in agony from terminal cancer. This past year I've received an increasing number of letters from readers dealing with this type of problem. And during a recent trip to Oxford University in England a bus advertisement could help to solve these troubles. The bus ad read, "Now you can have the hospital you've always wanted". Since there's so much debate in this country about our deteriorating hospital system I couldn't resist calling the number on the bus and visiting Acland Hospital. I was surprised to find that Acland Hospital in Oxford was merely one of their 45 Nuffield "private hospitals"...Read More
Lifestyle
Super Aspirin Not So Super – Vioxx
What can we do to shorten the long waiting lists for surgery? How can we stop the massive increases in the cost of health care? Politicians and health care workers continue to struggle with this dilemma. They always conclude that more money is the answer. But this approach is doomed to failure. How can it work when it's taken 40,000 years for humans to get into such horrible shape? How did it happen? And is there a solution? Dr. Barry Bogin is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. He says we all envision our Paleolithic ancestors as being short, bent- over people with small brains. Actually they were a tad taller with brains as large as ours. And...Read More
Gynecology
The Yo-Yo Effect: Why It Results in Needless Mastectomies
Why don't doctors learn from history about breast cancer? Over 50 years ago a Scottish surgeon reported that radical removal of women's breasts did not improve their survival rate. Yet for decades many surgeons have continued to do this mutilating operation. Now it's been reported that whether a lumpectomy (removal only of the cancerous lump) or mastectomy (whole breast removal) is done also depends on where you live. What's happening in this country, and the U.S., is partly due to the Yo Yo effect. A study published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health shows that women living in Prince Edward Island are three times more likely to have a breast removed for breast cancer than women living in Quebec. Dr Ineke Neutal, an...Read More
Lifestyle, Philosophy
It’s Okay To Inhale To Stop Smoking
An economist, analyzing financial disasters, remarked that "If you keep going to hell you'll eventually get there". This warning equally applies to the millions of people who still smoke and eventually die from this addiction. Today, there is no greater madness than smoking when research proves that smoking kills. Fortunately, there's a new treatment that can help to save these needless deaths. In this case it's okay to inhale to quit smoking, with the newest smoking cessation, the Nicorette inhaler. Sir Walter Raleigh, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, introduced tobacco into England. But if he tried this today, authorities would hang him from the yardarm for even suggesting its use. Tobacco would be immediately banned as a hazardous substance. Now...Read More
Cardiovascular
President Clinton And Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
Former President Clinton has joined 400,000 Americans who required coronary bypass surgery in the last year. Clinton had high blood cholesterol and took cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLDs). But these drugs, along with superb medical care, neither prevented nor cured his disease. And nothing was said of the risk of taking CLDs? Today it's like attacking motherhood to question the value of CLDs. But there are scientists who believe it's a myth that cholesterol is the major risk factor for heart disease. They say there's blind addiction to these drugs and occasionally serious side effects. But with billions of dollars at stake studies questioning the benefits of CLD tend to be buried. A major study called Prosper showed you can exchange one devil for...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
The Do’s And Dont’s of Sinusitis
I must confess I've been putting off writing this column for a long time. Sinusitis seems to be such a dull, boring, uninteresting topic compared to most medical troubles. But nevertheless this condition affects millions of people and it's a damn annoying condition when it strikes. There are also some important do's and dont's in treating sinusitis. Dr. Ron Fenton, Otolaryngologist-in-Chief at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, reports in the University of Toronto Health News that one in 200 colds will be complicated by an attack of sinusitis. And the number of cases is increasing. Sinusitis normally starts as a viral infection which causes inflammation and blocks the sinusues. Patients then often get a bacterial infection on top of the viral infection.Dr...Read More
Genetics
Genetic Family History 101
How much should you worry if your father died of a heart attack at age 50? Or your mother developed breast cancer at 40 years of age? Or a brother required surgery for malignancy of the colon at an early age? Or there's a strong family history of diabetes or osteoporosis? In these cases how beneficial is genetic testing? Today, with an aging population, it would be most unusual for a family to say none have died from cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes or suffered from mental illness. So there's no need for sleepless nights unless there's an unusual strong family history of one of these diseases. And if the death of a relative occurred at 40 years of age, it...Read More
Philosophy
The Cheapest, Safest and Best Remedy For the Common Cough
Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer, once remarked, "The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature heals the disease". Year after year North Americans spend millions of dollars on medication they believe is going to help them. But it's often a waste of money when a dummy pill can cure a variety of ailments. Dr. Ian Paul, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Penn State Children's Hospital, Hershey, Pennyslvania, reports this interesting finding in the medical journal Pediatrics. His studies show that giving your child a glass of water is equally effective in relieving troublesome nighttime coughs as expensive over-the-counter medications. The majority of cough syrups such as those in the best-selling brands Robitussin and Benylin DM have dextromethorphan as...Read More
Obesity, Pediatrics
Children Choked By Their Own Fat
"Three year old child dies of heart failure due to obesity." This British headline recently shocked the nation. What an appalling situation when a generation of obese children may die before their parents. So what about fighting this problem by Britain's proposed "Red Light" approach? Doctors at an English pediatric clinic report that they are seeing young children who need ventilator help while sleeping. It's hard to believe, but they're being choked by their own fat! In the U.S. researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital studied 343 extremely obese children ranging in age from 5 to 23 with an average age of 12. They discovered that the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart, was thicker resulting in decreased blood flow...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
Psychiatry
Fighter Pilots and a Yankee Centenarian
What makes for a long and happy life? A talk at The Harvard Medical School about fighter pilots provided one answer. And a recent trip to celebrate my wife's aunt's 100th birthday provided another one. Part of the solution is how you read the following; "happinessisnowhere." "Wow, what a lady!" was my reaction when I visited Aunt Tat at 97 years of age. At the time she was troubled only by a "little" arthritis. I jokingly told her I had a good cure for this problem. My prescription? An occasional nip of Bailey's Original Irish Cream sherry would ease the pain. Smiling at me , she slowly reached behind her chair and pulled out a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream! A...Read More
Medicine
Psoriasis – Osler Advised Sending them to Egypt
Sir William Osler, was not only one of Canada's most famous physicians, but also realistic enough to know when even he could not help patients. On one occasion a colleague questioned him on how to treat patients suffering from emphysema. He quickly replied, "Send them to Egypt." His startled colleague questioned, "For the arid climate and low altitude?" "No" Osler smiled, "Egypt is just the farthest place I can think of to send them". Today, psoriasis is a similar disease in that it also frustrates doctors and patients alike. Much confusion also surrounds this infuriating disease. Some people believe that psoriasis merely affects a few areas on the scalp or skin and look on psoriasis is as a minor problem like dandruff....Read More
Medicine
You Have One Chance In Four Of Having (non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD)
I'd bet a thousand to one that 99.9 per cent of readers have never heard of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Yet a recent report from Johns Hopkins University claims that 25 per cent of North Americans suffer from this disorder. What is it and how can it be prevented and treated? Today you would have to be living on Mars not to know that obesity is often related to heart disease and diabetes. Now excessive pounds are also causing liver disease. We all tend to forget that whether we're dealing with war, love or medicine one problem often leads to a greater one. In 1640 George Herbert hit the nail on the head when he wrote, "For want of a nail...Read More
Orthopedics
The Dangers of Cosmetic Foot Surgery
How should a surgeon react when asked to do this operation? A woman wishes to purchase a pair of fashionable shoes. She has no bunions or hammer toes and her feet don't hurt. But there is a problem. She's unable to wear fancy pumps because her toes are either too long or too wide. Rather than purchasing a shoe that fits she insists on cosmetic foot surgery. Dr. Sharon Dreeben, Chairwoman of the American Foot and Ankle Society, recently held a press briefing to outline a new and dangerous trend in cosmetic surgery. She reported a survey revealed that half of the members of the Society had been asked to perform cosmetic surgery on normal feet. Moreover half had also treated...Read More
Cardiovascular
The ‘”Sardine Syndrome” – Pul Embolism
I know how sardines feel when I'm crammed into an economy seat during an overseas flight. I'm also aware it can cause a lethal blood clot. So if my number is up and "The Sardine Syndrome" lands me at the Pearly Gate, should I blame my death on the airline which caused a deep vein thrombosis (DVT)? And how can you prevent DVT? Fifty-six people, some of them now dead, have taken legal action against airlines. The charge claims they failed to inform passengers, or their relatives, about the risk of DVT in flight. Flying, like many other things in life, carries a risk. For instance, it's reported that every month one death occurs at London's Heathrow airport due to DVT. These...Read More
Cancer, Genitourinary
Cran-Max Cranberry To Prevent Urinary Tract Infections
Why didn't doctors listen to their mothers? For years she counseled that cranberry juice was a sound way to treat urinary tract infections (UTI). Yet doctors have passed off her advice as just another old-wives tale. Research now proves them wrong. And there's a new super-charged cranberry supplement, "Cran-Max", to help people suffering from the "We-know-where-you're-going" syndrome. Maurice Chevalier often said "vive la difference!" when comparing men and women. He wasn't, of course, thinking about bladder infections. But when the Great Creator designed the female anatomy he or she made a structural error. Women have a short urethra, the tube that carries urine to the outside. This makes it easier for bacteria to enter the bladder causing cystitis. Few women ever forget...Read More
