
Is it worth giving up alcohol for a month?
Does giving up booze for a month make any difference to our health? Thousands across the UK are set to do just that as part of Go Sober for October, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support….
Does giving up booze for a month make any difference to our health? Thousands across the UK are set to do just that as part of Go Sober for October, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support….
Health professionals remind us constantly that we need to be mindful of our cardiovascular health and live more healthy lives. We all want to be healthy, so just what is cardiovascular health and how do…
A group of Canadian physicians will be writing a new kind of prescription starting next month — a trip to the museum. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and a Montreal-based doctors’ association are launching a pilot project Nov….
As an avid runner with some two dozen marathons under his belt, Adrian Landini is thoroughly familiar with the runner’s high. He’s also quite experienced running while high. Yes, the longtime pot smoker says he…
The age at which boys begin puberty is linked to when their mothers started having periods, a study suggests. Mothers who started earlier than their peers had sons who had: • armpit hair two and a half…
Baby mice have been made with two mums and no dad, say researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It took a substantial feat of genetic engineering to break the rules of reproduction. The scientists…
For the Willms family of Abbotsford, B.C., there’s no debate about whether the province should cover new expensive therapies for rare diseases. Their three-year-old son Emmett was diagnosed with the most severe form of a condition called spinal…
Here’s this week’s Second Opinion, a roundup of eclectic and under-the-radar health and medical science news. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. It’s a hashtag powerful enough to take down…
Everyone wants to look thin, look great, and feel their absolute best. However, achieving these goals is not always easy. Everyone needs some advice on healthy habits that can help them look great and feel…
In a prestigious medical journal, doctors from Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children have laid out policies and procedures for administering medically assisted death to children, including scenarios where the parents would not be informed until…
The Canadian Medical Association says it has resigned from the World Medical Association and is accusing the international group’s incoming president of plagiarizing his inaugural speech. In a statement released on Saturday, the CMA said it…
You may have seen headlines saying that vitamin D supplements do not improve bone health or prevent fractures and falls, even though official advice says everyone should consider taking them – particularly during autumn and…
Women who need treatment for urinary incontinence should only be offered mesh surgery as a last resort, new draft guidelines for the NHS advise. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says non-surgical…
American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries leading to new approaches in harnessing the immune system to fight cancer, the award-giving body announced on Monday. “Allison and…
For the first time, a drug has been shown to help people lose weight and keep it off for several years without raising their risk for heart problems — a safety milestone that may encourage…
The liver is the largest internal organ in our body and has many critical functions. It is responsible for breaking down and filtering toxins from our body, cleansing our blood, and converting vitamins and nutrients…
Other countries have on-screen interpreters during news broadcasts. When the next ice storm, wildfire or terror attack happens, Canadians who are deaf or hard of hearing will be in greater peril than others because most…
Imagine, if you will, this scenario. It is the middle of the night, and you are sleeping. Suddenly, you awaken, but you cannot move. Your eyelids will not open, and you cannot move your arms…
Older adults are having sex and enjoying it. So get over it. A British researcher says the “ick factor” and other stereotypes associated with seniors and sex persists, and that’s affecting their health and well-being….
Glucose metabolism is the term used to describe the body’s process for breaking down (metabolizing) simple sugars, also known as glucose, into energy. The body requires glucose to function and typically obtains it through consumption…
Driving down a dark country road at night, you see a shape ahead on the roadside. Is it a deer or a mailbox? Your brain is structured to make the best possible decision given its…
There are many parts of your body that work together in order to maintain homeostasis (an internal balance). One of the most important parts of your body in this regard is your immune system. The…
After a 2011 hunting accident, this Quebec man thought he’d live forever with half a face. Then a confident young surgeon made an extraordinary offer. In a windowless room in the basement of a Montreal…
On the ice, Riley Cote was a tough guy who often encouraged his opponents to drop their gloves. Now, the retired NHL enforcer is asking hockey players to drop their alcohol and opioids, so they…
It’s something many people have experienced at least once in their lives – a night of heavy drinking followed by a day of missing memories. A blackout. The amnesia caused by excessive alcohol consumption has…
“If I eat something I am allergic to I can go into anaphylactic shock.” Following the inquest into the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who went into cardiac arrest after eating a baguette containing sesame seeds but…
There are many different benefits of supplementing your diet with vitamins. These are products that are designed to promote overall health. They are especially helpful to those whose daily diets are missing key ingredients. A…
Maple syrup fills our pantries. The leaf dons our flag and clothing. And soon it could be part our… skin-care regime? U.S. researchers are calling it a “plant-based Botox”: compounds found in maple leaves that…
A Canadian doctor was among a world-class team responsible for giving a young woman in her 20s a new face and, by extension, a second chance at life. Dr. Gaby Doumit, a plastic surgeon and…
After a cancer patient used her obituary to make a final plea for medical professionals to stop ‘fat shaming’ people with health problems, others are speaking up about similar experiences. Ellen Maud Bennett, 64, died May…
A Quebec Superior Court justice has granted health authorities the right to force-feed a young woman suffering from anorexia. Without medical treatment, the 20-year-old woman is in danger of dying, Justice Lise Bergeron wrote…
When UD was just four years old, doctors found a golf-ball-size tumour in his brain. By the age of six, he was suffering from more than 30 seizures a day. After several failed treatments, the boy’s seizures…
The federal government says it is not interested in decriminalizing any drugs beyond marijuana, despite calls from Canada’s two largest cities to consider the measure. As the opioid epidemic washes over the country, Montreal and…
Vegetarians and vegans now account for nearly 10 per cent of Canada’s population, and their increased presence is forcing the restaurant and meat production industries to consider new approaches. According to research from Dalhousie University,…
New research from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has found an association between processed meats and what they describe as “manic episodes” of hyperactivity, euphoria and insomnia. The researchers analyzed more than 1,000 people…
Researchers at York University’s Faculty of Health have found that patients who have metabolic healthy obesity, but no other metabolic risk factors, do not have an increased rate of mortality. The results of this study…
Green is clean, local swimmers learned Wednesday, as the City of Edmonton celebrated the launch of Canada’s first natural public pool. By noon, the Borden Natural Swimming Pool had about 100 people lined up outside,…
Ever looked at someone with tattoos and piercings and judged them for it? What if the person was your doctor? Would you still let them continue to treat you? Most people would, says Holly Stankewicz from St….
After years of grappling with mysterious medical setbacks, Canadian distance runner Lanni Marchant believes she has finally found a solution — a way to help her body meet the demands of an elite athlete. But authorities say…
Some scientists believe that whiskey may be one of the keys to preventing the Big C. For a quite a number of years, liquor has been known not only to bring destructive intoxication and addiction…
When you drink beer, your liver has to go into overdrive to detoxify the alcohol. Now add a few packets of crisps to the equation, maybe some peanuts and those calories are there to stay….
A South African woman is recovering in hospital after being discovered alive in a mortuary fridge. The woman was taken to Carletonville morgue, in Gauteng province, having been declared dead by paramedics following a road…
Decriminalize all drugs for personal use, Toronto Public Health recommends in new report. If approved, city’s board of health would push Canadian government for major change. City council should push the federal government to decriminalize…
Go ahead and have that cup of coffee, maybe even several more. New research shows it may boost chances for a longer life, even for those who down at least eight cups daily. In a study of…
Think of magic mushrooms and LSD and it’s likely that science is not the first thing that springs to mind. Psychedelic drugs are more likely to be associated with hippies and the counterculture of the…
Adam and Dounia* from Luton have been combining cannabis and sex for the last three years. “Sometimes I use it to get rid of my anxiety in the bedroom,” explains Dounia. While you might think…
Government officials say they’re pretty confident they’ll have enough legal marijuana to meet the demand when legalization kicks in this fall. As the official legalization date — Oct. 17 — approaches, some have questioned whether…
Traumatic experiences and stressors in childhood have historically been overlooked as predisposing factors in the development of various chronic pain disorders and psychiatric conditions, including fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder,…
A new U.S. study serves as a “very important reminder” that depression is a possible side-effect of many common medications, especially when patients are taking more than one of them, the Canadian Pharmacists Association says. “I think…
The U.S. government is shutting down a study that was supposed to show if a single drink a day could prevent heart attacks, saying ethical problems with how the research was planned and funded undermine…
New European research has found that increasing protein intake may help heart failure patients live longer. Using data from the BIOSTAT-CHF study, which looks at heart failure outcomes in patients across 11 countries in Europe,…
Who knew that our closest animal relatives, the great apes — specifically chimpanzees — keep tidier bedrooms than we humans do? A group of researchers in Tanzania wanted to find out what kinds of bugs and bacteria lurk in…
The Liberal government has passed a sweeping overhaul of the country’s tobacco laws — legislation that will formally legalize (and heavily regulate) vaping and give Health Canada the powers it needs to mandate plain packaging for…