Health & Lifestyle

Myths About Eggs Showing Cracks

Recent research is casting new light on the old adage you are what you eat, at least as far as cholesterol is concerned.

For about a generation consumers have been warned to stay away from cholesterol-laden foods, in the belief that what goes in the mouth ends up in the blood stream, where it was thought dietary cholesterol contributed to plaque build-up in blood vessels and development of heart disease. Eggs, with their high-cholesterol content, became taboo for the cholesterol-conscious.

But new studies show it is fat—or rather, certain types of fat—that increase the risk of heart […]

Dr. Allan Hawryluk was dreading the difficult hours ahead—his patient was on blood thinners, and bleeding uncontrollably following a tooth extraction. The Mississauga dentist knew it could be hours before the bleeding was brought under control with sutures and chemical compounds.

Then he tried a sample of the new HemCon dental dressing. “The bleeding stopped completely and immediately,” he said. “I just didn’t believe it.” In the year since he first used it he has gone on to use the new dressing to stop bleeding in the mouth of a National Hockey League player who “was able to return to […]

Healthy Smile, Healthy Heart

Brushing and flossing doesn’t just prevent tooth loss—it may also be important to preventing heart disease.

U.S. researchers have found evidence that bacteria associated with gum disease plays a role in plaque formation in blood vessels in people exposed to the bacteria for a long time.

For years it’s been known there’s an association between periodontal (gum) disease and heart disease, and this research, which appeared in the Journal of Periodontology in December, sheds new light on the connection.

The research team at Howard University in Washington, D.C., made up of periodontologists, stroke specialists and researchers looking for causes […]

Robert Anderson dreams of the day he can once again look at a pencil and pick it up with his left hand, something he has not been able to do since he lost most of his left arm and his left leg in a helicopter crash in 2006. The wildfire ranger from Grande Prairie, Alta., has a mechanical arm with a hook on the end.

In March, Anderson underwent nerve- implantation surgery that should make it possible for him to operate a revolutionary bionic arm. He is now waiting to see if the nerves have grown and will allow him […]

Finding Bacteria’s Sweet Tooth

Employing nanotechnology, which uses particles one billionth of a metre in size, researchers at the University of Toledo in Ohio have devised a new means of capturing bacteria—by catering to their “sweet tooth.”

Many bacteria launch their infections after latching onto carbohydrates (sugars) on human cell surfaces. Dr. Xuefei Huang, an associate professor of chemistry, and colleagues from the department of civil engineering, coated some magnetic nanoparticles with a sugar that is particularly attractive to E. coli, the bacteria responsible for many cases of food poisoning. The ‘bugs’ just ate it up.

Within five minutes researchers, using a […]

Ancient Greeks used to pray to Apollo, the sun god, to stop epidemics and cure diseases. Turns out they weren’t far wrong: sunlight is vital to human health, as modern Canadians have learned to our cost.

For a whole generation—on doctors’ advice—we have slipped on shirts, slapped on hats, slopped on sunscreen and shirked the sunshine to avoid skin cancer. We have cut back on eggs and milk to reduce risk of heart disease, and we have curbed our appetite for cod-liver oil, mackerel and wild salmon.

We have cut ourselves off from the sources of vitamin D.

Result? It is estimated […]

ABCs Of Preventing Coronary Disease

A group of West Coast researchers has found a cost-effective way to get middle-aged people to lower their risk factors for cardiovascular disease: grade the risk factors like schoolwork and provide telephone counselling to help people improve their grades.“We told them the optimum (risk) level, assigned a grade to each of their risks, and tried to move them to the next level,” says Andrew Wister, chair of the department of gerontology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. “If they got Fs or Ds, those were the areas we focused on for improvement.”The researchers studied two […]

January can be the cruellest month north of the 49th parallel; it is the height of the flu season, during which up to one in four Canadians will get sick. Influenza and resulting bacterial infections kill roughly 6,700 Canadians each year […]

Veterans in the new Dianne and Irving Kipnes Centre for Veterans in Edmonton may have trouble explaining to their families that there is a pony in their room. But it’s true.

Trained miniature ponies have been added to the menagerie at the home for 120 veterans on […]

The Importance Of Eating–Earnest!

Eating well–that is, getting the right balance of nutrition and calories–is not easy at the best of times, but it is especially important for the elderly. A study conducted Down Under showed just how vital a good diet is.

Researchers at Sydney, Australia’s Prince […]