Category: Health

Canada to Label Bisphenol A dangerous

Bisphenol A is chemical that is used to make plastic containers like Nalgene water bottles. Health Canada has been looking into the chemical for some time now and will announce today that Bispehnol A is considered dangerous in Canada. Some stores have banned products that use the chemical, with San Fransico providing some legislation against the chemical.

It is believed that bisphenol A can leach out of food and beverage containers when they are exposed to high heat or highly acidic foods.

Studies show that it mimics the hormone estrogen in the bloodstream, and is linked to health problems including breast cancer and infertility.

If bisphenol A is indeed declared dangerous, it could be up to a year or more before the health minister is able to issue regulations controlling its use.

Previous reports claimed the announcement would come as early as last Wednesday. That prompted several Canadian retailers to pull products containing bisphenol A from their shelves.

Check Marks to Save Lives

An article on the CBC’s website today mentions that intensive care units in Toronto will be using a checklist to ensure the best medical care for patients. Yes, a checklist.

It’s one of three ICU checklists Dr. Damon Scales has adopted in his Toronto hospital.

“When I tell people about these things they sort of have the reaction of saying, ‘How could you ever forget that?’ said the clinical associate in the department of critical care medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “But this is a busy place with complicated patients and these are the kinds of things that can get lost in the shuffle.”

It’s such a simple solution that most people don’t think the checklist is real. In December the New Yorker ran an article on how checklists are the best thing to happen to medicine since, well, seemingly forever. The New Yorker article is a great read.

Ebola Virus Vaccine Proven to Work

A team of Canadian and American researchers have tested a vaccine for the ebola virus on primates, and it seems to be working. They hope that what they’ve learned from finding a vaccine for ebola can be applied to other viruses like HIV/AIDs.

“Ebola virus is a Biosafety Level 4 threat, along with many other haemorrhagic fever viruses”, says Dr Sanchez. “As well as the difficulty in getting the right staff and facilities, vaccines for viruses like Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever have been difficult to produce because simple ‘killed’ viruses that just trigger an antibody response from the blood are not effective. For these viruses we need to get a cell-mediated response, which involves our bodies producing killer T-cells before immunity is strong enough to prevent or clear an infection.”

The researchers have now used several different recombinant DNA techniques, which have allowed them to trigger a cell-mediated response and produce a vaccine that is effective in non-human primates. One of the candidate vaccines is about to be tested on people for the first time, after entering Phase 1 clinical trials in autumn 2006.

Video Games for the Brain

Become a smarter a individual by exercising your brain using video games!

The five-week program required Alex to spend up to an hour a day on a computer, pitting his wits against a robot. Among other exercises, the robot blinked out sequences of flashing lights that Alex was required to replicate.

The program made a dramatic difference in Alex’s ability to concentrate, remember and act on daily chores, his mother says.

“I noticed it immediately,” said George, 47, who lives with her physician husband in Santa Rosa Valley, California. “The program was like a game and my son was loving it.”

Cogmed is part of an emerging brain fitness software industry that could expand rapidly as aging baby boomers seek ways to stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The size of the U.S. market for brain stimulation products — which can range from games such as Nintendo Co Ltd’s Brain Age to programs backed by research showing they can improve memory or other cognitive functions — more than doubled between 2005 and 2007 to $225 million, according to a new report by the consulting group SharpBrains.

Just as baby boomers’ desire to delay cardiovascular and ot

Therapeutic Horse Riding

Animals seem to be wonderful for human health, we just found out the greatness of cats, and now we know about the greatness of horses. The Totem Saddle Club in British Columbia provides therapeutic riding for kids who suffer from cerebral palsy.

They are participating in a therapeutic riding session run by the Northwest Therapeutic Equestrian Association (NWTEA). Therapeutic riding involves using horses to aid in the development of children and young adults with mental, physical and emotional difficulties.

According to Lisa Burd, president of the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association (CanTRA), almost anyone with such difficulties can benefit from therapeutic riding, including people with spina bifida, brain injury, attention deficit disorder, emotional difficulties, autism and neurological impairments.