Philosophy
Finding Truth in Science is a Moving Target
Having a good debate about matters of your health is not a bad thing. As has been said, “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” But recently, having a difference of opinion has become too closely associated with the polarized politics that is endemic in many countries. People have lost their sensibilities amid noisy pundits arguing nonsense about facts and fake news. So if you do not know who to turn to for the “truth”, you are not alone. And maybe you are chasing in the wrong direction. In the old days, there were fewer authorities holding credible and accessible medical knowledge. Research was bound in books, and it was the...Read More
Genitourinary
Fixing the Leak of Untold Incontinence
Urinary incontinence is one of the most common problems of aging. It instills, needlessly, the prospect of embarrassment and a fear of leaving the house. Comedians quip, “If you don’t know when you need to go, by the time you find out, you’ve already gone!” But in fact, it’s no laughing matter when a sneeze, cough, or even just standing up causes urine suddenly to leak through your clothes. Stress incontinence occurs when pressure in the urinary bladder is greater than the ability of the muscles to hold back the flow of urine. In men, it may be associated with aging, or the result of a radical prostatectomy for cancer of the prostate gland. For women, it’s often due to repeated...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank
How would you like to have a cart full of healthy foods and still save money? Anyone who does the grocery shopping will tell you, it is more expensive to buy the ingredients for a healthy diet like vegetables, nuts, fruit and fish than the refined grains, processed prepared foods and meats of an unhealthy diet. Is there a way to buy healthy and keep costs down? Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Professor of Nutrition at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, emphasizes that it is worth spending the time to spend your grocery dollars wisely. “We have seen again and again that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers and...Read More
Archive, Miscellaneous
Sharing a ride to health and safety
We all hope for a breakthrough in the cure for cancer. Thankfully, scientists are making progress in the fight against this and many other devastating diseases. But on occasion, an innovation well outside of the healthcare sector can make a big difference in matters of life and death. And is there one such innovation where older people are missing out? New research shows that the introduction of ridesharing services has dramatically reduced trauma stemming from car accidents. This isn’t the first such study, but it adds to a mounting collection of studies with finding that allow for better planning and decisionmaking. Ridesharing companies, like Uber and Lyft and another 88 or so competitors globally, have been in operation for about a decade,...Read More
Medicine
Are You Taking Too Much Medication?
Many diseases can be effectively managed thanks to therapeutic treatments involving pharmaceutical drugs. But have we gone too far in popping pills for every ache? Or even for serious health conditions, has your doctor put as much thought into how to get you off prescription medications as has gone into putting you on them? The statistics are alarming. A study of drug use among seniors in Canada in 2016 found that 2 out of 3 Canadians over the age of 65 were taking at least 5 different prescription medications and over a quarter took at least 10 different prescription medications! In the U.S., a 2018 national survey found that 48.6% of the entire population used at least one prescription drug in...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Cancer
Go Natural to Debut Your New Hair Colour
The American star of the silver screen, Jean Harlow, was known as the “Blonde Bombshell”. She once remarked, “If it wasn’t for my hair, Hollywood wouldn’t know me.” But did the blonde hair come at a huge price? Harlow was dead at the age of 26. Do you make a habit of dying your hair? Now that lockdowns are easing and you cannot wait to get a haircut, you might want to think twice about permanent hair dye and chemical hair straighteners. Some recent studies have raised health concerns. The practice of dying hair goes back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome when terrible concoctions were used to alter hair colour, both for beauty and to show rank on the battlefield. In...Read More
Cancer
How Diet and Inflammation Affect Colon Cancer
It’s been said “We are what we eat,” or “garbage in garbage out.” Less catchy advice might be “Eat an anti-inflammatory diet, rather than a pro-inflammatory one.” It could make the difference in the likelihood of developing a malignancy of the large bowel. Not many people realize that if you take away skin cancers, colon cancer is the third most common malignancy in North America. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Oncology, points out a strong association between chronic inflammation and the risk of colon cancer. Researchers at Harvard University discovered that people who had dietary patterns that triggered chronic inflammation were 32 percent more likely to develop colon cancer than those who followed a lowered inflammatory diet. Dr....Read More
Lifestyle, Nutrition
How to Make Takeout Meals Healthy
Eating takeout meals can be a way of life, often driven by the necessity for fast, convenient food. During the pandemic, enthusiasts for restaurant dining have created a surge in demand for takeout meals. Unfortunately, fast food outlets have never been beacons of nutritional value. But have times changed? With the plethora of new home meal delivery services and more conscious consumers, is it possible to eat healthy delivery or pickup meals? Here are three tips. First, watch out for sugar and salt. Today, most sodium consumed is from added salt during commercial food processing. Fast food outlets often use high levels of salt. Restaurants also tend to use excess salt. One study by Tufts University found that a single full-service meal...Read More
Cancer, Diabetes, Infection, Obesity, Surgery
COVID Means Double Trouble, and Worse
If ever a time to act on your health, this is it. Study after study in leading medical journals reports compounding troubles from COVID-19. What was described as a lung disease early in the pandemic is now better recognized as an attack on health systems – your own body’s systems involving multiple organs as well as societal systems of disease surveillance and care delivery. Whether you have been infected or not, chances are high your health is becoming worse. New research should raise alarm bells. In the journal, Nature, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research at Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, reported on deteriorated health of COVID-19 survivors. To his amazement, the disease was not just deadlier for people with...Read More
Nutrition
Is Your Lack of Energy Due to Anemia?
William 1 of Germany remarked on his death bed, “I have no time to be tired.” But often people suffer from being tired and having low energy years before they leave this planet. For some with fatigue, a prescription for 8-hours daily use of a pillow is the best treatment. But over three million Americans and one million Canadians have undiagnosed anemia, a condition due to low levels of red blood cells that carry oxygenated blood to the body’s tissues. Is it possible that anemia may lead to misdiagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease? What should you do if you are feeling fatigued and weak for no obvious reason? A methodical approach is warranted. First, if the problem is anemia, then it is...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Neurology
Bridging Generations Online for Health
Everywhere, people are fed up with enforced isolation. While adhering to stay-at-home orders at the urging of public health officials and in empathy with frontline health care workers, the restrictions are taking a toll on the physical and mental wellbeing of all. While senior citizens can be especially impacted, it is less commonly acknowledged that younger people, particularly teens, struggle with isolation too. For older adults, enduring long periods cut off from family and friends is known to cause depression, generalized anxiety disorders, decreased sleep, and functional impairment. Research published in Lancet Public Health warns that social isolation can also accelerate cardiovascular and brain aging, exacerbating dementia. Likewise, students of all ages are suffering from lockdowns. They are not getting the exercise...Read More
Cardiovascular
Gender Makes a Difference in Heart Disease
While the current pandemic holds a firm grip on everyone’s attention, another killer may be getting a stronger foothold on us – and chances are, women will continue to pay a higher price. Coronary heart disease is already a leading disease for women and men. Common sense suggests the situation is getting worse. The sedentary lifestyle imposed by lockdowns, accompanied by weight gain and higher alcohol use, is not the way to lower incidence of heart disease. But how does it affect women differently? A report in the journal, Circulation, notes that heart disease kills ten times as many women as breast cancer. It takes the life of one in every three women, more than all cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and...Read More
Genetics, Obesity, Pain
Gout: No Longer the Blue-Blooded Disease
King Henry VIII of England offers an excellent example of how too much wine, rich food and obesity trigger the agony of gout. But why did Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, and Benjamin Franklin, to name a few, develop this excruciating disease? And how can you decrease the risk? More than nine million North Americans suffer from gout, a type of inflammatory arthritis in which the body produces too much uric acid, or the kidneys fail to excrete enough. Genes play an important role. Gout and diseases such as diabetes are more likely to occur if there is a family history. But given the rise from only 3 million cases just over a decade ago, more than genetics is driving the...Read More
Vitamins
It’s Dangerous to Ignore Vitamin K2
Some vitamins don’t get the attention they deserve. Ask anyone about vitamin K2 and few people can give an answer. In Vitamin K2: The Missing Nutrient for Heart and Bone Health, Dr. Dennis Goodman says ignoring vitamin K2 can be dangerous. So here are some important points to help you understand why K2 needs more attention. In 1929, Dr. Hendrik Dam, a Danish scientist, discovered vitamin K. Now we know there are two types of K: K1 and K2. Most people get sufficient amounts of K1 by eating leafy green vegetables, rich in this vitamin. If you’re cut, K1 plays a role in blood clotting. K2 supports bone density. Bones, although solid structures, are not inert. Rather, they are constantly changing. Cells...Read More
Lifestyle, Obesity, Sports
Weightlifting, Not Just for a Medal
When asked how they exercise, people often report jogging, bicycling or walking. But what about weightlifting? Authorities say that picking up weights is not about winning a medal. Rather, as we age, strength exercises can help circumvent medical problems. Take if from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who famously remarked, “The best activities for your health are pumping and humping.” Let’s leave the humping part aside for now. When it comes to pumping weights, there are a lot of myths. First, lifting dumbbells is not just for building muscles. In fact, it helps to fight one of the problems that can change your life in a split second. Getting older is invariably fatal. But long before the final event, we begin to lose bone density,...Read More
Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Nutrition
Natural Magnesium from the Sea
Isak Dinesen, author of the great book “Out of Africa”, wrote, “The cure for anything is sea water.” Human physiological and environmental circumstances today suggest merit in Dinesen’s advice to look to the sea for replenishment of key minerals. Magnesium is one of the most important minerals that too many people are neglecting, and a good place to source it – whether in diet or supplement – is from the sea. Mineral deficiencies can sometimes cause minor problems. But they can also become lethal. Studies show that magnesium deficiency can range from 33% in young people to 60% in adults. This is the result of depletion in the amount of magnesium in the soil, as well as an increase in consumption...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Cardiovascular, Cholesterol, Diabetes, Nutrition, Pain
“Beeting” Yourself to Increase Good Health
Would you like to improve your physical endurance? An exercise routine is the answer. Being physically and mentally active leads to a longer life. But diet can help too. You can start “beeting” yourself to improved health simply by adding beets to your menu. You should also know that nitrates in beets can treat more than one medical problem. Atherosclerosis, thickening of the inside lining of arteries, decreases the flow of oxygenated blood to coronary arteries. This results in anginal pain or heart attack. For years researchers have known that nitroglycerine eases angina. But they had no idea why it dilated coronary arteries and increased blood flow to the heart. Then, three U.S researchers received the Nobel Prize for proving it was nitric...Read More
Lifestyle, Philosophy
Good Health Includes Healthy Financials
Vaccines are now reaching the wider community, and Spring is near. As we emerge from isolation, there are predictions for the “Roaring 20s” ahead. But is this a good time for an assessment of your financial health? If you reach your 90s and are in good health, congratulate yourself. You are among the fortunate. In fact, more and more North Americans are living longer. In Canada, between 1921 and 2011, average life expectancy at birth increased from 57.1 years to 81.7 years, a gain of nearly two and a half decades. In the U.S., the Population Reference Bureau reports that the number of Americans ages 65 and older will more than double from 46 million today to over 98 million by 2060,...Read More
Cardiovascular, Nutrition
Changez votre santé cardiaque en trois mois ou moins
On dit souvent qu’il est acceptable de commettre une erreur, mais qu’il est inacceptable de répéter cette erreur. Pensez-y donc à deux fois si vous croyez qu’une alimentation riche en poissons suffit à elle seule pour vous apporter suffisamment d’acides gras essentiels (EPA et DHA) pour réduire votre risque de crise cardiaque. Quelle ne fut pas notre surprise lorsque nous avons constaté, en étudiant les tests sanguins, que malgré une alimentation très saine, notre apport en huiles de poisson ne faisait pas le poids! Mais qu’est-ce qu’on n’a pas compris? Et comment faire pour rectifier la situation? C'est connu, la plupart des huiles traversent notre organisme, qui est à base d’eau, jusqu’à ce qu’elles soient décomposées par les enzymes dans l’intestin...Read More
Cardiovascular, Nutrition
Change Your Heart Health in Three Months or Less
It’s said, “Being wrong is acceptable, but staying wrong is unacceptable.” So think twice if you believe a high fish diet alone is providing you with enough essential fatty acids (EPA and DHA) to decrease your risk of heart attack. We were shocked when blood tests showed, despite our healthy diets, that our absorption of fish oils was not making the grade. What are people getting wrong? And how can you get it right? Oil and water do not easily mix, and most oils pass through your water-based body until enzymes in the small intestine break down fats. But it’s a mistake to believe this process is perfect. We wrote previously about a supplement called Omega3X which uses digestive enzymes to facilitate...Read More
Cardiovascular, Lifestyle, Neurology
Keep Blood Pressure Under Control
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” Avoiding disease may be the gift of lucky genetics, but it helps to put some work into managing your chances for health and longevity. Maintaining rubbery arteries is key to the delivery of oxygenated blood to the heart’s muscle that guards against hypertension, stroke, and heart attack. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that what’s good for the heart may also be good for the brain. The study involved 9,300 people ages, 50 and older with an average age of 68, with hypertension. They also had one other cardiovascular risk factor, history of stroke, or dementia. It was a huge study involving patients...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Dermatology, Infection, Pain
The Agony of Shingles: How to Decrease the Risk
“It was like going through hell,” he said. A friend had developed facial shingles, involving his ear, and despite medication the pain continued for weeks. So what is the best way to prevent an attack of shingles? Take action quickly. If you delay, you’ll wish you hadn’t when the pain from hell strikes. Today, most children are vaccinated against chickenpox. But it was not in the mix of common childhood shots until the mid-1990s. It’s a rare older person who escaped this childhood infection. Unlike other childhood diseases, the varicella zoster virus never leaves the body. Rather, it goes into hiding in nerve cells near the spinal cord. These cells transmit messages from skin to the central nervous system. The virus...Read More
Lifestyle, Neurology
Eating Disorders Combine Secrecy and Compulsion
It’s plainly evident that many people are eating too much. But several serious eating disorders can be harder to see, especially when they deliberately hide the problem. Recent research indicates that pandemic-related stay-at-home orders have ramped up anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders. With COVID capturing all the headlines, it’s easy to lose sight of the looming mountain of mental health issues that are changing our healthcare horizon. Mental illnesses are the leading cause of premature death in Canada. In the U.S., Johns Hopkins University estimates that 26% of Americans ages 18 and older – about 1 in 4 adults – suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. Eating disorders are serious but treatable mental illnesses. Girls and young women...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Nutrition, Sports, Vitamins
Can Athletes Escape Covid Virus?
Professional sporting events have never been entirely about the game. Team owners, player sponsorships, media contracts, ticket sales, and merchandising licenses are the playgrounds of big business. But the tiniest of offensive players, the novel coronavirus, has upended the sporting world. It has become a matter of great debate whether your grandmother or your favourite sports star should have priority for a vaccine. Take NHL hockey as an example. A delayed season has started. Only a handful of arenas are allowing limited spectators to attend the games. The league is working hard to keep players safe from COVID-19, but games have been delayed and postponed due to positive tests among players, coaches and staff. As one wise sage remarked, “It’s hard...Read More
Nutrition
Depleted Soil at the Root of Poor Health
We recently wrote about the gut microbiome – the remarkable digestive ecosystem that influences how nutrients and bacteria contribute to weight management, organ function, and even our mental health. But did you know there is a soil microbiome, and that this too affects your health? It turns out, we’ve not taken good care of it. Perhaps you already worry about the air you breathe and the water you drink. You are, at least, choosing healthy foods that deliver the nutrition you need. You don’t buy processed products, don’t drink soda, and limit salt intake. Maybe you are even vegan, feeling good about both your health and your carbon footprint. But you may need to consult with a farmer, not a doctor,...Read More
