Many CBC listeners were chagrined to learn last week that radio personality Shelagh Rogers is taking a break from her national morning program, Sounds Like Canada. Although Ms. Rogers is rumoured to be exhausted from hassles with CBC management, the ebullient radio host insisted, “It is not a stress leave. It is because I have […]
Why They Call It Blood Pressure Read More »
During my years in family practice, I often noticed that the death or illness of a person, especially among the elderly, was rapidly followed by the illness or even death of the spouse. Such “coincidences,” noted by many physicians, have now been documented by a large-scale medical study. The report, published in the New England
You Can’t Care For Your Spouse Unless You Look After Yourself Read More »
Should cancer of the lung be added to the list of health risks women face just because they are women? A study presented recently at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago showed that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as their male counterparts. As
The Real Reason Women Smokers Are At Greater Risk Read More »
Researchers have deciphered the full DNA makeup of a single human being, a remarkable achievement which has, unfortunately, driven the crescendo of misplaced genomic enthusiasm to new heights. “This human’s life, decoded” was the front page headline in the Globe two days ago. Predictions of individualized gene-based therapies for a host of diseases are again
The Trouble With Our DNA Rat Race Read More »
The U.S.-style law-and-order drug policies that the Conservative cabinet appears poised to embrace are doomed to fail in this country, as they have everywhere. What’s worse, they make impossible the rational and humane treatment of hard-core drug addiction. It is not feasible to rehabilitate large numbers of substance-dependent people in the context of the so-called
Stop Treating Drug Users As Criminals Read More »
Canada’s Health Minister urgently needs an education in harm reduction. Announcing his intention to shut down Insite, the supervised injection facility serving drug addicts in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Tony Clement told the House of Commons health committee that “supervised injection is not medicine; it does not heal the person addicted to drugs.” Mr. Clement got
To Help Or At Least Do No Harm Read More »
A Statistics Canada study on job stress, reported last week in the journal Canadian Social Trends, ought to rivet the attention of Canadian economic and political leaders.Work-related stress takes a high toll on the emotional well-being of millions of employees, undermines the health of many and incurs a forbidding financial penalty. Stress-induced absences have been
Prescription For Stress – Take Time to Smell the Dollars Read More »
Now that the winds of acrimony blowing from Ottawa have abated, we can reflect upon the differing emotional displays of our political leaders. They have much to teach us about how dysfunctional anger may afflict our personal lives. We saw, on the one hand, the quietly poisonous anger of Stephen Harper. Even before Belinda Stronach’s
Are You Too Liberal Or Conservative With Your Anger? Read More »
Expressions of near-religious awe and prophesies of dramatic medical advances greeted last week’s announcement that scientists are close to deciphering the human genome, the genetic blueprint for the human body. “Today we are learning the language in which God created life,” President Bill Clinton said at the White House ceremony marking the truce between two
On The Completion Of The Human Genome Project Read More »
