Steve Anthony: True Canadian Pharmacy

p That’s because fashion is so much more important to us [women], said Dufour, laughing at the contradiction. There’s not a whole lot of different shoes that men can wear that aren’t flat, she said. Researchers found one-quarter of participants reported generalized foot pain on most days, with 19 per cent of men and 29 per cent of women falling into this category. Yet even the lead researcher admitted she would not likely stop wearing heels, !–more– despite the mounting evidence against them. The study will be published in the October issue of the journal Arthritis Care Research.
The study offered one unexpected finding in that women reported pain only in their hind foot.
The study analyzed data from 1,900 women and nearly 1,500 men enrolled in the Framingham Foot Study between 2002 and 2008. The study is one of the first to examine the association between footwear beyond just high-heel use and foot pain. There’s nothing to hold your foot in. High-heels, pumps, sandals and slippers were classified as poor. Women who regularly wear high heels can expect to suffer heel pain as they age, according to a study from a Harvard-affiliated institute. They found no significant link between foot pain and the types of shoes men wear, something that did not surprise Dufour. The real issue is designing a good high heel that is affordable. She would like to see her research used by shoe designers and manufacturers. Hard- or rubber-soled shoes and work boots were average, and athletic and casual sneakers were good. According to this newest study, it’s not just high heels. Flip-flops are terrible for your feet. High heels need not be so damaging, said Dufour, but sadly, good high heels — those that offer good padding and strong support — are very expensive. The flattest of the flat shoe, the flip-flop, is one of the worst shoes a woman can wear, said Dufour. Dufour, a graduate student at the Institute for Aging Research of Hebrew Senior Life. Eleven shoe types were considered. Past studies have shown women who wear high heels are more likely to fall or develop a variety of painful, degenerative muscle and joint diseases. More than 60 per cent of women reported wearing poor shoes in the past, compared to only two per cent of men. Dufour said she and her researchers had expected more reports of pain all over the foot. In her own experience, she finds the ball of her foot become sore when she wears heels. I thought about it after I started doing all this research and seeing pictures of feet disfigured by wearing bad shoes, but no, I haven’t given anything up, said lead author Alyssa B. The researchers say past shoe-wear among women is a key factor for hind-foot, or heel, pain.

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p
At one point, the family took the boy to the emergency department of an Edmonton hospital, where he was later admitted to the psychiatric unit, Phillips said. On Sunday, police found the bodies of the man, 39, and the boy in a home in northeast Edmonton, after they received a call from the man’s common-law wife. The case highlights a lack of emergency services to help the families of autistic children, Phillips said. She was worried because !–more– she couldn’t get in touch with him. The family had become desperate for help because the little boy had become difficult for the family to manage, said Karen Phillips, who works with the Autism Society of Edmonton Area. They try their best, but they’re not trained in autism and the doctors there will say clearly, this is not the place for children with autism. The boy was autistic and had been living at a group home. (CBC)
The deaths of a man and his 11-year-old autistic son on Sunday were the result of a murder-suicide, Edmonton police said Tuesday, after receiving confirmation from the Edmonton Medical Examiner’s Office. There is no emergency service. The dad just felt he couldn’t do it any longer and he just didn’t think he could get the help he needed. Eventually, a place was found for the boy in a group home, but that search was a struggle, because many group homes are not set up to deal with autistic children with extreme behavourial problems. Karen Phillips, from the Autism Society of Edmonton Area, worked with the family.
Families are told to call police who in turn will take the child to the psychiatric unit of a hospital, but the staff there don’t have the kind of training required to help the child, Phillips said. , they found the man and the boy dead in the basement. They will also not be releasing the cause of death. They would think, ‘none of us could cope with that. When officers arrived at the home around 12:42 p. Police said they will not be releasing the names of deceased in order to protect the privacy of the family and to protect the identity of other children in the family. behaviourally out-of-control children with autism. ‘ But it’s an everyday occurrence for families who have. . . So parents are stuck at home with their children in situations that, if the general public knew, they’d be appalled, she said. Phillips had worked with the family and said the mother asked her to share their story.
The government was working on emergency respite services for families, but recent cutbacks mean the plans have been put on hold, she said. m. To say that this can’t happen for other families, Phillips said as her eyes welled up with tears talking about the tragedy. They’re very good. But the staff there weren’t equipped to help a child with autism.

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p If a boy is in the 30th percentile for weight then 70 per cent of children his age weigh more than him. There is something real and important going on here — something that, despite the overgrowth of children that is characteristic of the obesity epidemic and the sprouting of adult-type cardiovascular diseases in children related to excess weight, makes parents still more worried about underweight than overweight, even now, Jain wrote. S. !–more– Previously, Canadian researchers have expressed concerns over whether standardized growth charts that were based on European newborns reflect healthy growth for babies of south or Chinese ancestry. study suggests. Since the two dimensional lines and plots are not speaking a language that parents understand, Jain suggested using other approaches to getting parents to see when a child is underweight, overweight or obese, such as measuring abdominal circumference or discussing weight in terms of clothing size. But only 64 per cent could tell a child’s weight when shown it plotted on a growth chart in response to multiple-choice questions, Dr. For example, if a girl who is in the 90th percentile for height, she is taller than 90 per cent of other children her age. Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph of Nemours Center for Children’s Health Media in Wilmington, Del. The Canadian Pediatric Society is currently updating its guidelines on growth charts. , and her colleagues reported in the October issue of the journal Pediatrics. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and pediatric health-care groups in Canada encourage parents to use growth charts as monitoring tools.
About one-third of parents could find a child’s age, weight and percentile on a chart and define percentile correctly. However, just over half of parents were unconcerned about a very overweight child in the 10th percentile for height and 90th percentile for weight, Anjali Jain of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington said in a journal commentary accompanying the study. This finding is significant because many parents prefer to be shown growth charts by their health-care provider, and many parents report recording their children’s measurements on growth charts at home. Parents often ask pediatricians to see their children’s growth chart but many don’t seem to know how to interpret the information, a new U. schools are calculating students’ BMI or weight-to-height ratios in an effort to fight childhood obesity. S. Percentiles are used on a growth chart to show how a child compares to his or her peers. Although growth charts are used frequently as visual aids to educate parents about their children’s growth, many parents cannot comprehend the data, the study’s authors concluded. In an online survey of 1,000 parents, 64 per cent of respondents said it was important to look at growth charts to see how their child was growing, and 40 per cent said they needed to see it to confirm what the health-care provider said verbally. The findings showed a well-proportioned short and light child was fretted about. The U. Some U.

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p That study has yet to be independently confirmed. C. Any B. By initially targeting the seasonal flu campaign to those at highest risk, it not only removes a number of logistical challenges that come with trying to run two full immunization programs at once, but it is also in the best public health interest of British Columbians, said Kendall in the statement released Monday morning. Across Canada, public health authorities are altering their !–more– seasonal flu vaccination campaigns to allow mass inoculation against H1N1. 13, but other residents will have to wait until the new year to get the annual shot. resident aged 65 and older, along with those living in a long-term-care home, will be able to get the seasonal flu vaccine starting Oct. However, all British Columbians will be able to get the special H1N1 influenza vaccine as soon as it is available in late November, according to changes to the flu immunization program announced by the provincial government on Monday. Delivering the vaccine campaign in this fashion allows us to best protect British Columbians most at risk from seasonal flu, while still ensuring that everyone who needs and wants the H1N1 flu vaccine will be able to receive it as soon as it’s available, said provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall. The changes, which are similar to those already adopted by five other provinces, came after preliminary research released last week suggested those who get a regular flu shot have an increased risk of catching swine flu.

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p I think our horizon right now is through the winter … H1N1 influenza is what we’re planning very short-term around right now, Blevins said. The region’s vice-president, Sandra Blevins, told CBC News extra warehouse space to house extra masks, gloves, needles and other supplies is too expensive to rent, so any available space the region has will be used to store them. Blevins said the space shortage situation could last for up to six months. !–more– Sandra Blevins, vice-president of the Saskatoon Health Region, said the agency is scrambling to find space for swine flu supplies. Psychiatric patients who use the gym for exercise programs will have to be transported by bus to another hospital or school gym. In the long term, Blevins said, the region has to find 70,000 square feet of additional storage space to stockpile supplies for future pandemics. Stockpiles of supplies for fighting an expected H1N1 pandemic this fall are crowding out some programs for patients in the Saskatoon Health Region. One of those places is the Ellis Hall gymnasium at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital.

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p The seasonal flu vaccine will then be offered to everyone under 65 in December and January, acting chief medical officer Dr. The territorial Health Department said Monday that the seasonal flu shot will be made available in the first two weeks of October to high-risk residents over age 65. We haven’t had the opportunity to look at that data, because it is unpublished, she said.
Kandola said the N. That is because the northern territories !–more– are in a priority group that includes people in northern and remote communities, pregnant women, health-care workers and people with chronic health conditions. She added that health officials have not yet confirmed early findings from Canadian researchers that suggest people who get the seasonal flu shot may be twice as likely to get the H1N1 virus. Kandola said the H1N1 flu virus will be the main flu strain to spread this fall in the N. W. T. , with health officials preparing in case upwards of 30 per cent of the population contracts it. and the other territories will offer the H1N1 flu shot to their general populations ahead of the provinces, which will have to prioritize who within their populations will receive the vaccines first. , they have not been able to replicate this data. S. and the U. T. W. Kami Kandola told reporters Monday in Yellowknife. Children under the age of 10 will get the H1N1 vaccine in two doses, with the second dose to come four weeks after the first, while adults and children over the age of 10 will receive just one dose. K. The general population can receive the H1N1 vaccine starting in November. That research has not yet been peer-reviewed or published. We do know that in the U. She said health officials expect to see a drop in the number of swine flu cases once people are immunized for the H1N1 virus, but that will likely be followed by a wave of seasonal flu cases. The seasonal flu vaccine will provide protection from two influenza A strains and one influenza B strain, all related to flu strains reported in Australia, Kandola said. Health officials in the Northwest Territories will offer both regular flu shots and a vaccine for the H1N1 influenza virus in the coming months.

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p Seasonal flu vaccinations for people older than 65 and residents of long-term care homes will take place in October, since those groups are considered to be at greater risk from that flu than from swine flu. data don’t suggest that the seasonal flu vaccine has any impact on the likelihood of getting H1N1, Dr. A similar approach in delaying seasonal flu vaccinations has been adopted by Quebec, which will hold off seasonal shots until January, !–more– as well as by Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. The province plans to offer swine flu shots starting in November, or earlier if deemed necessary. But New Brunswick hopes to complete its seasonal vaccination program by mid-October, instead of offering the shots in November as in previous years. Theoretically, antibodies created by the immune system after exposure to bacteria or a virus can facilitate the entry of another strain of the virus or disease. Dr. Newfoundland and Labrador has recommended the seasonal flu shot be given out starting in October to anyone over the age of 65, residents of long-term care homes and adults and children with chronic heart or lung disease. Donald Low, chief microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. The antiviral drug Tamiflu shouldn’t be used to prevent H1N1 infection in people exposed to the virus but not sickened by it, WHO says. 8 million doses will be offered to pregnant women and children under the age of three, since there is little clinical data on the safety and effectiveness of the adjuvant in those two groups. Centers for Disease Control said Friday his agency would love to see Canadian data that appear to link getting a seasonal flu shot with catching swine flu. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer, said people should follow vaccination advice from their provincial and territorial medical officers of health. Other provinces and territories haven’t formally announced their flu shot plans yet. I’m not worried about the seasonal vaccine, he told reporters. He has ordered his own scientists to review the findings. Seasonal flu vaccinations for people younger than 65 — but only after the H1N1 shots have been given. 12. A wider swine flu vaccination campaign for the rest of the population starting in November, when a vaccine becomes available against the H1N1 influenza A virus, the swine flu strain that has been spreading worldwide since April. As of Thursday, there were 78 deaths in Canada among people with confirmed H1N1, up by two since Sept. About 1. There were also 15 people in hospital and three admissions to intensive-care units in that time, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told reporters. Provinces and territories appear to have no standard approach to flu vaccinations as they examine preliminary research suggesting people who have had seasonal flu shots might be at greater risk of catching swine flu. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed or published. Meanwhile, the CDC is recommending that vaccinations for both seasonal and H1N1 flu go ahead as quickly as possible. S. The effect has been seen for other viral vaccinations but never for influenza, said Dr. Thomas Frieden said. Butler-Jones noted that the Canadian government has purchased 600,000 more doses of H1N1 vaccine that does not include an adjuvant, a substance used to boost immune response. I think it’s a reason that it would be great to have a national policy on this because we’re now hearing messages from different provinces about different approaches to this issue with these new results that have come out, Low said Friday. Most provinces and territories have been reviewing their vaccination plans since Canadian researchers found people who had received the seasonal flu vaccine in the past were twice as likely to get the H1N1 virus. U. That is also going to confuse individuals, especially since the research finds are confusing to doctors and medical researchers as well, he said. S. The head of the U. Other provinces, including British Columbia, are also considering it.

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p George Vuicic, a partner at the law firm Hicks Morley, has been giving workshops to employers about their rights and obligations when it comes to infectious diseases like swine flu, also known as H1N1. If you take [things] a little bit easier this week, because you don’t feel too well, next week you work a little bit more without any financial repercussions. He thinks it’s entirely reasonable for employers to require employees to notify them !–more– if they have been exposed to the flu virus.
Statistics suggest that not that many businesses have come up with a plan as van der Pas has. A lot of people cannot afford not to work and not to have an income, said Heather Medwick, president of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases, in Winnipeg, which has been trying to create awareness among businesses about what they should be planning for. Jeff Brownlee, vice-president of the association, said he doesn’t believe that has changed much, as most small and medium-sized businesses are too busy struggling with the recession to cope with possible scenarios such as pandemics. And every party’s a different party with different people. Even though they don’t specifically include the danger of pandemics like swine flu, Vuicic said, because the key word is reasonable, there are no hard and fast rules. We help people with the drinks. We help people serving their appetizers and we take coats, said van der Pas, whose company caters 400 functions a year. Mark van der Pas, owner of Tulips Maple catering in Ottawa, was an exception. Odds are they’re going to come to work and they’re going to be contagious. The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association surveyed its members in May and found 87 per cent of its members have no plan in place to deal with the pandemic. Meanwhile, the federal government website dealing with H1N1 states that federal government employees, who are usually entitled to sick leave, may be asked not to report to work if they are suspected of having the virus or being in the incubation stage. ‘
— Heather Medwick, International Centre for Infectious Diseases
Few small businesses approached by the CBC News were willing to talk about whether they have such plans. ‘Odds are they’re going to come to work and they’re going to be contagious.
Vuicic said if there is a widespread pandemic, disputes over whether employees should remain at work could arise in some workplaces. Smaller businesses that can’t afford to pay employees to take time off when they are sick are struggling with what to do if a second wave of swine flu hits this fall. However, Helen Larendeau, who is in charge of occupational health and safety at the Treasury Board of Canada says there are privacy issues when it comes to monitoring employees for illness, so employers will just have to trust their employees to stay home when they are sick. He said his business can’t afford to pay people when they’re off sick, but at the same, the nature of its work makes employees vulnerable to both catching and spreading diseases such as the flu. On the flip side, Vuicic said that under federal and provincial laws, employees can refuse to work if they have a reasonable basis for believing the workplace poses a danger.
However, he said he’s come up with a compromise to encourage his 20 full-time employees to stay home when they are sick. Larendeau said if an employee refuses to work for such a reason, a labour inspector could be called in to investigate.
The centre received a $1 million from the federal government in August to tour the country in October and help businesses develop pandemic plans.

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p I think it may result in some possible confusion around the roles of the organizations and around the relationship we might have, and it may possibly affect the revenue raising across the country, said Joyce Gordon, the president and CEO of the Parkinson Society of Canada. Fox’s fundraising announcement has drawn criticism from Parkinson Society Canada, representing some 100,000 Canadians with the ailment. Parkinson’s destroys dopamine in the !–more– brain, a chemical that controls motor functions. The groups share a common goal of finding a cure for Parkinson’s. We come to work every day ready, and strategic and offering solutions to stubborn problems. Michael J. We know cures aren’t going to fall from the sky, Fox, 48, told a news conference. Fox was in Toronto on Thursday to announce his Parkinson’s research foundation is now a tax-exempt charity in Canada. The society fears competition could cut deeply into the group’s $10-million annual funding needs. Edmonton-born actor and philanthropist Michael J. It’s hoped that Fox’s foundation will complement what is already being done in Canada, but the fear is that it could impact programs and services in this country, which has few neurologists specializing in the disease, added her husband, Bruce Ireland.
As of the start of 2009, all donations to the foundation from Canadian residents are tax deductible. It generally strikes people much older than Fox. Boxer Muhammad Ali also has the disease. The announcement was made in association with the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Toronto Western Hospital, both part of Toronto’s University Health Network, institutes that Fox praised for doing cutting-edge research.
Fox added that his foundation is not meant to compete with other organizations that support Parkinson’s patients and address their quality of life issues, but rather to add funding and awareness for the disease, since a rising tide raises all boats. After starting his acting career in British Columbia, he rose to fame in the 1980s sitcom
movie trilogy. Fox agreed, telling reporters: The only thing that we’re in competition with is whatever’s causing these cells to die. Until then, people with the disease will need support, which is the role of the society, she said. The actor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991 at the age of 30.
As somebody with Parkinson’s, I am very concerned about the financial aspects and the money staying in Canada, said Karen Ireland of Oakville, Ont. Fox said it’s meaningful to him that the foundation is now an officially registered charity in his home country. Fox said it’s meaningful to him that his foundation is now an officially registered charity in his home country. The foundation’s goal is to speed up Parkinson’s research, with the aim of finding a cure in Fox’s lifetime.

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p Health Canada has a sodium working group looking at reducing salt content in the food supply, but Feldman is frustrated by the slow progress. Food manufacturers are using too much salt in foods from soup to hamburger buns, he said, based on the group’s survey of about 320 processed and restaurant foods. The Centre for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit nutrition and food safety advocacy group, published the report, called Salty to a !–more– Fault, online. High-sodium warning labels where necessary. We’ve previously called it public health enemy number one, said Bill Jeffrey, national co-ordinator for the centre in Ottawa. The World Health Organization said mandating reduced sodium is a government’s cheapest option for improving the health of its population. Health Canada to set sodium reduction targets for key categories of food, as the United Kingdom has done. Health Canada to require simpler nutrition labels on the front of packages using a symbolic or numerical rating. Norman Campbell, an internationally recognized expert in hypertension and the president of Blood Pressure Canada. The group is calling on governments and food manufacturers to do more to manage the risks posed by excess sodium consumption, saying labelling is not enough. Canadians are in effect being held hostage to high sodium intakes by eating processed foods, Feldman said. Ross Feldman, a hypertension specialist at the University of Western Ontario and a past president of the Canadian Hypertension Society. Reducing dietary sodium could reduce cardiovascular disease rates and probably save the health care system about $2 billion a year, said Dr. More than three-quarters of the salt in Canadians’ diets is added by manufacturers or at restaurants, said Dr. The closure of loopholes in nutrition labelling regulations that exempt in-store bakeries, delis, and butcher shops. Salt should be available in grocery stores, but it should be up to consumers to add it if they wish, rather than food processors’ doing so, he said. Sodium in french fries, for example, ranged from a low of 40 milligrams in a 70 gram serving at Swiss Chalet to a high of 550 milligrams for a similar sized serving at Harvey’s. The setting of sensible sodium criteria targets for buying foods for RCMP, military facilities, government cafeterias, penitentiaries, and other government venues and government sponsored events, including the upcoming 2010 Olympic Games. Governments to revise standards for sodium substitutes in staple foods. Grocery stores and chain restaurants to press suppliers to reduce sodium levels. The group’s claim is backed by research that suggests almost one third of all hypertension cases are a result of consuming excess salt, said Dr. The challenge is, it’s nearly impossible for people to limit their salt consumption to a healthy dose since so much is added in prepared and packaged foods, Campbell said. Food companies and restaurants to reduce sodium in foods while Health Canada develops a sodium reduction strategy. Consumers to read labels carefully. Norman Campbell. Sodium kills more Canadians each year than any other chemical substance, a report released Thursday suggests. Reducing dietary sodium would prevent 11,500 Canadians from having a stroke, heart attack or heart failure each year, Campbell said, adding that could probably save the health-care system about $2 billion a year.

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