Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat
What’s Wrong with Hearing Aids
Peter Drucker, the management theorist, who wore hearing aids later in life, famously remarked, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” The hearing aid industry would be wise to listen in. For all the big noise about what can be heard when people with hearing impairment are fitted with aids, is an important message being missed? Hearing aids, in general, make life better for people with mild to severe hearing loss. But has the development of ever smaller technology made it needlessly difficult for people to enjoy the benefits? Does it seem as though the aids are designed to hide, for vanity’s sake, or worse, as if in shame, a hearing disability? The focus should be on ease...Read More
Lifestyle
Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Doctor, Whispering “Stop it!”
This column, over 45 years, has begged people to make the lifestyle changes that will help them avoid the development of type 2 diabetes. Failing that, there’s mounting scientific evidence that natural supplements supporting glycemic control can help mitigate dietary obstinance and lack of exercise. And in the event diabetes takes hold, then give thanks to Banting and Best for their discovery of insulin 100 years ago. But is there one more opportunity for Gifford-Jones to get the “prevention, prevention, prevention” message out? How about the publication of a Gifford-Jones timeless classic for children? A book as good as Goodnight Moon. A story as meaningful as Ferdinand the Bull. Perhaps, a variation on The Very Hungry Caterpillar? A story of “moderation...Read More
Cancer, Endocrine
You’ve Discovered a Thyroid Lump, What Does It Mean?
Waking in the morning, the last thing you want is a health shock before you begin the day. If you are like most people, feeling a lump for the first time at the Adam’s apple, the thyroid gland, you will immediately jump to one conclusion, “I have a cancer.” But is this the right conclusion? So, let’s report some good news that will decrease anxiety while you have your morning coffee. Fortunately, the majority of thyroid nodules are not cancers. Besides, the majority don’t even require removal. Thyroid nodules are common in elderly people. In fact, a report from the University of California states that if you’re over the age of 60, there’s a 25-to-50 percent chance of developing a thyroid lump. The...Read More
Gastroenterology
Celiac Disease: Has the Diagnosis Been Missed?
Some health problems can be hard to pinpoint. An accurate diagnosis of celiac disease can be easily missed. Among adults in particular, symptoms can be so subtle it can go undetected for years, causing other problems that further complicate a definitive diagnosis. Researchers at Duke University examined a randomized sample of 2,835 people over the age of 55, finding 2.13 percent had this disease but didn’t know it. Today, celiac disease affects one percent of the population in Western countries. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder. Sufferers encounter trouble when eating foods containing gluten, found in wheat and other grains. The immune system attacks small, finger-like protrusions, called villi, lining the small intestine, causing inflammation and scarring of the intestinal wall. As the...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Philosophy
The Ultimate Disease: Too Many Rats in a Cage
What catastrophic event could end all lives on this small planet? Some say nuclear war; others, another pandemic worse than the current one that’s caused over 700,000 deaths just in North America. Still others, the failure to tackle the problem of climate change. But here’s a surprise. The ultimate disease is a population time bomb that keeps ticking every second of the day – and we all ignore it. It took 123 years for the human population to grow from one to two billion people. Then, only 40 years to reach six billion, and now the population is 7.8 billion. This year, 82 million people will be added to an already packed planet. It’s like adding another city the size of...Read More
Infection, Medicine, Vitamins
The Case for Vaccination is Clear
What helped to shape my career? As a small child I became spell bound when I read Paul de Kruif’s book “Microbe Hunters”, published in 1926. It offers a sweeping history of the earliest microbiologists and immunologists, dating back to the discovery of microbes in the 17th century. Louis Pasteur features prominently as the researcher who discovered how to make the vaccine that neutralizes the microbe that causes rabies. Scientists were producing vaccines to treat many other viral diseases. It became my burning desire to be a doctor. Vaccines have saved countless lives. This is clear. Three years ago, my column discussed vaccination. I explained that, as a surgeon, I could never guarantee that operations were 100 percent free of complications. I...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Diabetes, Obesity
Challenge Yourself to Better Glycemic Health
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosopher and poet, wrote, “All life is an experiment.” So this week, to conclude our six-part series on the devastating and relentless pandemic of type 2 diabetes, we conclude with a challenge to readers to undertake an experiment. The premise of the experiment is that achieving the “perfect” diet and carving time for physically active lifestyles is not always feasible. The evidence is overwhelming that for too many people, losing excessive weight is not easy. In fact, society has become not only complacent about obesity, but accepting and even promotional of it. For “skinny fat people” too – the ones who may not present as overweight, but whose bodies harbour visceral fat around internal organs – there...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Diabetes, Nutrition, Obesity
Reversing Pre-Diabetes with Glycemic Control
The most important thing readers should have learned from last week’s column is that pre-diabetes is reversible. And fancy pharmaceuticals aren’t to thank. Rather, it’s glycemic control, achieved naturally, by managing blood sugar with the help of concentrated brown seaweed. But what’s glycemic control? And what’s so special about brown seaweed? For decades, this column has advocated for a change in lifestyle as a strategy for reversing the steady societal march towards higher and higher rates of type 2 diabetes – the consequence of complacency about obesity and other risk factors. But either people aren’t listening, or they are being overwhelmed by negative socioeconomic factors, such as the costs of healthy food choices, lack of time for the preparation of healthy...Read More
Diabetes
Prediabetes Is Common, and Importantly, Reversible
Prediabetes is like an alarm clock. You can hit the snooze button and go back to sleep. Or you can use it as a signal to get up and get active. But what exactly is prediabetes, and how do you know if you have it? The condition occurs when blood sugar levels are consistently higher than normal, but not yet to the level for diagnosis as type 2 diabetes. High blood sugar is caused when cells can’t respond normally to insulin, a hormone made by your pancreas that acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells for use as energy. Higher and higher demands to make more insulin overwhelm the pancreas, leading to prediabetes. A 2019 study showed that “among Canadians...Read More
Diabetes, Obesity
The Other Pandemic – A Challenge to News Media
Last week’s column claimed, “Wars are too important to be left to generals.” And “the type 2 diabetes pandemic is too important to be left to doctors.” We asked whether there was a difference between millions of North Americans dying quickly of COVID-19 and millions of people dying slowly of diabetes. In this week’s column, we challenge media outlets to help doctors fight this other pandemic that is having a disastrous effect on our health care system. Consider what’s happened for 20 months now. Broadcasters in North America could hardly wait to tell us night after night about the daily number of deaths from COVID-19. But what they have not mentioned is that 1 in 10 North Americans now have type 2...Read More
Diabetes, Obesity
The Other Pandemic That Keeps Killing
Want some good news about the current viral pandemic? Vaccines are taking effect across global populations and will eventually end this horrible nightmare. But we’ve yet to face, let alone resolve, the truly catastrophic health crisis plaguing humankind. It’s a disease for which there are no vaccines. Worse still, it is a completely unnecessary health tragedy that will continue unabated to kill millions of people worldwide year after year. It’s called type 2 diabetes and the coronavirus has made it deadlier. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the U.S., one in ten North Americans has diabetes. And 40 percent or more of the people who died of COVID-19 had diabetes. According to an analysis of CDC data, people aged 25...Read More
Diabetes, Obesity
Healthy Conversations About Weight Should Not Be Taboo
This week launches a series of columns on the current crisis – not the COVID pandemic, which will eventually come to an end, but rather, the seemingly endless escalation of the type 2 diabetes pandemic. We begin this week with the greatest culprit: obesity. Worrisomely, changing attitudes about weight are making matters worse. We’ll continue next week with an article on the interplay between diabetes and COVID, followed the subsequent week by a challenge to powerful media houses to do better. Finally, as we know from your letters that this column helps prevent many from falling victim to avoidable health problems, we’ll do a three-part series on the signs of pre-diabetes and where you can turn for help. So, let’s turn to obesity,...Read More
Sex
Teenage Sex Pushing Boundaries in the Pandemic
If you are a parent or grandparent to teenagers, chances are you think the pandemic has them safely secluded at home – having inoculated them, you might say, from sexual encounters. But that might be wishful thinking. It’s been said “It’s hard to prepare teenagers for life when they already know everything.” But even if they do have all knowledge at their fingertips, their bodies are way ahead of their brains. The wiring of the teenage brain develops just the same, no matter the era. The pandemic’s “quaranteenagers” are programmed to test their boundaries, just like all who came before them. Until they reach their mid-20s, the prefrontal cortex that controls complex reasoning, impulse control, and planning is still developing. When it...Read More
Alcohol, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous
Summer’s Last Hurrah the Most Dangerous
Are you gearing up to have some fun? It’s the stick-in-the-mud who dulls the sense of adventure, suggesting you think twice. But the dullard may be the wise one as the summer closes out with the traditional long weekend. Labour Day Weekend originated in North America in the early 1880s to recognize workers. The holiday marked the establishment of the 40-hour work week, or 8 hours of work daily for 5 days and then two days of rest. Labour unions of the day had it right. They advocated each day should have a balance of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation, and 8 hours of rest – and the 2-day weekend offered a healthy break to refresh. But the extra day...Read More
Vitamins
What Would Make Your Skin Turn Yellow?
A report from the Massachusetts General Hospital and published in the New England Journal of Medicine tells an interesting story. A 62-year-old man over a two-month period developed numbness, a “pins and needles” sensation in his hands, shortness of breath, trouble walking due to severe joint pain, and he began to turn yellow. Anyone faced with all these problems would think the end is near and start planning to say goodbye to loved ones. In retrospect, his symptoms could have been even worse. He could also have faced paranoia, delusions, memory loss, incontinence, loss of taste and more. But this man had a pinch of good luck. Tests revealed he had a deficiency of vitamin B-12. He wasn’t going to die. But...Read More
Alcohol, Alternate Treatments
Retirement Homes Should Include a Lively Bar
What is the greatest loss to aging seniors? It happens when a loved one dies, and loneliness consumes the surviving partner. As the great composer Chopin lamented, “I feel alone, alone, alone.” Retirement is another benchmark for the onset of loneliness. Retirees often miss the day-to-day contact with colleagues. The impact of social isolation can lead to physical and mental health decline. A move to a retirement residence may also be a time of misgivings. So when weighing the options, you may wish to ask, “Is there a bar?” In an expansion forty-five years ago, Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital in Toronto opened an English-style pub called the Boar’s Head. Hospital management at the time was convinced that “pub therapy” helped patients cope with convalescence...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Cardiovascular, Vitamins
Long-term survival after heart attack
Diana Gifford-Jones: You were 74 when a coronary attack nearly killed you. A short time later you had a coronary bypass. Readers often ask what you have done to prevent another coronary for so long? Gifford-Jones, MD: I have no single answer. I’m convinced it’s been a combination of factors. Diana: What’s your personal routine for heart health? G-J: I was lucky to interview Dr. Linus Pauling years ago. He believed that heart disease is partially due to a deficiency of vitamin C. This causes microscopic cracks in the inner lining of arteries. A blood clot results with possibility of death. I didn’t want to pop handfuls of vitamin C tablets, so I formulated Medi-C Plus, a powder form of C in combination...Read More
Cardiovascular, Neurology, Nutrition, Orthopedics, Pain, Vitamins
Symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency
Magnesium is involved in roughly 80 percent of metabolic functions in the body. It is critical in delivering energy to cells and for the production of glutathione, an important antioxidant inside cells. Today, due to depletion of magnesium in the soil and modern food processing, about 60 percent of North Americans are deficient in this vital mineral. This hidden depletion could be causing diverse symptoms. Suffering Migraine Attacks? About 15 percent of the population experience one or more migraine attacks due to constricted blood vessels. Studies show that blood levels of magnesium in migraine patients are low compared to healthy patients. But they are even lower during a migraine attack. An intravenous injection of magnesium relaxes constricted vessels and relieves migraine pain. Feeling...Read More
Cardiovascular
How Accurate Is Your Blood Pressure Reading?
Having your blood pressure taken during an annual checkup is always part of the routine. In fact, compared to CT scans and MRI procedures used to detect complex problems, most people don’t give blood pressure readings much thought. As long as the doctor reports normal readings, there’s no reason for concern. But have you ever wondered if your blood pressure reading is accurate? Multiple studies have shown that 15 to 30 percent of those who have elevated blood pressure in a doctor’s office or other health care setting have normal blood pressure when checked at home. It is not shocking news. You must be a pretty cool patient not to be somewhat uptight in medical offices. There is always the concern...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Cardiovascular, Neurology
No Moderation Needed When Bathing in the Woods
Mae West, the American movie star who rarely lacked for lifestyle advice, once conceded, “When in doubt, take a bath.” She didn’t have a forest setting in mind. But did you know that forest bathing might be just as therapeutic as a soak in the suds? Some people gravitate, even in unfavourable weather, to the outdoors. Others are most comfortable in front of the hearth. But a walk in the woods may be just the remedy you could use after months of confinement at home. A glimpse into the research surrounding this little-known “forest bathing” therapy offers insights on benefits including improved cardiovascular function, brain activity, immune systems, self-esteem, and reduced anxiety and depression. According to Ann Martin, a certified Forest Therapy...Read More
Philosophy
Finding Truth in Science is a Moving Target
Having a good debate about matters of your health is not a bad thing. As has been said, “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” But recently, having a difference of opinion has become too closely associated with the polarized politics that is endemic in many countries. People have lost their sensibilities amid noisy pundits arguing nonsense about facts and fake news. So if you do not know who to turn to for the “truth”, you are not alone. And maybe you are chasing in the wrong direction. In the old days, there were fewer authorities holding credible and accessible medical knowledge. Research was bound in books, and it was the...Read More
Genitourinary
Fixing the Leak of Untold Incontinence
Urinary incontinence is one of the most common problems of aging. It instills, needlessly, the prospect of embarrassment and a fear of leaving the house. Comedians quip, “If you don’t know when you need to go, by the time you find out, you’ve already gone!” But in fact, it’s no laughing matter when a sneeze, cough, or even just standing up causes urine suddenly to leak through your clothes. Stress incontinence occurs when pressure in the urinary bladder is greater than the ability of the muscles to hold back the flow of urine. In men, it may be associated with aging, or the result of a radical prostatectomy for cancer of the prostate gland. For women, it’s often due to repeated...Read More
Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Nutrition
Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank
How would you like to have a cart full of healthy foods and still save money? Anyone who does the grocery shopping will tell you, it is more expensive to buy the ingredients for a healthy diet like vegetables, nuts, fruit and fish than the refined grains, processed prepared foods and meats of an unhealthy diet. Is there a way to buy healthy and keep costs down? Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Professor of Nutrition at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, emphasizes that it is worth spending the time to spend your grocery dollars wisely. “We have seen again and again that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers and...Read More
Archive, Miscellaneous
Sharing a ride to health and safety
We all hope for a breakthrough in the cure for cancer. Thankfully, scientists are making progress in the fight against this and many other devastating diseases. But on occasion, an innovation well outside of the healthcare sector can make a big difference in matters of life and death. And is there one such innovation where older people are missing out? New research shows that the introduction of ridesharing services has dramatically reduced trauma stemming from car accidents. This isn’t the first such study, but it adds to a mounting collection of studies with finding that allow for better planning and decisionmaking. Ridesharing companies, like Uber and Lyft and another 88 or so competitors globally, have been in operation for about a decade,...Read More
Medicine
Are You Taking Too Much Medication?
Many diseases can be effectively managed thanks to therapeutic treatments involving pharmaceutical drugs. But have we gone too far in popping pills for every ache? Or even for serious health conditions, has your doctor put as much thought into how to get you off prescription medications as has gone into putting you on them? The statistics are alarming. A study of drug use among seniors in Canada in 2016 found that 2 out of 3 Canadians over the age of 65 were taking at least 5 different prescription medications and over a quarter took at least 10 different prescription medications! In the U.S., a 2018 national survey found that 48.6% of the entire population used at least one prescription drug in...Read More
