Health

Five weeks after Cathy Croskery's right breast was biopsied for suspected cancer, she still hadn't received the results.She figured that was good news. It wasn't.The 58-year-old mother and wife eventually discovered she has invasive carcinoma, but had to track down that diagnosis herself.Croskery doesn't have a family doctor. She said that led to barriers getting into the system and a breakdown in communication in receiving test results that would ultimately land her in an operating room for a lumpectomy days after finally receiving them."If I had kept going, 'No news is good news,' where would I be?" said Croskery, who lives in Middle Sackville, N.S., but is originally from Burlington, Ont. "That's a death sentence for a lot of people."Experts say Croskery's case underscores that the prov...

Protesters demanding the government provide more funding and treatment for people with long COVID gathered at a demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday.Long COVID is a chronic condition that can lead to debilitating symptoms, like brain fog and fatigue, months or even years after an acute COVID-19 infection.No one knows exactly how many people in B.C. have the condition, but a Statistics Canada report from December 2023 estimated there were 3.5 million Canadians who reported experiencing long-term symptoms following a COVID-19 infection, and around 100,000 had been unable to return to work or school due to long COVID.More than a dozen people were at Saturday's protest, which marked Long COVID Awareness Day. The protestors said they feel forgotten and left behind as much of t...

WARNING: This story contains discussion of suicide. Marc Turner's mother remembers him coming home with a prescription in the fall of 2020."He was really excited to take it. I can literally remember him running in the house," said Denise Turner. "He was like: 'I know it's a lifelong drug, but it's going to work.'"The 35-year-old living in Mississauga, Ont., had been concerned about losing his hair. The medication, a popular drug called finasteride, promised to curb the issue. His doctor warned him side-effects — erectile dysfunction and a lowered libido — were possible, but the doctor told Marc these symptoms would cease if he stopped the medication. Marc's excitement was short-lived. "Three weeks after starting, he said to me: 'I'm having some funny feelings in my head, like brain fog or ...

The Dose22:51What does the research show about the benefits of creatine supplements?Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that provides energy to our muscles and brain, but it also comes in supplement form. It's long been used by athletes and bodybuilders, but now some research suggests it may also improve cognition. Darren Candow, professor and director of the University of Regina's Aging Muscle and Bone Health Laboratory, explains the science behind creatine's effect on muscles and bones, and why supplements could also help with mental stress. For transcripts of The Dose, please visit: lnk.to/dose-transcripts [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/the-dose-transcripts-listen-1.6732281]. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. For more episodes of this ...

As anxiety grew among Nova Scotians over the fear of the arrival of COVID-19 in early March 2020, Premier Stephen McNeil wanted to meet with a public health official he barely knew.That person's name? Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health.Because Public Health operates independently of government, McNeil said there was a hesitance for the department to meet with his office.The two men were soon joined at the hip, providing daily news conferences discussing the state of the pandemic in the province, providing consistent messaging about what people should and shouldn't be doing.To mark the five-year anniversary of Nova Scotia's first presumptive COVID-19 cases, CBC News spoke with McNeil and Strang to get their thoughts on the province's early pandemic response, a...

This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.Five years ago this week, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, warning that the situation would worsen for countries around the world. "We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the time. Canada had already reported 1,360 cases by March 12, 2020. In a matter of days, governments closed schools and told travellers to self-isolate, the House of Commons shut down and borders were closed to most travellers. Five years...

White Coat Black Art26:30Saving elderly patients from the hazards of the ERIt's 7 a.m. in the emergency department of St. Mary's Hospital in Montreal, and geriatric nurse Leeza Paolone is starting her day in front of a screen filled with patient names, taking note of each one highlighted in blue."We're fighting against the clock to get these patients seen, and hopefully out of there," Paolone told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of CBC Radio's White Coat, Black Art.  The blue names belong to patients 75 and over who've been identified by triage nurses as at risk of functional decline in the hospital. The longer these patients spend in the ER, the worse their outcomes are likely to be, due to a phenomenon known as hospital-associated deconditioning. It refers to physical and often cognitive decline...

An advocate for New Brunswickers suffering from unexplained neurological symptoms says a letter obtained by CBC News suggests Health Minister Dr. John Dornan wasn't truthful about his role in the removal of a Moncton neurologist from his post at the clinic treating many of the patients.The letter dated July 4, 2022, shows it was Dornan — then CEO of the Horizon Health Network — who informed Dr. Alier Marrero his participation in the Moncton Interdisciplinary Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinic would soon cease."Despite our repeated attempts to inform you of our expectations and the deficiencies in your performance, you have not demonstrated a sustained ability to meet our expectations," Dornan wrote.Dornan is now overseeing Premier Susan Holt's pre-election pledge as Opposition leader to lau...

Alberta Health Services alleges the wrongful dismissal suit of the organization's former CEO is "groundless" and an attempt to extract a larger severance payment.In a statement of defence filed Friday in Edmonton's Court of King's Bench, the provincial health agency says it terminated former CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos because she wasn't fulfilling her duties.The claim says Mentzelopoulos's lawsuit in response to her January termination is "ill-founded, groundless and vexatious."Mentzelopoulos, a former Alberta government employee who has served as deputy minister of finance, filed the suit against AHS and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange last month.She claims she was fired two days before she was scheduled to meet with Alberta's auditor general about surgical contracts she says had links to...

In response to an Ontario-wide measles outbreak, with many cases occurring near Brantford, some public health units have expanded vaccinations to include infants as young as six months. Typically, the measles vaccine is given to children at one year old and then four years old. But with dozens of cases reported in the community, Grand Erie Public Health (GEPH) has made the first shot available to babies between six and 11 months, and the second to children before they turn four. GEPH is offering measles vaccination clinics and appointments can be booked through their website. Hamilton Public Health Services is also recommending the first vaccine dose be administered to infants under one year old if they're part of travel to other areas of Ontario or internationally.GEPH covers Brantford, a...