Health

Researchers working on treatments and cures for long COVID are closely watching newly signed Winnipeg Jets forward Jonathan Toews's healing journey — and his return to the NHL after two years away."I am thrilled that he is making a return and a comeback," said Dr. Kieran Quinn, an internal medicine and palliative care physician at Sinai Health in Toronto. He teaches and does research at the University of Toronto, looking for treatments to help long COVID patients feel better. Quinn is also a hockey fan who has followed Toews's career for years."It's really just great to see somebody in the prime of their life come back to the sport that they love. It's also, I think, really important for the hundreds of thousands or possibly even millions of Canadians who are living with long COVID to see ...

This is a First Person column by Christie Brulhart, who lives in Consort, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, see the FAQ.When people ask me what it was like to work as an ER nurse during the pandemic, I always lie. I tell them the worst part was being mandated to work by my employer, the isolation or the masks. I don't think they want to know the truth.Because the truth is that the hardest part about the pandemic was listening to someone who was struggling to breathe, say their last clipped sentence: "Can you tell my daughter I love her?" Perhaps I didn't fully appreciate how fractured our health-care system was until March 2020. My breaking pointI was working a night shift in a rural emergency room caring for a COVID-positive patient — an elderly woman who had su...

This First Person article is the experience of Lynn Paulin, who was born and raised in P.E.I. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.On Aug. 22, 2024, I received a text message from my mom. She had decided to go to the emergency room. The back pain she had been dealing with for the past month had become unbearable.I offered to make the 40-minute drive to the hospital to sit with her. She told me not to make the trip over what she suspected was nothing more than a pulled muscle.Not wanting to impose, I respected her wishes and stayed home. I wish I hadn't.Mom walked into the hospital that night thinking it was a minor injury and walked out the next morning with a diagnosis of Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer that had spread to her spine and crushed one of he...

Canada should do more to strengthen its health surveillance systems as cuts to U.S. health institutions threaten access to crucial monitoring data, experts say in an editorial published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) this week. The editorial says cuts within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health and the federal Department of Health and Human Services could strip Canada and other countries of valuable health data."We've had a decades-long relationship with the Centers for Disease Control and other organizations in the States," said co-author Dr. Shannon Charlebois, a family physician and CMAJ's medical editor. "As those are dismantled, we're not going to have our early warning systems." For example, when the mpox virus broke out in...

The novels Book Boyfriend, Atmosphere and Can't Get Enough might be in your stack of beach reads, but are they good for your mental health?While reading a novel and escaping into a fictional world can be enjoyable, those who study and practice bibliotherapy, the use of written materials as a form of treatment for mental health conditions, suggest there are aspects of reading that can measurably improve our well-being.It's not a new concept. Though the term bibliotherapy was coined in a 1916 article by American essayist and minister Samuel McChord Crothers, American psychiatrists and other physicians as far back as the early 1800s argued that reading benefited their patients and pushed for hospitals to include libraries.In more recent times, bibliotherapy refers to things like self-help boo...

The mayor of a small B.C. town on the Alaska border is sounding the alarm because she says her community doesn't have access to ambulance service — and she doesn't know when it's coming back.Angela Brand Danuser, the mayor of Stewart, B.C., a district of about 500 people, about 515 kilometres northwest of Prince George, said she found out about the service disruption through "unofficial" channels on Monday."Everybody in the community is in the dark on when we have ambulance coverage and when we don't," she said.The community's two paramedics are currently off work but have not been backfilled, according to Brand Danuser.The nearest ambulances would be dispatched from Hazelton, about a three-hour drive away, she said."That's not acceptable. That's not going to help you," Brand Danuser said....

As the Calgary Stampede kicks off, health experts are warning about the risk of measles exposure and are urging parents with babies and unimmunized children — along with other vulnerable Albertans — to sit this one out.The Stampede attracts travellers from all over Alberta and around the world. This year organizers expect more than 1.3 million people will attend.This annual event comes at a time when the province is battling its worst measles outbreaks in nearly half a century. As of noon Thursday, 1,179 cases had been reported since the outbreaks began in March."That's a lot of people over 10 days in a concentrated area and that's where the risk factor is," said Dr. Sam Wong, president of the section of pediatrics with the Alberta Medical Association."If I had an infant child I would be a...

A new study shows the majority of Canadians never or rarely use sunscreen, even as melanoma rates climb. Experts warn early sun damage can be deadly and say making sunscreen free or more affordable might help.

For the past 10 months, Toronto student Danial Young rose at 6 a.m. on weekdays to attend a program vastly different from what he'd known, leaving friends and familiar teachers behind as he ventured into new spaces and was challenged to develop new skills. Yet on a sweltering day in late June, as the 20-year-old turned the page on high school, you couldn't wipe the smile off his face. "It's been very important to learn here, because you're moving into the real world. You're now evolving into this whole different person," he said ahead of graduating from Project Search, a program that transitions young people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to the working world. "It's been a really great experience."As they move through secondary school, most teens are busy learning, trainin...

The IWK Foundation has launched a survey in the hopes of better understanding women's health experiences in the Maritime provinces and to address the disparity in health outcomes between men and women.The foundation is a not-for-profit organization that raises funds to support IWK Health, a major hospital in Halifax that provides care to women, youth and children from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.Jennifer Gillivan, president and CEO of the foundation, said the online survey invites women ages 18 and up to share their perspectives about their overall health experiences, challenges and outcomes. It also asks questions about their health in different stages of their life."Part of our mandate is to educate and advocate for women. And so we realized — we need to hear from...