Fortunately, both my husband and l love to travel. Truthfully, it sometimes takes me a while to talk him into it, but once we are there, he enjoys himself. There are benefits I see to stimulate your brain and create a learning experience. 1. Planning a trip takes a lot of work. You read from...
17 search results for: Dr Vicki Holmes
Exciting news about vaccines for cancer
One of the most exciting breakthroughs in the medical world announced in 2023 was the massive research going on to use vaccines to treat cancer. Dr. Vinod Balachandran from Sloan Kettering in New York reported on a Phase I study using an mRNA vaccine and an immunotherapy drug, Atezolizumab, in 16 patients with pancreatic cancer...
Ageism isn’t one size fits all
Ageism is defined as the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination towards others or oneself based on age. It may also interact with other attitudes toward people based on race and disability. There are four types of ageism: Personal; Institutional (policies); Intentional; Unintentional. Personal ageism: We do this to ourselves when we use negative selftalk. In cultures...
Parkinson’s linked to environmental toxins
Parkinson’s disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disorder, surpassing dementia. Neurologists in Canada diagnose more than 25 patients per day, with expectation that that will rise to more than 50 per day by 2031. Over the last 25 years, the prevalence rates adjusted for age, increased by 22 per cent around the world, 30 per...
Gender Dysphoria linked to hormone development
Gender Dysphoria is simply defined as a condition where a person experiences a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. In other words, they feel like and identify with the opposite sex. Not being able to identify with traditional rigid societal binary male or female roles understandably creates turmoil in their lives. The fallout...
Communication key to diagnosis
In 2018, an international organization found that 67 per cent of medical errors were the result of miscommunication. Another study from the U.S. showed that 1/3 of people with chronic illnesses underused medications because of cost and did not inform their caregivers. Half of people leaving hospitals could not identify their diagnoses or names of...
New therapies for macular degeneration
Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness, affecting 2.5 million Canadians; 180,000 with significant vision loss. There are two basic types of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — dry and wet. Dry AMD affects 80-90 percent of those with AMD. Drusen is a protein that gets deposited in the macula, impairing the nutrient transport to...
Norovirus takes over where COVID left off
The latest virus that saw a decline during COVID but a recent increase in cases is Norovirus. This group of viruses cause symptoms that are commonly called stomach flu. Trends in USA and UK show a 66 percent increase this year, especially in those over 65 years of age. The symptoms are abdominal pain, cramping,...
Osteoporosis is a wake-up call
Hearing recently of several of my relatives falling, made me consider osteoporosis, and wonder if people really understand the significance of this disease. It is called the silent thief for a reason — silently, bone structure is weakened and you may not know about it until your first fragility fracture. This is defined as a...
Gender bias in health care
In Barcelona in 2018, The Esteve Foundation held a panel discussion with 24 professionals from many disciplines. They presented“over 700 diseases where gender differences in the manifestation of diseases result in poorer diagnosis and treatment for women“. This has long been recognized in women where traditionally studies included more men than women, therefore they did...