Health

Let’s stop living in health-care funding past

health care

How much should the federal government pay towards health-care costs? Hardly a week goes by without this thorny issue being disputed between federal and provincial governments—even now that the federal budget has been tabled and health accord agreements have been ...

Read More »

What medicines do we really need in Canada?

Canadians often express pride in our universal health system, which provides publicly funded doctor and hospital services. We don’t have to worry about filing for bankruptcy to get care when we need it.essential medicines But when it comes to prescription ...

Read More »

Canadian seniors are a privileged group

Canadian seniors are a privileged group. The Conference Board of Canada reports that life expectancy today is 10 years longer than in 1961. And the average Canadian can expect to live three years longer than the average American.health ration According ...

Read More »

There’s more to constipation than grunting

You think constipation isn’t important? If so, an article in the American Journal of Gastroenterology suggests you’d better think again. Annually, in the U.S., 700,000 people are seen in hospital emergency wards for this problem. Since 2006 there’s been a ...

Read More »

Defusing the time bomb of postpartum depression

A distraught young mother from British Columbia recently took her own life while in the grip of postpartum depression, leaving behind a grieving husband and infant son. She was a registered nurse and had been seeking treatment for depression and ...

Read More »

Living-with-disability culture needs changing

It’s just a few years from today and there have been a lot of positive changes for persons living with disabilities and their families in Canada. We have a new Canadians With Disabilities Act. Our government has signed the UN ...

Read More »

Why is it so hard for mothers to breastfeed in Canada?

An Icelandic MP breastfed her baby while delivering a speech in parliament recently. No one reacted to her breastfeeding, because in Iceland, breastfeeding is the cultural norm. The mother stated this was the most natural thing in the world. If ...

Read More »

Fidgeting and magic underwear

“Stop tapping your pencil!” my teacher called out. I didn’t. And one day he walked to my desk, threw me to the front of the class, then tossed me out of the classroom. Now, a study at the University of ...

Read More »

Dr. Gifford-Jones celebrates 60 years of marriage

For Editors, I thought you might like to see Susan who has been my other editor for 60 years. The smartest thing I ever did was marry a smart Wellesley College graduate who majored in English who puts in the ...

Read More »

Ottawa is set to muzzle access to scientific data on vaping

Remember when former prime minister Stephen Harper was accused of muzzling scientists? Apparently little has changed under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau.vaping The CBC reported in the spring of 2015 that Harper’s government had brought in “strict procedures around ...

Read More »