Health

On Monday of this week, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information released a joint 62-page report on obesity in Canada (PDF). Dr. Arya Sharma is an internationally-renowned Canadian obesity researcher who referred to this report as “thoughtful, insightful, and thorough...” I’ve been reading Dr. Sharma’s blogs for a while, and this is a guy who doesn’t pull punches. He had largely good things to say about the report, but criticised the way the media covered it.

If one cancer charity gets its way, the distinctive buzz of tanning beds could soon become harder for Ontario teens to hear. With melanoma becoming increasingly common in Canadians aged 15 to 29, the Canadian Cancer Society is asking Ontario to ban teens under 18 years old from using indoor tanning beds in the province. Nova Scotia and the city of Victoria already have similar bans in place, and Sarnia is considering one. Should this one be left to personal and parental discretion, or is it time to change the rules?

This week Mark and I had a health scare with Sydney. She is okay and she will be fine. Nothing that cannot be managed and it's nothing that is affecting her daily activities. But, when we were in the throes of the crisis...I just cannot describe the fear that I felt. Everything else fell aside. Nothing else really mattered. If any harm should come to my child, my only child, what would I do?

Most of us ladies go out of our way to avoid wrinkles, especially once we hit our thirties. We avoid the sun. We eat skin-friendly foods, like avocados, salmon and olive oil. We finally give up our social smoking habit. And we start to realize that five vodka sodas in one night doesn't exactly leave us fresh-faced and dewy come morning. But did you ever stop to think about what your wrinkles might be saying about your health?