From opioids to endocannabinoids, an exercise scholar digs into the science to explain the mental health benefits of a regular workout.
A man places a placard before a vigil remembering the victims of a deadly van attack at Mel Lastman Square in Toronto on April 29, 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Toronto is grappling with a new normal a week after a heinous van attack killed 10 people and left many injured. Here’s how cities recover from disasters, both emotionally and physically.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin arrives for the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences awards on Dec. 12, 2013, in Moffett Field, Calif. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences recognizes excellence in research aimed at curing intractable diseases and extending human life.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
The nomination deadline for science’s most lucrative prize – the Breakthrough Prize – is looming. Why has no Canadian ever received this prize, despite groundbreaking discoveries?
Alek Minassian (second from left in this courtroom sketch) is accused of driving a van into pedestrians along a stretch of a busy Toronto street on Monday April 23, 2018.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould)
The evidence indicates that having autism spectrum disorder actually reduces the risk of violence.
Two students comfort each other during a candlelight vigil held to honour the victims of Elliot Rodger in Isla Vista, Calif., in May 2014. Was Toronto’s van attack suspect inspired by Rodger?
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Two acts of mass violence in Toronto this year will have an impact on witnesses, caregivers and even those who watch news reports. An expert on post-traumatic stress explains.
The railway at the centre of the 2013 Lac-Megantic explosion, Montreal Maine and Atlantic, was recently ordered to pay fines totalling $1.25 million after being convicted of violating the Fisheries Act due to crude oil leaking into nearby bodies of water. Employers and companies are increasingly being held responsible for workplace accidents.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
Every day people around the world go to work expecting to return home safely to their families. But the reality is that many never return due to workplace accidents that could have been prevented.
The province of Nova Scotia is leading the way in defining the terms of Canada’s ambiguous law on medically assisted dying. Here Liana Brittain is seen in Halifax in front of a projection of her late husband Paul B. Couvrette, who received a medically assisted death in P.E.I. on Sept. 15, 2017.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)
In Nova Scotia, it’s clearer now who qualifies for medical assistance in dying. Will the other provinces and territories follow suit?
Research shows potential for delivering our drugs in ways that would make it harder for antibiotic resistance to evolve and spread. Here we see a close up view of a biofilm of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
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Rees Kassen, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
As a post-antibiotic future beckons, how can humanity protect itself against the proliferation of superbugs? Research suggests ‘drug sanctuaries’ in hospitals could be a promising solution.
Most mental illnesses begin before or during young adulthood, and a quarter of young Canadians have both a mood or anxiety disorder and a substance-abuse problem.
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Today’s students are at increasingly high risk for mental health diagnoses. Universities need to step up.
In one study of seriously ill older Canadians, 28 per cent of participants wanted “comfort care” (meaning no curative treatments) but this was documented in only four per cent of their charts.
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Most elderly Canadians do not receive the end-of-life care they desire. A new study hopes to rectify this.
Production facility manager Derek Delahaye eats roasted crickets at the Entomo Farms cricket processing facility in Norwood, Ont., in 2016. Bugs are a diet staple in most parts of the world. Will Canadians join the masses in their search for alternate sources of protein to meat?
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill
Canadians are increasingly looking to alternatives to meat to get their protein. Pulses like lentils and chickpeas are becoming more popular. Will insects find a way onto our plates too?
One third of women will suffer violence at the hands of someone they love, sometimes resulting in traumatic brain injury. Here, women lay on the street to protest this violence, in Pamplona in northern Spain, in 2015.
(AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
Globally, one third of women suffer violence at the hands of someone they love. And for those who survive domestic abuse, traumatic head injury can be the devastating outcome.
Thousands of people are dying every year of opioid-related overdoses, in an epidemic that traces its roots to 1996 and the introduction of the prescription drug OxyContin. Here, prescription opioids are shown in Toronto during 2017.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy
This is a critical time for our planet. What we eat and how we get our food will shape its future.
Women protest outside a courtroom in San Salvador in 2017, demanding the government free women prisoners who are serving 30-year prison sentences for having an abortion.
(AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
Pregnant teens take their own lives, raped children are denied abortions and women who suffer stillbirth are imprisoned for 30 years – El Salvador’s torturous anti-abortion regime must end.
In this 2012 photo, a midwife holds a newborn baby boy she has just delivered by flashlight in Guinea-Bissau. The African country is one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth, with a high rate of maternal death.
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
It’s not just women in impoverished countries dying in childbirth. The maternal death rate in both Canada and the U.S. has risen, particularly among Indigenous and African-American women.
Taxing sugar places the burden on the poor – people who are already burdened by higher rates of heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
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Sugar taxes fail to tackle the root of the problem – the production and marketing of foods that cause chronic disease.
Tuberculosis has been a problem for decades among Canada’s northern Indigenous population. New data obtained through access to information requests reveals shockingly high TB rates among Nunavut’s infants. Poor data collection indicates the real rates will be even higher.
(Gar Lunney/Library and Archives Canada)
Sarah Giles, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
The TB epidemic is out of control in Canada’s North. Eliminating the disease will require accurate data as well as government investment.
Up to 80 per cent of community care for older adults is provided by unpaid informal caregivers. In the absence of government supports, many of them struggle with exhaustion, stress and depression.
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Informal caregivers contribute $25 million to the Canadian economy in unpaid labour, receiving virtually no financial support or emotional respite. More web-based interventions could help.
An obese Quebec man is seen in this photo. Canada is resisting U.S. attempts during NAFTA renegotiations to stop it from putting labels on processed foods to warn of their health risks.
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Ronald Labonte, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
The U.S. is vehemently opposed to Canada’s intention to put labels on unhealthy processed foods. Here’s why Canada should continue to stand its ground during NAFTA renegotiations.
New research shows that when mothers who have experienced childhood trauma feel supported by the people around them – such as therapists, physicians, friends and neighbours – their risk of pregnancy complications is substantially reduced.
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Childhood trauma impacts women’s health and can be passed from parent to child. New research shows that when new mothers feel supported, the risk of pregnancy complications is reduced.
Tiana Schocko, from Peshawbestown, Mich., and of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa tribe, competes in the youth division of the 22nd Annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012, in Phoenix.
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The federal government’s 2018 budget allocates almost $50 million over five years to support sports programs for Indigenous peoples. The problem? The money is going to a non-Indigenous organization.
Canada has done a remarkable job of reducing lead in people’s bodies. But the experience of Flint, Mich. – where children were exposed to toxic levels of lead – teaches us to remain cautious. Here, Flint citizens watch testimonies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in Washington during 2016.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Reduced lead exposure has made us smarter and healthier. Could changes in regulatory agencies across North America endanger this?
A Canadian politician has announced he plans to introduce a private member’s bill to remove the legal prohibitions on payments to surrogate mothers and to sperm and egg donors.
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There are sound ethical reasons behind Canada’s decision to ban payment to surrogate mothers and sperm and egg donors in 2004. A new push to remove the restrictions ignores the risks.
