December 12, 2022 · 7:00 AM
“Is the room spinning, or is it just me?”
A few months ago I ran across a thoughtful article by Morris van de Camp entitled Love Drinking Less. It’s well worth a read if your alcohol consumption is out of control or heading that way.
Alcohol is a two-edged sword. On the one hand it makes life fun and turns strangers into intimate friends in the course of an evening; on the other, it makes a person dysfunctional. Very dysfunctional. Productive time is lost, relationships are damaged, and health is harmed.
I cannot say…
current health news
One More Cure for Hiccups
December 20, 2022 · 5:50 AM
I’ve written previously about how Paul Ingraham helped cure my patello-femoral pain syndrome.
More recently, Paul looked into hiccup cures because his father had an intractable case. What finally worked for dad? Breathing into a plastic bag.
Boosting blood CO2 (hypercapnia) by breathing in a PLASTIC bag. This one is quite plausible and is easy and safe to try. Hypercapnia definitely affects some kinds of hiccups. The story (from a smart source, a good “friend of PainSci”): “There’s an even easier way out of hiccups — at zero cost. Learned it from my uncle,…
Newmarket pizzeria ordered to close after public health inspection
Walk4Pizza was cited for a number of items, including failing to protect food from contamination or adulteration, according to the inspection report
Newmarket restaurant Walk4Pizza was ordered to temporarily close by York Region Public Health following an inspection last week.
An inspection at the restaurant at 6-350 Davis Dr. found a number of items not in compliance on March 10.
According to the inspection report from public health, it failed to protect food from contamination or adulteration, failed to keep equipment surfaces clean as necessary, failed to ensure a certified food handler was present at all times, and was not…
Euthanasia Soon to Be A Leading Cause of Death in Canada?
February 7, 2023 · 7:00 AM
From DailyMail:
Last year, more than 10,000 people in Canada – surprisingly that’s over three percent of all deaths there – ended their lives via euthanasia, an increase of a third in the previous year. And it’s likely to keep rising: next year, Canada is set to allow people to die exclusively for mental health reasons.
Only last week, a jaw-dropping story emerged of how, five years into an infuriating battle to obtain a stairlift for her home, Canadian army veteran and Paralympian Christine Gauthier was offered an extraordinary alternative.
A Canadian official told…
Do private, for-profit clinics save taxpayers money and reduce wait times? The data says no
There’s a lot of talk these days about an increased role for private health-care clinics in Canada, sparked in part by Premier Doug Ford’s plans to significantly increase the number of Ontario surgeries done in for-profit clinics.
Despite promises from Ford and others that it will streamline services and solve the issue of long wait times, health-care professionals that CBC News interviewed say there are nuances and that such happy outcomes are not borne out by the data.
In fact, data from BC and from other countries suggests private, for-profit surgery clinics will likely increase the true cost to taxpayers…
Lisa Marie Presley’s death puts the rare risk of bariatric surgery in the spotlight
The cause of Lisa Marie Presley’s death, revealed Thursday to be a small bowel obstruction, has cast new attention on the rare risks and long-term complications of bariatric surgery.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office determined that the obstruction was caused by adhesions — buildups of scar tissue that cause organ tissue or walls to stick together — that Presley developed after he had bariatric surgery years ago.
A treatment for severe obesity, bariatric surgery induces weight loss by modifying the stomach or small intestine to reduce how much food the stomach can hold.
Presley, the only child of…
Out-of-body experiences reveal brain areas tied to our sense of self : Shots
Scientists say they’ve found a special part of the brain that, when stimulated, can cause out-of-body experiences.
Photo illustration: Heath Korvola/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle captions
Photo illustration: Heath Korvola/Getty Images
Scientists say they’ve found a special part of the brain that, when stimulated, can cause out-of-body experiences.
Photo illustration: Heath Korvola/Getty Images
Dr. Josef Parvizi remembers meeting a man with epilepsy whose seizures were causing some very unusual symptoms.
“He came to my clinic and said, ‘My sense of self is changing,'” says Parvizi, a professor of neurology at Stanford University.
The man told Parvizi that he felt “like…
Why I Don’t Eat Mushrooms
Mushrooms are commonly eaten among vegans and non-vegans alike, but many feel that mushrooms are not suitable for food. Below are a few of the reasons that I personally choose not to eat mushrooms.
(Note: Before anyone starts jumping on their keyboards to chastise me for posting this article, please note that these are my personal reasons for not eating mushrooms. I am not telling you that you cannot eat mushrooms. You are entitled to your personal preferences just as I am entitled to mine.
If you are offended by my personal decision concerning what I eat, then . .…