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

A Pool Table Or a Natural Remedy For Sleep and Snoring?

How much Tiger is in your tank as you start the day? Not much, if you’ve been tossing and turning at night due to sleep apnea. Or if your partner has shaken the foundation with his or her snoring. Insomnia and snoring affect millions of North Americans and can be associated with serious health problems. Now, a natural remedy, “Bell Sound Sleep”, helps this troubling dilemma.

Don’t Teach Your Dog This Trick

Why did this patient and her partner repeatedly suffer yeast infection in spite of treatment?

Was I Wrong About Losing Weight?

Was my suggestion several years ago of ways to fight the obesity epidemic provocative? Since nothing was working, I proposed using money as an incentive, and tax the obese. After all, for centuries money has been a great motivator. In fact, those with millions sometimes cheat, steal and lie to get more. But no one thought I should be awarded the Nobel Prize for this idea.

Aspirin Decreases the Risk of Several Common Cancers

Is there anything more to be said about the multiple benefits of Aspirin? After all, it’s been a star for over 100 years and stars are supposed to eventually burn out. But in spite of its longevity, researchers keep findings new ways that Aspirin fights common diseases. It truly is the miracle drug of the last century.

What Did You Learn Last Year?

How much did you learn from this column last year? It’s always the hope of a medical journalist that at least some medical topics didn’t go in one ear and out the other. There’s the other possibility, however, of a lousy teacher. Let’s see how many of these questions you can get right.

The Hazards Of The Closed Car

What’s the best way this holiday season to expose your child to nicotine and the cancer-causing compounds in tobacco smoke? A report in the British Medical Association Journal says it’s very easy. Take your children for a car ride, keep the windows closed and smoke cigarettes.

The Many Different Faces of Infection

For centuries infection has been a major killer. Then several years ago it appeared that antibiotics had largely eradicated this menace. But unexpectedly the AIDS virus struck with a vengeance. Now scientists are linking infection to peptic ulcers, heart attack and cancer. So how can you protect yourself and your family from these serious illnesses?

A Quiz: What’s The Latest Low Carb Product?

How many readers can answer this question? What kills more North Americans than anything else? I’d bet many would answer heart disease or cancer. Authorities claim heart disease is the number one killer. But I’m convinced that calories are the main culprit killing millions of overweight North Americans. Today, let’s see if the following clues help you name the latest low carb product to combat the high-calorie diet. The answer may surprise you.

Rx: Ha Ha

A Russian youth, a member of the Siberian Ski patrol, arrived home after guarding the frontier for several months. He was asked by a TV interviewer, “What do you do first on arriving home after being away for so long?” He replied, “I make love to my wife”. The interviewer replied, “I understand that as you’ve been away a long time. But what do you do next?” The young man replied, “I make love to my wife again.” “Yes”, the frustrated interviewer continued, “but then what do you do?” The young Russian replied, “Oh, I take off my skis.”

“Gifford-Jones, They Don’t Want To Hear That!”

Several years ago a friend asked if I’d talk to a women’s organization about breast cancer, how mammography could detect malignancy in its early stages. But when I gave her a short version of what I intended to say, she remarked, “But they would not like to hear that!” End of the talk. So what do women not want to hear?

A Natural Remedy for “Cheat-Eating Days”

How often do you feel guilty about cheating, not during a card or golf game or trying to pay less income tax, but time and again feeling guilty about cheating on how much you eat? Since readers are always asking me for more natural ways to treat medical problems, here’s one to decrease guilt on cheat-eating days.

What You Don’t Know About Magnesium

“Doctor, am I taking enough or too much calcium?” It’s a question I’m often asked by patients. But I can’t recall a single instance when a patient has asked the same question about magnesium. It’s ironic as studies show that many North Americans are not obtaining sufficient amounts of this important mineral. In some cases this can be a fatal error. Now there’s a simple, natural way to prevent this.

Niagara’s Grass Roots Approach Targets Childhood Obesity

What will it take to eliminate the current obesity epidemic in children? There’s no easy answer and every year children are putting on more pounds. So why not try a new approach? The one veteran politicians use to get elected, the grass roots approach? This is what Dr. Stafford Dobbin, a wily Irishman and family physician, decided to try in the Niagara Region. It should set a standard for the nation.

The Devil You Know? Or The One You Don’t Know?

Lately many of the e-mails I’ve received have been from men. Why? Because a panel of U.S. experts recently reported that healthy men should say “No” to the PSA test that diagnoses prostate cancer. To many, this is like damning motherhood and apple pie as thousands of men routinely get this test every year.

Who Says That Heroin is an Illegal Painkiller?

The Globe and Mail was wrong in a recent column about the in-site heroin clinic in Vancouver, when it stated that heroin was an illegal drug. Its editors have forgotten that when I wrote for the G and M I spent thousands of dollars placing ads in the newspaper during a campaign to legalize heroin. And that Jake Epp, The Minister of Health, announced on Dec 4, 1984, that heroin would be legalized to treat terminal cancer pain.

PGX Fiber Fights Obesity

What’s the best way to fight the battle of the bulge? It’s not by buying books or starting fad diets that rarely work. Rather, it’s shocking that most people are unaware of the huge role fiber plays in combating obesity. Now there’s an easy, natural way to lose weight by adding PGX fiber to the daily menu.

How NEO40 Fights Multiple Health Problems

Feeling tired? Falling asleep in the afternoon? Losing your keys or interest in sex? Are you concerned about cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, high cholesterol, diabetes and its complications? Or want to limit the pain and swelling of arthritis, calm the inflammation of asthma and assist the immune system in fighting infection? If so, you may need a new revolutionary natural remedy NEO40 to increase your level of nitric oxide (N0).

The Best Time to Have an Operation

A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says it’s much safer to time your sickness. If not, there is a good risk of ending up with inferior medical care. So when should you get ill? And what is the prime time to have an operation?

Think Twice About Hernia Surgery

A reader asks, “Is it necessary to get a hernia repaired quickly?” The time-honoured tradition has always been to fix it. But is this approach always the right one? Or is “tincture of time”, namely watchful waiting, the best way to treat this common condition?

There’s More to Boston than Baked Beans

This fall the mention of Boston brings the Stanley Cup to mind. But there’s more to Boston than hockey and baked beans. I recently visited 711Washington Street in downtown Boston. Why? Because it’s the address of the world’s largest research center on nutrition and aging. 300 scientists there are studying a disease that affects everyone, Sarcopenia.