Health & Wellness

VANCOUVER—Just days after Canada’s physician-assisted dying law came into force, a 25-year-old British Columbia woman with a degenerative muscle disease is challenging it in court.

VANCOUVER—Canada urgently needs a national strategy to ensure seniors are prescribed appropriate medications because the cost of giving them the wrong drugs has reached nearly $2 billion a year, a new study says.

OTTAWA—Health Canada is making it easier for gay men to give blood—so long as they have been celibate for one year.

Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec now will be allowed to accept blood from men who have had sex with men as recently as one year ago.

“It’s certainly a step in the right direction,” federal Health minister Jane Philpott said yesterday.

CHANDIGARH, India—Millions of people twisted their bodies in complex positions in celebration of International Yoga Day today.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined a crowd of 30,000 schoolchildren and other residents of the northern city of Chandigarh for a mass yoga session.

LONDON — The World Health Organization’s research arm has downgraded its classification of coffee as a possible carcinogen, declaring there isn’t enough proof to show a link to cancer.

OTTAWA—The Senate has rejected a proposal to allow individuals who are diagnosed with competence-eroding conditions like dementia to make advance requests for medical help to end their lives.

OTTAWA—Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa yesterday—weeks after the Northern Ontario reserve’s youth suicide crisis garnered global attention.

CHICAGO — Parental warning: Don’t lose sleep over new guidelines on how much shut-eye your kids should be getting.

The recommendations range from up to 16 hours daily for babies to at least eight hours for teens. They come from a panel of experts and give parents fresh ammunition for when kids blame them for strict bedtimes.

TORONTO — Shopping for steaks to grill and confused by the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed beef? And why is one more expensive?

A Toronto-based butcher who stocks 100 per cent grass-fed beef argues cows that graze on grass are healthier and their meat contains less fat than their counterparts eating grain or corn.

TORONTO — It’s no secret that a walk in the woods can be great for boosting your mood.

But a burgeoning group of nature enthusiasts say it can do much more — including strengthen immunity, lower blood pressure, increase your ability to focus, and ultimately lower health-care costs if done regularly.