W. Gifford-Jones, MD and Diana Gifford-Jones

Alternative Medicine Makes a Good Gift

What’s the gift we’d like to have in stock for our readers this holiday season? It would be a healthy dose of common sense, and a reminder that not every health problem needs a medical solution. Unfortunately, few people open their minds when confronted with a swollen joint, an injury to the skin, back pain, broken bones, or even brain injuries. Yet, instead of costly, dangerous drugs that come with side effects, or surgical treatments that involve other risks, these are examples of problems that respond well to alternative forms of therapy.

Think Before you Drink Alcohol

The festive season is a time for social gatherings and alcohol often aides the merrymaking. Yet recent headlines advise to avoid alcohol at any time of year. The claim is that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. But the truth about alcohol is more nuanced, and recommendations for abstinence can be misleading.

Have Faith in the Doctor, with Limitations

Is it wise to believe what the doctor tells you? Or are there misleading types, not entirely honest with their patients? Does the medical system place the patient’s best interests first, as commonly stated on health center posters? Or do other factors, like pressure to ease wait times for a high-demand treatments, mean that some people aren’t informed of their best options. The truth is, having implicit faith in the medical profession is risky business.

Beware of Falling, It May Kill You

What a sad way to lose a friend. Not from a heart attack or cancer. Rather, a slip and backwards fall caused a strike of the head on a hard unforgiving surface. The traumatic injury resulted in death a few days later.

The Pros and Cons of Surgery for Osteoarthritis

When osteoarthritis in the knee is causing you pain, how do you know whether to hang in there and take it or to accept the risks of going under the knife in hopes of bouncing back stronger? It’s not an easy question. Many factors need to be part of the decision.

Giving Away a Lifetime Is Bittersweet Medicine

We find ourselves in the midst of change. During this 100^th trip around the sun, it’s finally time for a move to a retirement residence. While the comforts and care of an elegant assisted-living community are welcome, the upheaval is overwhelming! It’s hard to say goodbye to the family home of nearly 50 years. When children and grandchildren visit to savour the memories together, they just as eagerly eye the furniture and appliances!

Missing Messages in Infection Prevention

Influenza, or the flu, is on the rise this time of year. That’s because the virus spreads easily when people are indoors in close contact and when the air is less humid and colder. So, it makes sense that International Infection Prevention Week takes place in October. But what doesn’t make sense is the absence of an important message.

Oral Probiotics Offer Another Path to Wellness

“The mouth is the door of evil.” So said Euripides, the ancient Greek playwright of tragedy. If he were a modern-day nutritionist, it could be an observation on the very bad stuff people put in their mouths as food. Mother Teresa, however, acknowledged the mouth’s ability to do good. "Kind words can be short and easy to speak,” she said, “but their echoes are truly endless." So, is your mouth a place of good or evil?

An Excess of Stupidity Is Still the Problem

At a breakneck pace, today’s world threatens to leave us gasping for breath. You name it – climate change and pollution, the global demographic explosion, autocratic rulers trampling civil society, or the threat of AI’s unintended consequences. But for all the things where meaningful influence is out of the hands of most of us, why are these still so many things well within our control that we do so little to change?

More Amore for Good Health

Have you had enough of the daily news about endless epic failures of humankind to get things right? What if everyone just made love a little more? Would we all be in a better place? The fact is, having sex – or more to the point, making love – is downright good for you.

Let the Buyer Beware of Needless Radiation

There’s a Gifford-Jones Law that says, “Never accept radiation you don’t need.” But a dangerous new medical trend is breaking this law. What’s the worry? Across North America, some private clinics are now promoting the

promise of early detection of disease to healthy people. In return for a fee, buyers get whole-body screening using a variety of diagnostic imaging equipment.

Who Has the Most Dangerous Job?

We often advise readers not to be foolish – not with your health, money, relationships, or other vital aspects of life. Some risks are unavoidable, like crossing a busy intersection. Yet there’s little sense in choosing a career as a test pilot if you want to live to 100. Now, new research suggests we might have that wrong. Dangerous jobs with a high safety conscious may be the better bet!

Preventing Diabetes Risk Due to COVID-19 Infection

Will COVID-19 and the complications associated with this disease ever vanish? Never bet on it. Virus experts say COVID-19 will rise its ugly head again this fall. With it, they add, the complication of both types of diabetes will increase. It’s the last thing we need when obesity is already causing a worldwide pandemic of type 2 diabetes. So, how can you reduce the risk? It’s easier than you think.

More Fire and Smoke to Come

Fires are a natural part of life in the forests that extend across Canada and the northern US. But it is not normal for these forest fires to consume entire communities, take lives of unsuspecting citizens in a surreal panic, and leave thousands of people and animals displaced. Tragedies happen sometimes. Now however, experts tell us, we can anticipate more monstruous fires on a more frequent basis.

Starving the Gut Feeds the Brain

If our bodies could speak to our brains, many would hear this: “Dear brain, please know the difference between being hungry and bored. Sincerely, I’m getting fat!” Who doesn’t turn to food when the doldrums set in?

Potassium by the Doctrine of the Golden Mean

Aristotle’s doctrine of the golden mean lauds the middle ground of two extremes: excess and deficiency. But not everyone follows this sage advice. And not all vitamins and minerals send clear signals of absence or excess. This week, a look at potassium, the third most abundant mineral in the body.

A Veterinarian for Assessing Weakness

Readers of a great age face a common problem. It’s called frailty or general weakness. The frail elderly are at risk of falls that require hospitalization, often leading to palliative care. As the condition progresses, independent living at home can become impossible. For people who have reached the end of their desire to continue, frailty presents a medical dilemma for doctors. How much frailty is needed before the doctor allows, “There’s reason enough to end life by Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)”? And would a veterinarian be the better professional to make this decision?

Are You Making Medication Errors

Winston Churchill said, “The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself.” Unreliable statistics make it hard to know how many people die each year due to medication errors. How many more are taking harmful drug combinations or the wrong doses? The numbers are elusive because medical professionals don’t want to showcase errors and consumers may not realize their mistakes.

Government’s Good Intentions Gone Bad

Everyone wants a safe, effective, and accessible supply of the products that keep us healthy. Doctors and patients need proven drugs. People seeking to prevent illness with natural remedies also need good products. But

governments trying to ensure quality are putting measures in place that will limit the variety of supplements, make them more expensive, and make it harder for smaller companies with innovative products to compete.

Not Every Pain Needs a Pill

How we wish there were better ways to treat pain. But scientists are struggling to find them. The very nature of pain remains illusive too. Determining if pain is mild, moderate, or severe is a personal perception. Doctors and nurses ask patients to rate their pain from zero to ten. Whether the patient says 2 or 15, there’s more judgement than science in decisions about pain management. But one thing is certain, people managing pain at home are taking too many pills.