Health & Lifestyle

Blood Tests To Detect Cancer A less invasive alternative to surgical biopsy to identify and track serious diseases is now in the works. Researchers are using biomarkers—like certain antibodies and proteins—to diagnose several serious diseases, including prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer. Prostate cancer researchers in England have developed a way to detect autoantibodies in blood samples long before symptoms begin. Not only do researchers claim it’s more accurate than current methods—a rectal examination and prostate specific antigen (PSA) test—but it would do away with biopsies. It should also increase survival rates, since men could be treated much earlier.

When people enter the home of Derek and Maria Lunden in North Vancouver or the home of Alison and Peter Faid in Edmonton, they are impressed by roomy kitchens and bathrooms, wide doorways and hallways, fine finishings and lots of natural light. What isn’t so obvious is that these private homes were designed to help their owners negotiate through the later stages of life, whatever life throws at them.

Oxygen Therapy For Foot Ulcers Canadian diabetics with non-healing foot ulcers face a double barrier in access to a healing therapy that could prevent a significant number of amputations of toes, feet and legs.

Thanks to medical advances that have cut the death toll from infectious diseases, babies born in Canada today can expect to live better than 80 years—nearly 30 years longer than those born a century ago. But that medical victory has given us another battlefield: chronic disease. One-third of Canadians live with chronic health conditions, and the proportion goes up as we age, with nearly half of those 65 to 79, and 59 per cent of those 80 and older living with high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. So years have been added to our lives, but can we add life to our extra years?

It can be distressing when you or someone close to you is overcome by emotion at a Remembrance Day ceremony—but that’s no reason not to take part in services if you want to go.

Copper And Iron Alert Anyone over 50 who takes nutritional supplements may want to consider a brand without iron and copper pending further research into connections between the minerals and a range of age-related diseases.

Baby boomers are reaching retirement age—and many plan to lace up some good walking shoes and take those trips they’ve always dreamed about. Some even plan to take their parents. The good news is the travel industry has been paying attention, and there’s never been a better time for seniors to hit the road or take to the skies. When are you too old to travel? NEVER. Short of illness that keeps you bed- or house-bound, there are travel adventures for every age group. Dicky knees, achy hips, reliance on medication or mobility aids—even the need for dialysis—do not have to put the kibosh on your travel dreams. Here are some tips to help smooth the road.

Got A Food Craving? Imagine This… Anyone who’s ever had a food craving knows how it can blot out the rest of the world. You want chocolate. You imagine the glisten on the surface, the crunch as you take a bite, the velvety texture on your tongue, the sweetness, the aroma…soon you can hardly think of anything else.

Taking Your Mind Off Pain Struggling with pain? Meditation may help take the edge off. Researchers at the University of Montreal have discovered that Zen meditation thickens the region of the brain that regulates pain. “We found a relationship between cortical thickness and pain sensitivity,” says University of Montreal researcher Joshua A. Grant. For the study, researchers applied a heated plate to the legs of volunteers, half of whom meditated, half who didn’t. There was a difference of about 50 per cent in pain perception between the two. The meditators tolerated more heat before feeling moderate pain.

Myrtle Smith, 103, of Stanstead, Que.; Ottawa residents Dr. Bill Jeans, 91, and Al Sentance, 84; and Bob Cawker, 93, of Surrey, B.C.; have all been driving seven or eight decades, have had their drivers’ licences renewed in the past two years, and intend to continue driving as long as they are capable. They are part of a growing visible minority—senior, senior drivers.