No-nonsense advice for good health.



No-nonsense advice for good health.



Daughter of W. Gifford-Jones, Diana continues the no nonsense tradition with a keen eye on the determinants of health, global health trends, and healthcare policy.


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Who Is

W. Gifford-Jones, MD

 

Dr. Ken Walker (who writes under the pseudonym of Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, MD) is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Harvard Medical School. He trained in general surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University and in Gynecology at Harvard. His storied medical career began as a general practitioner, ship’s surgeon, and hotel doctor. For more than 40 years, he specialized in gynecology, devoting his practice to the formative issues of women’s health. In 1975, he launched his weekly medical column that has been published by national and local Canadian and U.S. newspapers. Today, the readership remains over seven million.

His advice contains a solid dose of common sense and he never sits on the fence with controversial issues. He is the author of nine books including, “The Healthy Barmaid”, his autobiography “You’re Going To Do What?”, “What I Learned as a Medical Journalist”, and his latest book, “90+ How I Got There!”.

Many years ago, he was successful in a fight to legalize heroin to help ease the pain of terminal cancer patients. His foundation at that time donated $500,000 to establish the Gifford-Jones Professorship in Pain Control and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto Medical School. At 93 years of age he rappelled from the top of Toronto’s City Hall (30 stories) to raise funds for children with a life-threatening disease through the Make-a-Wish Foundation.  His hobby is trap shooting.

He is married to Susan and has four children and twelve grandchildren.

 

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Today’s Issues

What You Need to Know

Health Tips

There’s More to Beer Than Just Foam and Alcohol

March 18, 2024

Moderate consumption of beer will furnish some of your daily nutritional needs. Depending on how much and what type, you'll get some calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, chloride, and sodium. You'll also get several B vitamins,...

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Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Nutrition

Protecting Eyesight with the Right Food

March 16, 2024

It was 200 years ago that Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer and culinary writer, first wrote “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.”  It’s a simple and enduring...

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Cancer, Radiation

What to Know About the Mammography Debate

March 9, 2024

At what age should women’s breasts receive radiation to detect breast cancer? In Canada, some provinces are lowering the age of eligibility from 50 to 40, even before a task force releases an update on...

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Philosophy

A Failing Grade in Basic Mathematics

March 2, 2024

Have even one in a thousand North Americans ever heard of Kissick’ s Law?  More than 25 years ago, if you were reading the Ontario Medical Review, you would have seen an article, written by...

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“You’re Going To Do What?”

How is such a busy, professional, well-traveled doctor and writer able to extol great advice at 90+? By leading a healthful, intentional life, and by applying his knowledge and common-sense approach — gained from years of research — to his own daily routines. Journey with Dr. W. Gifford-Jones through the remarkable career as a hotel doctor, ship’s surgeon, family physician, surgical specialist, syndicated medical journalist, and maverick. Along the way, learn the “do’s and don’ts” of reaching the age of wisdom.

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