Reading Time: 2 minutes Everyone thinks of rocks and stones when minerals are mentioned, but you have minerals in your body too, and they are essential to your health. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in your body with the majority of it being in your bones, but there are numerous other minerals which are essential to overall good […] Read more
Guide Health: Maintain your mineral levels
Healthy eating can keep mineral levels good. A poor diet, though, means trouble may be brewing
Guide Health: Memory and drugs
Reading Time: 3 minutes Everyone is concerned about memory loss in old age, but before you resign yourself to dementia, check your medications. Some drugs may actually cause adverse effects that can be mistaken for memory loss. For instance, benzodiazepines used to treat stress, anxiety, and sleep problems may remain in the body causing daytime drowsiness and confusion, which […] Read more
Guide Health: Breathing easier with asthma
Guide Health
Reading Time: 3 minutes More than three million Canadians have asthma, and the number seems to be increasing. This increase may come from improved diagnosis, or perhaps people are more likely to seek help for their breathing symptoms these days. An increase in our exposure to allergens or airborne particles may also be to blame, however, triggering more asthma […] Read more
Guide Health: Restless leg syndrome – more common than you think
Reading Time: 2 minutes Restless leg syndrome is just what it says it is. It is a feeling that your legs are restless, or that you want to move, accompanied by sensations such as creeping, burning, aching or itching. Often you notice restless leg syndrome when you are still, for example in bed, and you will find that movement […] Read more
OxyContin in the news
Reading Time: 2 minutes Recently, you have probably heard about OxyContin, and you may be wondering what the issue is. To understand the matter better, let’s start by thinking a bit about the opioid class of drugs. The first historical mention of opioids is in Greek writing dating back to the third century BC, although the pain-relieving and psychological […] Read more
To split or not to split?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Many drugs are available in a variety of strengths, and sometimes there isn’t much difference in price between different strengths. For example, 30 tablets of a five mg and 10 mg tablet may have similar prices. It follows that by breaking the 10 mg tablets in half, you would have 60 doses of five mg […] Read more
Depression — a hidden condition
Reading Time: 3 minutes Depression is more common than you may think. An estimated one in 10 Canadians will have depression at some time in their lives. And there is another big number too. Two-thirds of Canadians who suffer depression will receive no therapy, either medication or non-drug. The reasons for this lack of treatment range from cultural habits […] Read more
Don’t put up with dry skin
Reading Time: 2 minutes Everyone experiences dry skin at some time, and in our climate dry skin is extremely common in the cold, dry months of winter. Preventing dry skin is definitely better than experiencing the flaking and itching! Your skin covers the entire exterior of your body and has a surface area of close to two square metres […] Read more
You’re never too old for shingles
Reading Time: 3 minutes Even if you have never been affected by shingles, you probably know that it is an extremely painful skin rash with blistering. However, what you may not know is that shingles is caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chicken pox, known as the varicella zoster virus. Chicken pox is a childhood viral […] Read more
Managing your headache
Reading Time: 3 minutes Almost all of us know the symptoms of headache. According to studies, 90 per cent of Canadians have experienced the pain, tightness and ache. Almost all of us also know that the majority of headaches come and then are gone, apparently leaving no lasting effect. Despite being so common, however, there is no one single […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
