Do you know how to tell if your hamburger is properly cooked? Not knowing could make you seriously ill.

A common cause of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, especially in the summer, is hamburger disease. A type of food poisoning, hamburger disease is caused by E. coli bacteria 0157:H7.  And, despite news advisories every year about the proper way to handle hamburger meat, it and other foodborne illnesses will affect 13 million Canadians annually. A group at particularly high risk is older adults. So, if the grandparents are coming over, it’s especially important to follow safe food handling practices.

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Do you know how to tell if your hamburger is properly cooked? Not knowing could make you seriously ill.

A common cause of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, especially in the summer, is hamburger disease. A type of food poisoning, hamburger disease is caused by E. coli bacteria 0157:H7.  And, despite news advisories every year about the proper way to handle hamburger meat, it and other foodborne illnesses will affect 13 million Canadians annually. A group at particularly high risk is older adults. So, if the grandparents are coming over, it’s especially important to follow safe food handling practices.

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In light of last week's recall of the very popular Hydroxycut supplements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Health Canada, I thought it prudent to post my column on weight loss products, because reading the labels of products promoted as weight loss aids will not give you enough information to make safe decisions. The Hydroxycut recall is unfortunate proof of that fact. The products have allegedly claimed the life of one person, and caused liver damage in 22 others, and those are the incidents that have been reported.

So here are some very useful tips from Health Canada about the safe use of health products – both prescription and over the counter.

]]> Some things you need to know if you’re considering taking weight loss products

In light of last week’s recall of the very popular Hydroxycut supplements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Health Canada, I thought it prudent to post my column on weight loss products, because reading the labels of products promoted as weight loss aids will not give you enough information to make safe decisions. The Hydroxycut recall is unfortunate proof of that fact. The products have allegedly claimed the life of one person, and caused liver damage in 22 others, and those are the incidents that have been reported.

So here are some very useful tips from Health Canada about the safe use of health products – both prescription and over the counter.

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Exercise - just when you think you know all the benefits it bestows, you find out something new.  Recently, investigators at Harvard School of Medicine determined that exercise - going for regular walks - can benefit men with erectile dysfunction (ED). In fact, men who walk approximately 30 minutes a day reduce their risk for ED by 41%. 

It turns out that this information is not entirely new. Earlier evidence on the benefits of exercise on sexual performance come from a randomized, clinical study done in 2004. The trial involved middle-aged, obese men with ED. The men who exercised moderately for an average of 28 minutes or less a day experienced marked improvements in their sexual performance.

We hear a lot about the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids these days. But what exactly are they and why are they good for us? AND, what foods do we need to eat to make sure we get our omega-3s?

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential polyunsaturated fats that can reduce the risk of heart rhythm problems, and subsequently the risk of sudden death. They also help to reduce triglycerides, the risk for blood clotting, and can help in decreasing blood pressure.

]]> Just how easy is it to eat the right stuff  and, if a little is good, is more better?

We hear a lot about the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids these days. But what exactly are they and why are they good for us? AND, what foods do we need to eat to make sure we get our omega-3s?

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential polyunsaturated fats that can reduce the risk of heart rhythm problems, and subsequently the risk of sudden death. They also help to reduce triglycerides, the risk for blood clotting, and can help in decreasing blood pressure.

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More than 2500 people actually diagnosed in 2006.

Not all live in cities. How these people obtain and exchange information in rural communities provides some interesting insights on how these marginalized and still stigmatized people seek information and use technology.

A friend recently asked me whether the higher-end brands of vitamins are better than the cheaper generic or store brands, and if so why? The short answer is no – the more expensive brands are not necessarily better than the less expensive ones - at least according to the experts at the Mayo Clinic. In fact, the folks at the Mayo suggest that it’s not price you should be checking, but labels. The labels for multivitamins, for example, should indicate that the multivitamin levels contain 100% of the Daily Value (DV) of most essential nutrients. Interestingly, they point out that large doses of vitamins and nutrients, which is considered more than the recommended DV, and pills that contain extras like herbs, amino acid, and enzymes should be avoided because they may pose a health risk, particularly if you’re taking prescription medications.

More on the diet theme this week. This time, a cautionary tale about a very popular food - Sushi.  Recently, I was at brunch with a good friend of mine, Lisa. I asked her how she was, and she said “Not great. I keep getting headaches – migraines. And I feel like I have early Alzheimer’s. I can’t seem to remember things one day to the next.” We put it down to working in a stressful job and carried on with our eggs Benny. Several weeks later, we had brunch again– same restaurant, eggs Benny again - but now Lisa said she was missing days at work due to her headaches, having nosebleeds, and having trouble concentrating, and keeping in what she ate. In fact, no sooner had she finished her breakfast than she excused herself to go to the toilet. When she came back she confessed to having lost ‘everything.’  I’ll spare you the gory details.

Communications systems are vital in the life and death dramas that take place in hospitals.

Perhaps the most used are the telephones that staff use to contact patients along with the call system that helps those in bed get help when they need it. Like your phone at home these call systems have gone wireless. But implementing them can be challenging. The story of how one system was introduced in a large hospital is told by Dr. Casper Bruun Jensen who was a postdoctoral fellow on the Action for Health project.

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Communications systems are vital in the life and death dramas that take place in hospitals.

Perhaps the most used are the telephones that staff use to contact patients along with the call system that helps those in bed get help when they need it. Like your phone at home these call systems have gone wireless. But implementing them can be challenging. The story of how one system was introduced in a large hospital is told by Dr. Casper Bruun Jensen who was a postdoctoral fellow on the Action for Health project.

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The Action for Health Project was a large research project that included many aspects of health care and technology including things such as the way people seek and use health information, how technology impacts people and settings, and how communities are affected by the implementation of an electronic patient record system—to name but a few.

Throughout this series the introduction of technology into the health care system has been framed as something positive, with benefits for patients, health care providers and perhaps even a potential for saving money. But technology can also contribute to adverse medical events and is even the cause of accidental deaths.

The issue of patient safety exploded into public consciousness in the United States with the 1999 publication of the book To Err is Human. Not only were thousands of people dying unnecessarily each year due to mistakes within hospitals and clinics, but no one really knew what was going on and what the actual numbers were. Dr. Ellen Balka, the principal investigator in the Action for Health Project has had a long-standing interest in the new healthcare discipline of patient safety, which looks at the reporting and prevention of medical errors. Balka and Doyle-Waters point out that Canada—as elsewhere—does not have good processes to gather information about these problems. We don’t even really know what’s going on.