Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Health & Wellness

Driving Miss Daisy: Society needs to help seniors who should stop driving

TORONTO — Society needs to do a better job helping seniors drive for as long as is safe and helping them adapt when the time comes to stop, says a new editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Intense treatment fails to prevent heart attacks in diabetics

ATLANTA — Key results from a landmark federal study are in, and the results are disappointing for diabetics: Adding drugs to drive blood pressure and blood-fats lower than current targets did not prevent heart problems, and in some cases caused harmful side effects.

Mini clothespin may give safer way to fix leaky heart valves

ATLANTA — Many Americans with leaky heart valves soon might be able to get them fixed without open-heart surgery. A study showed that a tiny clip implanted through an artery was safer and nearly as effective as surgery, doctors reported Sunday.

CPSC prepares warning about baby slings because of deaths

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is preparing a safety warning about baby slings — those popular and fashionable infant carriers that parents can sling around their chests to carry their baby.
The concern: infants can suffocate, and at least a few have.

’Giant colon’ aimed at promoting prevention of colorectal cancer, screening

TORONTO — Um ... OK ... it’s an embarrassing topic for many people. You know, butts and intestines and bowel movements and all that. But when it comes to saving lives by preventing colon cancer, let’s face it, there’s no such thing as too much information.

Motor function of stroke patients improves using Wii games, small study finds

TORONTO — A Wii bit of therapy using virtual reality game technology provided measurable benefits to stroke patients taking part in a small pilot study, researchers reported Thursday.

Doping in sport more covert, small scale than in Ben Johnson’s day: IOC official

VANCOUVER — Doping in Olympic sport is more covert and small scale today than in Ben Johnson’s era of the 1980s and 1990s, the head of the International Olympic Committee’s medical commission says.

Canadians live longer than ever; highest life expectancy in B.C., StatsCan says

OTTAWA — A new study says Canadians are living longer than ever.
The Statistics Canada study says life expectancy at birth reached 80.7 years for the three-year period between 2005 and 2007.
That’s up from the average of 80.5 between 2004 and 2006, and 78.4 a decade earlier.
Gains during the past decade were strongest among men, although women still live the longest.

Bilodeau’s esteem for brother sparks greater awareness of cerebral palsy

TORONTO — Alexandre Bilodeau’s Olympic gold medal will forever be enshrined as Canada’s first on home turf. But for people with cerebral palsy, it is the freestyle skier’s tender — and very public — esteem for his brother Frederic that will long glitter in memory.

Cheese wraps? Urine poultices? Injured athletes take a flyer on alternative meds

VANCOUVER — Cheese wraps, urine poultices, cell cures — when it comes to injuries, elite athletes can be game for some pretty out-there therapies.

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