Canada has a shortage of doctors. That’s why making it difficult for internationally trained doctors to practise here is so mystifying.
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Kate Winslet promoting ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ in London in December 2022. Winslet held her breath for over seven minutes during filming of the movie.
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As Canadians weigh the pros and cons of alcohol use, they should be thinking not just about the risks to their physical health, but also to their mental health.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Given how quickly MAID eligibility has changed in Canada in the past six years, it is time we take a step back to ask whether current MAID practice is still something we want to support.
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Psychedelics are being held up as a potential solution to the growing need for mental health treatment. But, magic mushrooms are not magic bullets.
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Cathay Pacific crew members who worked on a flight from Hong Kong arrive at Vancouver International Airport. Canada now requires air travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau to have a recent negative COVID-19 test result.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Canadian food prices have soared over the past year. Higher food costs can affect nutrition decisions and ultimately health.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Parents need practical strategies to balance the health risks and stressors of kids getting sick as we trudge through the virulent flu, RSV and COVID-19 winter season.
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The planned expansion of Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) law to include people with mental illnesses whose death is not imminent has been delayed, but not cancelled.
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Children and the adults they become need to choose how they grieve. That may include sharing their experiences and getting angry.
January is named after the two-faced Roman god Janus, and the Victorians understood this has long been a season of looking backward as much as forward, and not just in search of lessons.
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The 1859 book ‘Self-Help’ by Scottish journalist and physician Samuel Smiles was written in bite-sized pieces reminiscent of today’s wellness and lifestyle New Year tips.
The pharma industry warned that if proposed new prescription price guidelines go ahead, drug launches would be delayed and ‘Canadian patients will be deprived of potentially life-saving new medicines.’
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The pharma industry claims lower prescription drug prices will mean less access to new medication for Canadians. It’s an old threat that pits profits against patients’ rights to affordable drugs.
RSV is the leading cause for hospital stays in infants in developed countries.
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As visits to emergency departments surge — and in some cases overwhelm hospitals — here are answers to frequently asked questions about Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
People protest outside the Tendercare Living Centre long-term-care facility in Scarborough, Ont. during the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020. This LTC home was hit hard by the second wave of COVID-19.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Privatization is an idea that — like a zombie —just won’t die. It’s re-emerging with calls to solve the long-term care crisis with for-profit care homes. Evidence refutes the same old arguments.
Contrary to what we may think, changing people’s default status from non-donor to donor cannot significantly increase organ donation rates — as long as the family is involved in the decision.
NFL player Damar Hamlin’s injury during a game on Jan. 2 may have been a heart injury called commotio cordis. Researchers are working on ways to prevent this rare but often fatal sports injury.
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Commotio cordis is the result of blunt trauma to the heart, and is one of the leading causes of sudden cardiac death in youth sports. Improvements in protective equipment may help prevent it.
Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin is examined after collapsing on the field on Jan. 2. He received CPR and defibrillation on site before being sent to hospital by ambulance.
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Survival rates for cardiac arrest outside of hospitals is very low. The fast response to Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest during an NFL game shows the value of access to CPR and emergency defibrillators.
When it comes to eye care, regular visits to the optometrist or ophthalmologist can detect the early signs of diabetic damage.
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The risk of developing eye complications is high in young people with Type 2 diabetes, which is increasingly affecting children and adolescents, especially those who are more sedentary.
For workers in long-term care homes, distress due to difficult working conditions is often dismissed as a part of the job description.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
The long-term care sector is currently being held together by a very vulnerable workforce, and is at risk of failing without immediate solutions.
Throughout the pandemic, much discussion about COVID-19 transmission focused on individual-level decisions, making it easy to blame the unvaccinated.
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Systemic social issues affect vaccine access and acceptability. Yet, the term ‘vaccine hesitancy’ overlooks this, reducing the multiple factors that affect vaccine uptake to individual-level choices.
Model of an influenza virus. Flu season is expected to make a big comeback this year.
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Flu and COVID-19 are expected to make headway during the current respiratory virus season. The best way to stay healthy is vaccination in conjunction with personal protective measures.
Self-compassion can not only enhance physical and psychological health, but may also influence physical activity in the postpartum period.
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Physical activity and new motherhood can be hard to navigate, but physiological feedback and self-compassion can help inform decisions about when and how to exercise.
Even though chronic pain is recognized by scientists as a disease in its own right, it remains largely under-recognized, under-diagnosed and, above all, subject to many prejudices.
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Although chronic pain is recognized by scientists as a disease in its own right, it remains largely under-recognized, under-diagnosed and, above all, associated with numerous prejudices.
Lecanemab is an antibody that attaches to beta-amyloid proteins accumulated in the brain and allows the immune system to get rid of them.
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An 18-month treatment with lecanemab slows functional and cognitive loss by 27 per cent in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease. But this is only the first step towards a real cure.
Big Tobacco is still alive and well, despite colossal worldwide efforts for tobacco control measures.
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Big Tobacco’s efforts to rehabilitate its image should not go unchallenged because the tobacco industry’s goal remains advancing corporate profit at the expense of public health.
Former Saskatchewan Premier and national New Democratic Party leader T.C. (Tommy) Douglas in 1965. Douglas was instrumental in the creation of Medicare.
The Canadian Press
At the dawn of Medicare, Saskatchewan’s community co-op clinics pioneered team-based, holistic care. Now, with the health system in crisis 60 years later, it may be time to return to that care model.
The HIV prevention drug cabotegravir, which is delivery by injection every eight weeks, is not yet available in Canada.
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The next step in HIV prevention — long-acting injectable pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) — is not yet available in Canada, a year after its approval in the U.S.
Nearly 60 per cent of Canadians are finding it difficult to provide enough food for themselves and their families.
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Inflation is driving up food prices and could have a severe impact on the health of Canadians. When the cost of food increases, it restricts the availability of nutritious foods for low-income people.
Our guest on this episode has insights into long COVID both as a researcher and a patient.
Jessica Felicio/Unsplash
🎧 Don't Call Me Resilient, COVID-19
Long COVID impacts one in every five people who’ve had the virus. In the U.S., early research shows people of colour are most likely to develop long COVID. It has been called a mass-disabling event.
A new theory of Alzheimer’s disease reassesses the role of beta-amyloid in the brain.
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Most read in 2022: No. 1
Alzheimer’s may not be primarily a disease of the brain. It may be a disorder of the immune system within the brain. Beta-amyloid may not be an abnormal protein, but part of the brain’s immune system.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle most commonly caused by a virus.
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Most read in 2022: No. 2
A side-effect of pandemic response measures has been the impact on our mental health. But memory problems are a natural response to the environments created by the lockdowns.
A new study predicts a significant increase in the number of Canadians living with dementia over the next three decades.
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Action is needed to hold off a wave of dementia cases in an aging population. One of the most effective tools to reduce the prevalence of dementia is to address modifiable factors.
Recent advances in research on human development, and brain science in particular, have revealed that traumatic childhood literally changes the human body, affecting brain development.
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The impact of early childhood trauma on lifelong physical and mental health makes it urgent to invest in programs to support healthy pregnancies and stable, caring very early childhoods.
Delirium is a preventable condition often caused by hospital practices.
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Delirium doesn’t just harm vulnerable seniors. It prolongs hospital stays, ties up beds and clogs emergency rooms. Mandating senior-friendly hospital care protects patients and the health-care system.
Until the government acknowledges the critical role family physicians have in population health and on easing the burden on acute hospital care, pressures will only be relieved temporarily.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
A strong primary care system keeps patients away from emergency departments and helps patients self-manage illnesses. But Ontario’s plan to ease pressure on emergency rooms ignores family medicine.
Several factors ranging from personal spiritual beliefs to patient relationships to medical legal issues can influence whether a health-care practitioner participates in providing medical assistance in dying (MAID).
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For people to access medical assistance in dying (MAID) requires health-care professionals willing to provide the service. The reasons health-care providers choose not to participate are important.
Putting patients at the centre of care means seeing them as a whole person and treating them as a partner in their journey to better health.
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