Reading Time: 3 minutes Hitting your head may just give you a headache, but you should never dismiss the hit as a minor injury. About 2.5 per cent of the Canadian population injure their heads each year, so it’s not an uncommon problem. But it can be serious. The type of head injuries that you hear most about in […] Read more
Guide Health: Oh, my head hurts
Don’t just shake off a head injury. Get it checked out. Brain injuries can lead to serious consequences that may not appear for decades
Guide Health: Don’t let your minor cuts and scrapes get major
Know the difference between an at-home bandage and a trip to the doctor
Reading Time: 3 minutes Your skin protects your body from the outside world while also regulating your temperature, so any damage to your skin can result in damage to underlying structures. Everyone has had a cut or a scrape at one time or other. These usually only need to be covered with a self-adhesive bandage. For larger or more […] Read more
Guide Health: Do you need an injectable for diabetes?
Good management of diabetes is possible with a combination of oral drugs, but it can also include injectable medications
Reading Time: 3 minutes Diabetes is a metabolic disease, which means it is associated with a problem in the way your body metabolizes a substance. Specifically, in the case of diabetes your body has problems with a carbohydrate, i.e. glucose. In 2010, it was estimated that 2.7 million Canadians were living with a diagnosis of diabetes, and that over […] Read more
Guide Health: Dietary supplements —should you or shouldn’t you?
A Consumer Reports panel has identified 15 supplements to avoid. Check the ingredient lists on the products you take. Toxicities can be significant
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dietary supplements provide additional nutrition to your diet. Most often, the term may make you think of vitamins and minerals, but natural products and herbal remedies are also part of this category. Should you buy them? Vitamins are organic substances from plants or animals that your body needs in small amounts. Minerals are needed in […] Read more
Guide Health: The increasing problem of allergies
Guide Health with Marie Berry
Reading Time: 3 minutes There does seem to be an increase in allergies, with about 30 per cent of adults and 40 per cent of children affected in Canada. This trend is thought to be due to several factors, including the fact that today we are able to diagnose allergies that previously may have been dismissed as a sensitive […] Read more
Guide Health: A cascade you don’t want
Almost everyone can benefit from these measures to avoid taking drugs unnecessarily
Reading Time: 3 minutes You may think of a cascade as a soothing brook bubbling over some rocks, but a prescription cascade is not as pleasant. The term refers to the treatment of the side-effects of one drug when a new second drug is prescribed. These side-effects can be mistakenly identified as a new condition, and of course this […] Read more
Guide Health: A little dab will do you!
Creams, lotions and ointments can work wonders for your skin. But which is right for you?
Reading Time: 3 minutes The saying “a little dab will do you” really is true when it comes to applying creams and ointments to your skin. These creams are termed topical agents because they are applied directly to your skin where they act. At any one time, an estimated 75 per cent of Canadians are using a cream or […] Read more
Guide Health: Keep your bowel moving
Reading Time: 3 minutes Thanks to your autonomic nervous system, which regulates evacuation from your bowel, you probably take your bowel habits for granted… except when you can’t. At any one time, anywhere between two and 28 per cent of Canadians are affected by constipation, which can range from a single episode to chronic constipation. In fact, the real […] Read more
Guide Health: Don’t take your sense of smell for granted
Our brains are able to recognize over 10,000 smells, if we keep our olfactory system healthy
Reading Time: 3 minutes Linked closely with the sense of taste, your sense of smell often gets taken for granted. In general, a quarter of the population have a poor sense of taste, half have an average or normal sense of taste, and a quarter are considered “super” tasters. Our ability to smell mirrors this distribution, although one to […] Read more
Guide Health: Is it really dementia?
Too often we put off getting our forgetfulness checked out, but it may not be Alzheimer’s
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dementia is a chronic and progressive deterioration of mental capacity, and you have probably heard of Alzheimer’s disease, its most common form. In Canada, about 15 per cent of people 65-plus years old are affected, and with the growth of this age group, the numbers of people affected are sure to increase. Dementia is not […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
