Health Canada has approved Actonel(R) (risedronate sodium tablets) 150 mg, Canada’s first and only once-a-month dosing option in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Canadian patients at high risk of osteoporotic fracture now have the convenience of taking one tablet on the same day each month.

- Paul Raeburn 
Key Concepts


It is widely recognized that a 40-year-old woman has an increased risk of bearing a child with Down syndrome. What is not known is that a 40-year-old man has the same risk of fathering a child with schizophrenia—and even higher odds of his offspring having autism. The risk of bipolar disorder appears to rise as well.

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Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria’s Prime Minister, once remarked “There are three kinds of lies, lies, damned lies and statistics”. Disraeli, if he had been a doctor, could have been referring to the PSA test for prostate cancer. For instance, the New England Journal of Medicine has just reported a European study that showed that this blood test cut the death rate of this disease by 20 percent. But this impressive figure refers to a relative reduction in deaths.

I’d bet that 99 percent of readers have never heard of the name “Actinic Keratosis” (AK). But thousands of people have this type of skin lesion that if left untreated can develop into skin cancer over time. Now there’s a unique skin cream that can prevent or stop this from occurring.

Why are people so misinformed about cholesterol when so much has been published about it? After all, cholesterol has become a household name. It’s hard to go to a social gathering without someone mentioning this fatty substance and their own cholesterol level. But as one wise sage remarked, “It’s not the things you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s the things you know for sure that ain’t so”. So what ain’t so about cholesterol?

I’ve always believed that being shot at 95 years of age by a jealous lover is the ideal way to depart this earth. But suppose you survive a coronary attack much earlier in life, how is it going to affect your sex life? Is it time to forget about “amour” and switch to backgammon or hooking rugs? Or, is a little romp in the bed still safe?

“Don’t you worry about cholesterol in eggs?” a friend recently asked me. I had ordered ham-and-eggs for breakfast which I often enjoy. But my friend was sure that eggs were a nutritional relic of the past, only good for a display at the Smithsonian Institution. I told him he was suffering from “cholesterolphobia”, should upgrade his thinking about eggs, and that if he would order the same breakfast, it would decrease his risk of heart disease and macular degeneration.

Are you having trouble getting a second date? Do you see friends backing away when you’re speaking to them. Or has your faithful dog started to sit on the other side of the room. If so, you may be suffering from ‘Halitosis”. But before you lose your last friend there are ways to fight this problem. A good start is to take the blueberry test. It will also help to save your teeth.

Have you ever seen lions running? You bet they run when they’re hungry and chasing prey. The only other time they exercise is at mating season when they’re having sex every 20 minutes! But most of the time they lay around or sleep. Exercise is simply not high on their priority list, and they survive well without buying Nike running shoes.

A Mayo Clinic researcher has identified exactly what is causing people to gain so much weight, even though our eating habits haven’t changed a lick in decades. So what’s behind our expanding waistlines? It’s called “sitting disease” – and it’s entirely preventable.

Today, let’s turn back the clock nearly 200 years, to an important moment in medical history. At that time a certain disease was invariably fatal. It can still be without speedy diagnosis and treatment. But, if by chance, you’re in a specific English pub when this condition strikes, you’re lucky. The pub owner can make the diagnosis quicker than most physicians. I wonder if you can diagnose what happened on October 30, 1723.

“Do you think my daughter and I should agree to a “detox diet?” a reader asked. Several of her friends had already undergone detoxification, she said, and had never felt better. So do I think it makes sense to purify our bodies? After all, who doesn’t want to feel healthier?

There’s a major problem with human behaviour. Unlike elephants, humans have a great propensity to forget. In fact, they often forget to do the simplest of tasks such as taking medication on a regular basis. This pitfall can have dangerous consequences. Now, due to advanced technology, it’s possible to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis (brittle bones) with just a single injection every year. And that’s pretty hard to forget!

“Will repeated ultrasound examinations harm my baby?” This is a question readers often ask. It’s a timely question, since millions of obstetrical diagnostic exams are done every year in North America. As well, many expectant families want to record the historic moment of delivery by obtaining a high-resolution, 3-D video of it. How safe are these procedures?

“Do you know where your children are this evening?” It’s a question we often hear these days about parents who fail to keep an eye on their children’s whereabouts. But suppose you’re a diligent parent and they’re in your own home. How safe are they when watching television?

What’s wrong with the Toronto Maple leafs? They haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967. This year, again, they’re floundering and may once again miss the playoffs.

The technique, known as karyomapping, has the potential to spot virtually any inherited genetic disease.

Painting the roses red; And many a tear we shed; Because we know; They’ll cease to grow; In fact, they’ll soon be dead; And yet we go ahead…

[Alice:] Oh, pardon me; But mister three; Why must you paint them red?

What measures one inch in diameter and kills more people than hurricanes and tornadoes combined in the U.S., is 50,000 times hotter than the sun and strikes this planet 3.6 million times every year? No doubt you have the answer, lightning. But you may not know there’s less chance of dying from this underrated killer if you remember “The 30 second rule”. And how a bra killed two English women.

During long plane flights I always ask for a glass of wine with dinner. Wine helps me to catnap and relieve the boredom of night travel. But why does red wine cause drowsiness? In the past, we understood that melatonin, a soporific, was only produced by mammals. Now, a report in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture claims that melatonin is also produced by plants. Italian scientists report that the skin of grapes used to make red wine contains high levels of melatonin. So enjoy your merlot or cabernet sauvignon for relaxation and sleep.

Why would I want people to suffer pain when in the past I’ve criticized doctors for inadequate pain control? For years I’ve argued it’s inhuman to allow terminal cancer patients to die in agony. How some get insufficient amounts of painkillers. Others are denied medication for fear of addiction even though they have only days or weeks to live. But suffering a little bit is the right prescription for millions of other people. 

What do people fear the most? It’s often said that giving a speech tops the list. But a recent survey shows it’s losing one’s sight. Today, with an aging population, an increasing number of people face the ultimate fear, a condition called Age–related Macular Degeneration (AMD) that destroys vision and can even lead to blindness. For the first time a new medication, Lucentis, is available that stops, and can even reverse, vision loss caused by the most serious form of this debilitating disease.

“Give Fae ginger ale for her queasy stomach”, I suggested to my daughter. But, “What’s in ginger ale that’s going to help?” she asked me. Telling her that my mother gave me ginger ale for this ailment wasn’t the scientific reply she expected from me. Unfortunately, my mother had never mentioned the magic ingredient in this drink. So I decided to research the health benefits of ginger and other spice

In the world of dietary politics, few campaigns are nastier than the one against high fructose corn syrup. From comparing it to illegal drugs to calling it the Devil, opponents of this common sweetener have resorted to some dirty tactics over the years. But as Daniel Engber explains in Slate this week, even the fanciest marketing tricks won’t change simple facts. No matter how creative the packaging, regular sucrose (what you know as “table sugar") has no superior qualities over its equally sweet rival.

How right were mothers and teachers when they told us to sit up straight? What can we do to improve brain function? Is it necessary to take antibiotics before dental procedures when you have a faulty heart valve? And if you have back pain do you need a walletectomy?

Is there any similarity between a car and the human body? We do have one thing in common—the need for efficient shock absorbers.

Who wouldn’t want to be less stressed these days when each day brings more frightening economic news? But before you reach for Prozac, make note of a new breakthrough non-drug way to shrug off stress, sharpen your mind, enhance memory, sleep like a baby and improve emotional health. The science behind this exciting breakthrough is called “Mind Aerobics”, based on powerful sound technology called “Holosync”, and used by 300,000 people in 55 countries.

What prescription could I write to ease this patient’s trouble during the holiday season? I knew that Prozac or St. John’s Wort was not the answer. Nor could any of the other drugs that I normally prescribe ease her suffering. Finally, I realized the best prescription was staring me right in the face. So as she left the office I wrote a few numbers down on my prescription pad. And I hope that some readers will do the same thing. 

What did former President Bill Clinton have to blush about? We all know the answer to that delicate question! Like Princess Diana, Rosie O’Donnell and the comedian W.C. Fields, he also suffered from Rosacea.

I am prompted to write this article based on what just happened. I’ve been watching TV lately and have seen how many Americans have been diagnosed with many diseases and are dying of various cancers. I began taking notes in anticipation of doing another article to tell people about the benefits of doing a cleanse. 

“Would you take the risk of jumping out of a plane with a parachute?” I asked the patient. 

In 1991 Dr. Joacques Perissat at the University of Bordeau, in France, announced to the World Congress of Surgeons that he had removed a gallbladder (cholecystectomy), using optical instruments inserted through a few small incisions. Now, 90 percent of gallbladder operations are done by fiber-optics. What are the advantages and what is its most devastating complication? And why is the crematorium the cure for some gallstones?

How many women will have their breasts examined this year? I don’t know the exact figure but it will be in the millions. But how many men will have their testicles examined during 2009? Again, I don’t know the exact number but it will be miniscule compared to that of the fairer sex. Is this sexual discrimination? If so, we need a class action lawsuit to protect men’s rights or, more to the point, our testicles. But more important, an increase in TSE (testicular self examination) would increase the survival rate of testicular malignancy.

We’ve often heard a minister ask, “Mary MacTavish, do you take John MacDuff to be your lawful husband, to love and cherish, till death do you part?”

KELOWNA, BC, June 1 /CNW/ - In support of the 2nd annual Tan Awareness Week June 1-8, the Joint Canadian Tanning Association (JCTA) is asking the Canadian Cancer Society to encourage Canadians to check their vitamin D blood levels, the same way it encourages skin cancer screening.

Never before in human history have so many North Americans been so obese and pot bellied. It’s causing an unparalleled epidemic of diabetes with disastrous complications. But research shows that it’s the abdominal fat, called visceral fat, that kills. Now, a natural remedy, Glabrinex, can help to decrease this “killer” fat.