Health

Brett Samson raises funds to help others with diabetes through selling vegetables he grows, as well as turkeys he raises. (Troy Turner/CBC)Brett Samson's life is like that of many other 13-year-olds. He loves to play sports, spends as much time on his bike as he does on his pillow, and regularly takes the dog for a walk.His work on his hobby farm with his parents accounts for a lot of spare time too, as he raises chickens and turkeys and grows an abundance of vegetables. However unlike many other teens his age, Brett was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in October of 2020 when he was eight, and has to work every day to manage the disease."As soon as I came out of the hospital, we didn't know what to do. We were still new to it. But we all had to buckle down and figure it out. We got through ...

Toronto Public Health has confirmed some mosquitos in the city have tested positive for West Nile virus, but say the risk of infection is low if precautions are taken.The findings mark the first positive cases this year after results came back on three batches of mosquitos collected in the city, the public health agency said in a news release on Friday. West Nile virus is transmitted to humans from the bites of infected mosquitos. Symptoms can take two to 14 days to develop and include fever, headache, nausea, skin rash and body aches. People over the age of 50 or with weakened immune systems are at a greater risk of severe illness, said TPH. TPH says residents should take necessary precautions to avoid mosquito bites, such as:  Wear long, light-coloured clothing. Use Health Canada-app...

Nearly seven months after Angelina Geraldi's death, her family is no closer to understanding what happened after she fell out of bed at her long-term care facility just before Christmas last year.The 97-year-old died at CHSLD LaSalle less than a day later and the coroner opened an investigation into her death — referring the case to the Montreal police.Since then, Geraldi's family says they've been left in the dark."They're not allowed to tell you who was working. They're not allowed to tell you what's going on," said Geraldi's granddaughter, Alice Costello.She says all the CHSLD staff were willing to say was that the orderly, or préposées aux bénéficiaires (PAB), working that night was suspended. They were also told the nurse on duty was working two floors and on a break when the incident...

It's no "magic bullet," but a recent TikTok trend could boost your health without too much extra legwork. Users of the social media app are spreading the gospel of high-intensity interval walking, after latching onto a nearly 20-year-old Japanese study that touted some health benefits for older and middle-aged people.The 2007 study found the technique of switching back and forth between periods of "high-intensity" and more relaxed walking — a technique TikTokers are calling "Japanese walking" because of the study's country of origin — could do more to lower blood pressure and build muscle and aerobic capacity than the same amount of continuous walking at a more moderate pace.Participants in the 2007 study did three minutes of fast walking, followed by three minutes of slower walking, for 3...

A Canadian research team is calling on Albertans to take part in a national survey about primary care.The "OurCare" initiative surveyed and met with nearly 10,000 Canadians between 2022 and 2024 and found widespread dissatisfaction with the state of primary care.It estimated more than one in five Canadian adults didn't have access to a family doctor or nurse practitioner and issued a 72-page report last year, outlining a number of primary care standards it described as a blueprint for system transformation.Now the group is conducting another survey to find out how the experience of Canadians has changed and compares to those priorities."We know that access to primary care is an important issue for each and every person in Canada," said Dr. Tara Kiran, a family physician at Toronto's St. Mi...

British Columbia's minister of health says the province has reinstated coverage for an expensive drug used by a Vancouver Island girl with a rare and terminal genetic disorder. Josie Osborne said in a statement issued Thursday that Charleigh Pollock, who recently turned 10, will once again receive coverage for Brineura. The drug treats neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis Type 2, also known as CLN2 or Batten disease, which results in multiple seizures every day — eventually causing brain damage. Osborne said last month the girl's condition had reached the point where it met criteria to discontinue using the $1-million-per-year medication.Pollock's family and several experts and physicians had argued that Brineura was improving her quality of life.But the health minister, quoting the findings of ...

In the fight to better help people with severe and persistent mental illness in Ontario — which can sometimes result in costly detention in jails and hospitals — two opposing camps are lobbying the Ministry of Health in very different directions.On one side are those who think unwell patients are given too much freedom to reject treatment, putting them at risk of having their mental illnesses progress and become entrenched.On the other side are the patient advocates who say there are already enough mechanisms to force treatment on people, that giving patients the help they ask for leads to better outcomes, and that insufficient community support is the real problem.Meanwhile, health and justice systems as they exist today can spend much to achieve little. In one woman's ongoing case, a CBC...

Eight healthy babies were born in Britain with the help of an experimental technique that uses DNA from three people to help mothers avoid passing devastating rare diseases to their children, researchers report.Most DNA is found in the nucleus of our cells, and it's that genetic material — some inherited from mom, some from dad — that makes us who we are. But there's also some DNA outside of the cell's nucleus, in structures called mitochondria. Dangerous mutations there can cause a range of diseases in children that can lead to muscle weakness, seizures, developmental delays, major organ failure and death.Testing during the in vitro fertilization process can usually identify whether these mutations are present. But in rare cases, it's not clear.Researchers have been developing a technique...

Hospitalizations related to injuries from scooters and e-scooters have risen, according to new Canadian data, as emergency physicians warn the two-wheeled vehicles aren't toys.The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) said Thursday that nearly 1,000 people were hospitalized for scooter-related injuries during the 12-month period starting April 1, 2023. That's up from 810 during the same period of 2022-23.Half of the injuries — 498 — were related to motorized e-scooters, an increase of 32 per cent over the 375 hospitalizations recorded in 2022-23. "Some unintentional injuries are really predictable and preventable, particularly in relation to e-scooter injuries," said Tanya Khan, CIHI's manager of hospital data advancement and engagement in Montreal.Emergency physicians say the e...

Public Health is asking New Brunswickers in Sussex or people who recently visited the region to monitor for measles symptoms and get vaccinated, following a confirmed case of the illness.The case, announced Thursday, is believed to be related to another infected person from outside of the province who was travelling through the region between June 22 and 23. This is the first confirmed New Brunswick case of measles in 2025, and regional medical officer of health Dr. Kimberley Barker says health officials need to take action immediately. "We suspect there's been a couple of other cases," Barker told CBC radio's Information Morning. "Oftentimes people don't report to health-care systems to be tested." Those who could have been exposed to either individual involved in this case are being aske...