Health

On a recent July day at the Digby General Hospital's emergency department, visitors would have been greeted by a sign no one wants to encounter as they reach the front door: the site was closed. It's a sign that's been getting a lot of use lately.Digby, like many rural health-care facilities around Nova Scotia and across Canada, has staffing problems and those problems cause closures. Right now, the site has just one full-time emergency medicine doctor, with the remaining shifts covered by locums — doctors who travel to the community to fill in.According to publicly available information, the emergency department in Digby was closed for 518 hours in June, 514 hours in May and 383 hours in April.For years, closures have been stubbornly difficult to solve at certain sites, but Nancy Whalley ...

Aphrodite Deng, 15, tells The National about the moment she became the first Canadian to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior Golf Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Health officials are adding Saskatchewan and British Columbia to the list of provinces where salami and cacciatore products connected to a salmonella outbreak were distributed. The Public Health Agency of Canada says 87 people have now gotten sick after eating contaminated lunch meat, with nine of those people landing in the hospital. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) previously reported the contaminated products were sold in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec.Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause severe illness and potentially deadly infections, particularly for children, pregnant people, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.Healthy people may experience short-term fever, headache, vomiting, nausea, cramps and diarrhea.WATCH | Recall reality check: Are food rec...

The first time Fay Martin read up on the details of a proposed act to make landlords responsible for preventing drug activities in their units in Ontario, she says her hair stood on end. As a founder and board member of Places for People, which rents out 20 affordable units in Haliburton Highlands, Ont., she says the legislation — which threatens landlords with fines or jail time if their properties are used for producing or trafficking drugs — conflicts with both the goals of her charity and possibly with its ability to survive long-term . "It's going to be a total disincentive to housing the people that most need housing, and that the community needs to have housed," she said. Martin said that's because it could discourage supportive housing providers from "taking a chance" on tenants wh...

Twenty years after same-sex marriage became legal in Canada, couples who fought for that right and other advocates are celebrating the milestone while also acknowledging that there’s a long way to go before reaching full equality.

Natasha Ngindi says learning to listen to her body's cues about hunger and fullness helped her eat better and feel better. (Submitted by Natasha Ngindi)This First Person article is the experience of Natasha Ngindi, who lives in Saskatoon. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.For most of my life, I believed my body was a problem. I believed that if I could just lose weight, everything would be better. I'd be more confident, I'd be happy and I'd finally feel good enough.So I dieted. I exercised obsessively. I lost weight. And for a moment, I thought I had won. But the truth? Diet culture stole years of my life before I broke free. As a child in South Africa, I grew up surrounded by family, culture and food that felt like love. There was no counting calori...

As a measles outbreak grows in Alberta, some who are vulnerable are taking extra precautions as summer events kick into high gear.Carla Jacobson lives in Edmonton and has four children, including a one-year-old and a newborn baby.The one-year-old only has one dose of the measles vaccine while the baby will have to wait months before she can get her first shot."It's a little scary for sure," Jacobson said.Carla Jacobson and her family of four are being mindful about the province's growing measles outbreak. (Julia Wong/CBC)Measles cases have been steadily rising in Alberta since March. As of Friday, 1,407 cases had been reported across the province since the outbreak began.The high case count has Jacobson more mindful of what her family of six will do this summer. "I don't really need to go ...

When Cathy Lumb was raising her children in the 1990s, she never thought much about protecting their eyes from the sun."It really was not talked about by doctors or anyone that I recall," she said. "They always wore a sun hat when we were out, but we didn't talk about sunglasses back then."Now, it's a very different story. Lumb always has her prescription sunglasses when she heads out the door."Regardless of the season, all year, especially in winter," Lumb said. "I do a lot of running outdoors and when it's sunny and bright, I need my sunglasses."Lumb has family history as an incentive: 25 years ago, her mother's eyesight began to falter and since then, she's also had to deal with cataracts and glaucoma.A new grandparent, Lumb said eye health is a more common subject now."My daughter is a...

1 day agoNewsDuration 4:40Photos of U.S. President Donald Trump's bruised hand and swollen ankles have led to speculation about his health. The White House confirmed Trump has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency — a common condition associated with age. Andrew Chang talks to experts to understand the impacts of the vein condition, and explains why there may be a heightened curiosity about Trump's health. Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.

The DoseHow does poor air quality affect my health?Ask Dr. Chris Carlsten about the clear booth in his University of British Columbia (UBC) laboratory, and he'll reassure you that it's perfectly safe — even if volunteers spend multiple sessions in the chamber breathing in polluted air."The duration varies, but the standard is two hours in that booth with Wi-Fi, with ability to basically use their computer, books, study, whatever," said Carlsten, head of the Air Pollution Exposure Lab (APEL) at UBC and Canada Research Chair in occupational and environmental lung disease.As wildfire smoke has a worsening effect on air quality in Canada, the lab is one of the only facilities of its kind in Canada gathering pinpoint data to provide insight into the ways poor air quality is harmful to human hea...