News and Media Archive - 2012
Recent Posts
We're overselling the health-care 'revolution' of personal genomics
In the very near future, we'll all be able to have our entire genome - all our genetic information - mapped for under $1,000. This is an astonishing scientific development. The Human Genome Project cost billions. Soon, you'll be able to get your very own genome sequenced for the price of a laptop.
Panel decries overseas clinics that provide treatments devoid of scientific validity
Internet sites offer help for people suffering from a dizzying array of serious conditions, including: Alzheimer's, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, atherosclerosis, autism, brain damage, cancer, cerebellar ataxia, cerebral palsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Crohn's, diabetes, diseases of the eye, genetic disorders, Huntington's, kidney disease, lupus, muscular sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury, spinal muscular atrophy, stroke, and Tay-Sachs disease.
17 ways to beat the November blues
November's been called the Wednesday of the year and its 30 days of grey skies, early darkness and lack of sunshine have dampened as many spirits as the Toronto Maple Leafs.
What Does It Mean When Athletes Get 'Stem Cell Therapy'?
One could argue that stem cell research is currently the most promising area of biomedical research. It is no surprise that this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine went to a duo that work in the area. But much of the press coverage associated with the field falls squarely in the too-good-to-be true category. It is this sort of unsubstantiated hype that contributes to inappropriate public expectations and the legitimization of bogus therapies.
Are your genes sabotaging your workout?
Do we really need a test to tell us whether our genes are sabotaging our efforts to get fit? A burgeoning industry is being built on the promise that genetic tests can predict how individuals are likely to respond to exercise and at which types of physical activity they may do best, an alluring concept for those who have struggled to get fit for years and never seem to see the same results as others.
Should parents be disappointed when they want a girl and get a boy?
When Kate Soles saw uniformed schoolgirls walking around her neighbourhood, she would cry. A week earlier, the Victoria woman had found out that she was going to have a baby boy - even as everything she had considered about parenthood involved raising a girl. Now, she would not get one.
Lifestyle is key to best health
Health law and policy expert Timothy Caulfield has spent almost 20 years analyzing scientific issues related to health policy. At the University of Alberta, he teaches biotechnology in the law faculty and is the editor for the Health Law Journal and Health Law Review. Here are interview excerpts: Q: How are health messages "twisted by researchers, the media and industry" making it hard for the average person to live a healthy lifestyle? A: Researchers are under tremendous pressure to make their work sound both sexy and immediately applicable. And there is a natural tendency to be excited about your research. The research institutions often amplify this enthusiasm. University press releases, for example, will take an animal study and speculate how it applies in humans. Some basic science study done on a mouse is portrayed as a potential cure for cancer. The media take the hype a step further by simplifying the message to make it an easily digestible news story. And once industry is involved, the marketing machines kick in. It really is a cycle of hype. The key is to not get fooled by it. True scientific breakthroughs are tremendously rare.
Legal focus in starved toddler case shifts to parents
The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday dismissed the appeal to keep the child known as M on life support, against her parents' wishes. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Supreme Court of Canada dismisses appeal to keep Edmonton comatose toddler on life support
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed a motion that would have kept a comatose Edmonton girl on life support. A panel of three judges made the decision, Thursday evening. Canada's highest court received the motion for a stay in the case of Baby M, Thursday morning. The documents were then reviewed and processed before the final decision was released. Baby M will be taken off life support.
Starved girl can be taken off life-support
The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld a ruling Wednesday to remove a child from life-support over the objections of her parents who are accused of beating and starving her.
Comatose child taken off life support following upheld court ruling - Video
A child who was allegedly abused by her parents was taken off life support following an upheld ruling from the Supreme Court. Alberta Bureau Chief Janet Dirks reports.
Judge to Determine Abused Childs Fate
Doctors say it is time to end life support for a two year-old girl who was found by paramedics in her Edmonton home last May, having been both neglected and abused.
Charged with abuse, Alberta parents cite Muslim faith in fight to keep girl on life support
CALGARY - The toddler who can be identified only as Baby M is not quite clinically brain dead, but close to it. Lying in a virtual vegetative state in an Edmonton hospital, doctors can see tiny eye movements. They've recorded a few functioning reflexes.
Why the tyranny of 'everything in moderation' sets us up to fail
f you ate bacon this morning, here's hoping you did so mindfully, conservatively, stopped after one piece, and plan to reduce your sodium intake for the next six days. Take it from the experts: Life, sadly, is to be measured out in teaspoons and step-counters and one-inch dark-chocolate squares.
Arts Season: Shades of Life
In the bright basement studio of Sean Caulfield's Parkallen home, there's a piece-in-progress typical of his aesthetic: It's captivating, yet strains the definition of beautiful.
Blinded By Science
Earlier this year, I was invited to speak at an international biomedical conference held in a Latin American country better known for its vacation locales than for the quality of its health care system or its scientific research. My talk addressed the marketing of unproven stem cell therapies by clinics around the world. This growing industry, often called stem cell tourism, is fuelled by Internet advertising and social media-driven word of mouth. It appeals to desperate patients who travel to providers in China, India, South and Central America, Russia, and the Caribbean to receive treatments with no chance of success.
Legislated to Health? If People Don't Take Their Health Into Their Own Hands, Governments May Use Policies to Do It for Them
Obesity rates in North America are a growing concern for legislators. Expanded waistlines mean rising health-care costs for maladies such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. One University of Alberta researcher says that if people do not take measures to get healthy, they may find that governments will throw their weight into administrative measures designed to help us trim the fat.
The cure for MS includes healthy skepticism and a dose of hope
As many as 75,000 Canadians have multiple sclerosis. It is a heartbreaking affliction that can slowly rob individuals of the ability to do the most basic of physical acts.
Alberta creates college to oversee naturopathic doctors, stops short of endorsing treatments
CALGARY - Homeopathy, chelation therapy and vitamin injections will soon be regulated procedures in the province of Alberta, which is rapidly becoming more friendly to alternative medicines that have little or no scientific backing.