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Diabetes is heart disease
Diabetes and heart disease–only one in five people living with diabetes will survive heart disease. Currently 2.4 million Canadians are affected by diabetes. By 2010 that number will rise to more than 3 million. In addition, more than 6 million Canadians are living with prediabetes, which increases their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Shajia…
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Queensway Carleton Hospital Total Joint Assessment Clinic
Hip and knee replacement surgery is one of the areas targeted by Canada’s wait times strategy. For people suffering with osteoarthritic pain from damaged joints, waits of one to two years is not reasonable. Indeed the benchmark for the province Ontario is a maximum of six months wait. The Queensway Carleton hospital is the site…
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New blood thinner to prevent clots
One of the complications immediately after hip and knee surgery is an increased risk of blood clots called venous thrombosis. Indeed, many people have to take blood thinners by injection daily for about ten days after their surgery. A McMaster University researcher, after four extensive clinical studies, the latest published in the June 26 edition…
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Paying More, Getting Less 2008
Each year the Fraser Institute updates its report on the sustainability of medicare based on the most recent five-year trends. We invite Brett Skinner, Director, Health and Pharmaceutical Policy Research and Insurance Policy at The Fraser Institute to join us every year to review the findings in his report Paying More, Getting Less 2008. Brett…
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E. coli vacine for cattle reduces risk to population
In light of recent reports of E. coli contamination in a Northern Ontario restaurant and now in Southern Ontario communities, the news of the full licensing approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) of the world’s first vaccine designed to reduce the shedding by cattle of Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 is a welcome…
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Office testing: Is it a cold or a flu virus?
One of the problems for physicians and patients alike is trying to determine whether a viral respiratory infection is due to a cold virus of the flu among others. This has specific therapeutic and public health implications that would allow accurate advice and prevention measures on a more immediate basis. Dr. James Mahony, Director of…
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Interview with 2008-2009 CMA President Dr. Robert Ouellet
With the future sustainability of our health care system in question, CMA President Dr. Robert Ouellet presented a series of blunt questions in a presentation to the Club Canadien de Toronto on October 21, 2008. These questions were directed at what we are getting for the money we are spending each year, whether people should…
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Link between bacteria and Crohn's disease hypothesized
The investigation and research into the pathophysiology of Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune condition wherein the body’s own immune system attacks the gastrointestinal tract, has produced some hypotheses with respect to a possible mechanism that triggers the disease. An article published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, looked at the link between a specific bacterial strain and…
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How some bacteria protect themselves from our immune system
Ever since Dr. Barry Marshall from the University of Western Australia ingested the bacterium H. Pylori to prove that they were the cause of gastric ulcers for which was awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine in 2005, it seems that not all these bacteria are created equal in terms of their cancer–causing potential. Researchers from…
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