2001 - 2002 ARCHIVE
Glaucoma. They call it the "sneak thief of sight." Glaucoma steals your sight without warning, and often, without symptoms.
GRT and breast cancer. Four more years. That's how long women have to wait before we have the results of long-term studies on the use of hormone replacement therapy.Canada's Doctor Shortage. Why do so few doctors want to work in rural and northern Canada?
Real Age. An interview with Dr. Michael Roizen, author of - Real Age Are You as Young as You Can Be?
Cardio Rehabilitation. The first thing you’d do after you have a heart attack, is count yourself lucky to be alive. Heart disease is still the single-biggest killer of men and women in this country.
Stem Cell Research. By now, most of us know what stem cells are and that they have enormous potential, down the road, to cure disease.
How many times do you find yourself reaching for an antacid to get rid of that familiar burning sensation in your chest and throat? Sales of over-the-counter heartburn medications run up to a hundred million dollars a year in Canada. That's alot of people self-medicating...people like Jerry Birnbaum. He wishes he'd headed to the doctor instead of the drug store.
Even the president of the pharmaceutical company that manufactures thalidomide admits it caused more human suffering than any other single drug. But thalidomide also has the potential to reduce suffering, and prolong life, and that’s why it’s been reborn. Thalidomide is involved in no fewer than 100 clinical trials to treat everything from multiple myeloma to Crohn’s disease. But because some early test results are so promising, doctors are already using it.
A Special Report on Breast Cancer
At the time, they called themselves "the lucky polios" -- people who survived the polio virus, fought their way back from paralysis, and went on to lead full and productive lives.Ü But decades after their original polio, thousands of these survivors are discovering they have post polio syndrome ç a progressive and debilitating condition with symptoms that are all too familiar.
If you think anthrax scares have been rampant since September 11th, just wait until flu season hits.Ü It seems the symptoms are the same, raising the possibility that everyone with a sore throat will think "anthrax" rather than the much more likely influenza.Ü We thought it was time for a reality check on anthrax, smallpox and other types of germ warfare.Ü And interview with Gavin Clark, professor of microbiology in the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto.
Until recently, it was a disease no one wanted to talk about, or raise money for, or admit they had. But with the emergence of a new drug therapy, Remicaid, Crohn's disease is slowly coming out of the closet. We'll meet three members of one family who've lived most of their adult lives with Crohn's.
A lot of us are aware that antibiotics are over-prescribed, and that it's leading to the creation of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. And the World Health Organization has just reiterated that patients need to stop pressuring their doctors for drugs that won't fight their virus anyway. But the WHO also singled out farmers and veterinarians for contributing to the superbug problem.
Although varicose veins are usually a cosmetic problem, they can be painful and sometimes dangerous. We look at the range of treatments for them.
A lot of us are aware that antibiotics are over-prescribed, and that it's leading to the creation of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. And the World Health Organization has just reiterated that patients need to stop pressuring their doctors for drugs that won't fight their virus anyway. But the WHO also singled out farmers and veterinarians for contributing to the superbug problem.
Imagine if every time you answered the phone, ordered from a menu, or interviewed for a job - you couldn't do what most of us take for granted. Get the words out. Three hundred thousand Canadians stutter and the experts still don't know what causes it. But a new intensive treatment is finally giving them the tools to fight for their words.
Surgeons operating on the wrong body part, nurses giving the wrong medication, a fatal misdiagnosis. About 10-thousand Canadians die every year from medical mistakes, and that's just in hospitals.
Although hysterectomies are still standard treatment for severe fibroid tumours, many doctors and patients have been looking for alternatives. We may have one.... a treatment that could spare the womb, if only government could spare the money.
Between talk of mass smallpox vaccinations, and the arrival of flu season, vaccines are in the news. Vaccines such as those for polio, smallpox and diptheria have saved millions of lives worldwide. Still, a small but vocal part of the population remains skeptical and leery of vaccines.
Those who believe prayer heals got a boost from a recent study. It showed women undergoing in vitro fertilization had higher rates of pregnancy when groups of strangers anonymously prayed for them. That won't be enough to convince the skeptics, but cancer survivor Judy Milli isn't one of them.
Dozens of people in Vancouver have forked out almost a thousand dollars each to get a three-dimensional look at their insides. It's called a "full-body scan", and it's done with a million-dollar x-ray machine called a CT scan. The problem is, their doctors didn't order these tests, and they may be medically unnecessary.
Canada may be the first country to sanction marijuana as a medicine, but not many are happy with the government's system. Even though some patients are allowed to use pot, they're not supposed to buy it. In many Canadian cities, patients are getting around that by joining compassion clubsÖ.part pot shop, part counseling service, they bring new meaning to the term "high society."
Doing 300 sit ups a day will give you washboard abs. No pain, no gain. This is part of the conventional wisdom about exercising. But there are many myths associated with fitness and Rob Bertelink, exercise supervisor at the Toronto Rehab Cardiac Program is going to help dispel them.
Not very long ago, children born with cystic fibrosis weren't expected to live past the age of 5. It's one of the most common fatal genetic diseases. It affects the lungs and makes breathing difficult. But thanks to advances in treatment, people born with CF today can expect to live longer, healthier lives.
You may think you own your fsh22 or your BRCA 1, but there's a biotech company somewhere that begs to differ. Those are genes that have been identified and sequenced painstakingly by genetic researchers. And now, they've been patented. Which means we might have to pay a hefty price to find out if we carry these genes. Dr. Phil Wyatt and Stephen Scherer, discuss the issue of gene patenting.
Many Canadians are old enough to remember sanitoriums, where thousands were quarantined with tuberculosis. About 2 billion people are still infected world wide and as many as three million people die from TB every year. Anita Hall was born in Canada and never dreamed she was at risk. She lived with active TB for months before she was diagnosed and treated.
In Toronto, immigrants and refugees make up 90 per cent of new cases of active tuberculosis. And that's despite the fact that immigrants are screened. However, they're not screened for other things like Hepatitis B and HIV, which are also deadly and costly to treat. A conversation with Dr. Jay Keystone, an infectious diseases expert at the University Health Network.
Photo Dynamic Therapy, or PDT, uses photo-sensitive drugs and a laser beam to treat disease. Last season, we showed you how it can be used for macular degeneration. Now it looks as if PDT may be an effective weapon against cancer. So why is it so hard to get?
Electroconvulsive therapy is still well-respected in the psychiatric community and not an uncommon treatment for severe depression. But the quest for an alternative goes on. Your Health looks at one that's still considered experimentalÉthough it carries magnetic possibilities.
Alcoholism is a disease that not only hurts the alcoholic but also damages those around her. There are new treatments to help alcoholics but tough love may be the best prescription. An interview with Dr. Graeme Cunningham, director of addiction treatment at the Homewood Health Centre and a recovering alcoholic.
Most of us recognize weakness down one side of the body, or speech slurring as warning signs of stroke. But if it were your 4 or 5-year-old child with these symptoms, would stroke ever enter your head? Kids can have stroke -- in fact, they're more common than brain tumours in children. But for all the similarities between child and adult strokes, there are also key differences.
If a little vitamin A is good for your eyesight, then more is better, right? Not always. Doctors are concerned about a trend toward megadosing vitamins. But health nuts say the recommended daily allowances are set too low to be effective. We talk vitamins with Dr. Shirley Epstein.
It's not obvious at birth and although as children they have health problems, at first, they seem unrelated. For Melissa and Bob Santagato it was an eye doctor who finally put it all together. Their son John Robert has a rare disorder caused by a missing or inverted chromosone. It's called Williams Syndrome.
Let's face it - we're all part of the bottomless population of people who are "nearly sick". Recent studies support the idea of giving medications to people before they even have symptoms of disease. But some worry that this practice is more about expanding markets for drug companies than preventative medicine.
Remember the angst you felt breaking out in a faceful of pimples as a teenager? Or being embarrassed and turning beet red in a roomful of people? That's the feeling people with rosacea put up with every day. Rosacea is a very common skin disease, which affects mostly the face. If left untreated, it can be disfiguring. Dermatologists can help, but it's the cosmetologist who can sometimes work miracles.
Researchers think they can stop psychotic episodes by giving people drugs earlier -- even before a diagnosis of schizophrenia. But critics warn that using drugs too early can be dangerous. We talk about the prophylactic use of these drugs.
Program 19
There's obese....and then there's morbidly obese: people who are at least twice their healthy body weight. And this extra fat does put their health at risk -- they're more apt to have diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, just to name a few. We look at a new surgery that will help these people lose weight, but still adds up to an extreme measure.
No method of birth control is perfect: condoms break. Pills are forgotten. The College of Obstetricians and Gynocologists wants women to have easy access to something known as "the morning-after pill". The College says it should be available without a prescription. We talk to Dr. Sheila Dunn, medical director of Toronto's Bay Centre for Birth Control.Program 20
In Canada, where drug companies can’t advertise products directly to the consumer, they must instead pitch the drugs to the doctors who write the prescriptions. But doctors don’t need ads, they need education about which drug is best for their patients. We looked at how they get that education, and how it can affect your health when the education is coming from drug companies.
It’s as if a whole generation of young girls had been put on hormonal fast forward: For the last decade, doctors have noticed more and more girls are developing breasts and growing pubic hair at younger ages – some as young as 5, 6 and 7 years old. We talk with one of the leading researchers in the field of early puberty.Program 21
There are some disorders we associate only with children: autism is one of them. But what's the future for an autistic child? Who better to answer that than an autistic adult? Afterall, kids with autism grow up too.
When David Kirk fell off a ladder, there were two things he didn’t know. One – that he'd broken two vertebrae in his spine. Two – that he had osteoporosis. A recent landmark Canadian study confirmed that men are as likely to get this bone disease as women.Report on Home Care Special
In this special edition of "Your Health" we examine home care services in Ontario and whether they're meeting the needs of the sick, the frail and the elderly. The provincial government created Community Care Access Centres in the late 90's.
There are some disorders we associate only with children: autism is one of them. But what's the future for an autistic child? Who better to answer that than an autistic adult? Afterall, kids with autism grow up too.
When David Kirk fell off a ladder, there were two things he didn’t know. One – that he'd broken two vertebrae in his spine. Two – that he had osteoporosis. A recent landmark Canadian study confirmed that men are as likely to get this bone disease as women.Program 22
Would you want to know you had an incurable disease? We can now diagnose Alzheimer's while people still understand what that means , but we can't offer them a cure. Although there are drugs to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's, it's debatable how well they work. Brenda Hounam is grappling with her diagnosis, able to understand today what she may not remember tomorrow.When it comes to choosing between the family pet or our children's health, we'd all say our kids come first. But when the doctor says that Fluffy has to go, many parents get rid of the doctor instead of the cat. My two guests disagree over the health risks of dogs and cats and other pets. Dr. Barry Zimmerman is a pediatric allergist. And Dr. Chip Coombs is a veterinarian.
If the story of Tracey Latimer has done anything, it has brought the issue of caregiver stress out of the closet. Everyday in Canada, thousands of families care for severely disabled children who need round-the-clock attention. And studies show there's a huge cost, both financially and emotionally to caring for these children.
When watching our story on the Peters and McCormack families, you will be both moved by their devotion to their children, and appalled that there isn’t more assistance available to them. We’re going to explore the extent of caregiver stress, the impact on our society, and what can be done to alleviate it.More than 400 years ago women in Salem Massachusetts were burned at the stake. People thought their behaviour marked them as witches. Now some think many of those women suffered from Huntington's Disease.
Huntington's is an inherited brain disorder that causes personality changes, involuntary movements and dementia. This week we profile one family that's living with the legacy of Huntington's.
It's an exciting time to be a heart doctor - the promise of xenotrans-
plantation, artificial hearts and pumps that keep patients alive until an organ becomes available. Unfortunately, it's still a desperate time to be a patient waiting for a new heart, because that's still your best chance of surviving, and they're still in short supply. Dr. Heather Ross is a cardiologist and the medical director of the transplant program at the University Health Network.
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