Health & Wellness

TORONTO — A small clinical trial of the so-called “liberation treatment” for multiple sclerosis has found that the intervention did not improve patients’ symptoms and in some cases even made their disease worse.

OTTAWA — Six years ago, Ellyn Braun’s doctor told her that the acne medication she was taking could double as birth control, even though Health Canada doesn’t regulate it as a form of contraception.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis put his humility on display during his first day as pontiff Thursday, stopping by his hotel to pick up his luggage and praying like a pilgrim before a beloved shrine in a decidedly different style for the papacy usually ensconced inside the frescoed halls of the Vatican.

SAN FRANCISCO — When PepsiCo Inc. announced it would stop putting an obscure vegetable oil in its Gatorade right before the Super Bowl, one of the loudest cheers came from a high school student who had made it her mission to get rid of the ingredient.

TORONTO—Ontario is raising concerns about new clinics that would pay people to provide blood plasma, saying Health Canada should delay any approvals until it has consulted the provinces and other groups.

TORONTO — An international panel of experts has issued an updated consensus statement on evaluating and treating sports-related concussions, which includes some tweaks on managing the brain injury and a discussion on the possible link with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

NEW YORK — It wasn’t too long ago that America had a love affair with soda. Now, an old flame has the country’s heart.
As New York City’s ban on the sale of large cups of soda and other sugary drinks at some businesses starts on Tuesday, one thing is clear: soda’s run as the nation’s beverage of choice has fizzled.
In its place? A favourite for much of history: Plain old H2O.

TORONTO — Experts suggest women may be catching up to their male peers when it comes to alcohol consumption.
A group of researchers gathered in Toronto on Friday to discuss what they describe as a rise in female drinking.
Several said booze was the new tobacco, saying alcohol companies have begun targeting ads towards women the way cigarette manufacturers did in the late 1960s.

TORONTO — An unknown bat virus that found a way into human lungs in 2003 served as a global wake-up call to the threat of new infectious diseases. But a decade after SARS crippled health-care systems in affected cities and knocked billions out of the global economy, is the world better prepared to handle similar threats? Is Canada?

TORONTO — More than one in seven cases of Alzheimer’s disease could be prevented if all Canadians who are currently inactive were to start getting regular physical activity — even if it’s just taking brisk walks in 10-minute increments a few times a day, a new report suggests.