Tag: medicine

Immunization

As the latest crop of First Graders trundle off to school, I can’t help thinking back to my first year of school in Texas, and the badge of maturity I proudly wore on my left arm: the round scar produced by smallpox vaccination. It proved I was practically grown-up. Today, kids no longer receive smallpox …

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Arthritis

I’ve probably thought more about arthritis over the years than most guys my age, because my Mom has had rheumatoid arthritis since before I was born. This week I’ve been thinking about it more than usual, though, for two reasons: one, I’m writing a book on the subject and two, a new arthritis drug has …

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Stem cells

  Imagine being able to grow any kind of human tissue in the laboratory and using it to replace the damaged cells of someone suffering from diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or muscular dystrophy. Within a decade or two that science fictional dream could be reality, thanks to a breakthrough last week that scientists have …

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Transplants

A few years ago in Weyburn I had a role in a play called “Duet for Two Hands.” It was a grim little gothic tale of a drunken Scottish surgeon (that would be me) who had sewed the hands of a convicted murderer onto the wrists of a concert pianist who had lost his own …

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Digging for the Spanish Flu

  In late 1917 or 1918, a new strain of influenza appeared in what is now Ft. Riley, Kansas. There’s nothing unusual about that: new strains of influenza appear all the time. At first, this one seemed no worse than any other. But something changed. As this flu spread to the east, it became seven …

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Anesthetics

When I was seven years old, my big brother broke my arm (he fell on it). At the hospital, someone stuck a mask over my face. I saw a spinning pattern of black and white stripes and heard, above a loud buzz in my head, doctors and nurses talking about fishing…then I woke up to …

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Asthma

Most of us breathe without even thinking about it. In and out, in and out, the air moves easily and effortlessly. But there are millions of people for whom breathing can never be taken for granted, and their numbers are increasing: asthmatics. Asthma is a narrowing of airways in the lungs that causes coughing, wheezing …

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Sports injuries

  Ah, warmer weather at last! Time to get out there and throw that–ouch!–ball, and swing that–ooh!–golf club, and jog around the–oof!–lake…and then, more than likely, turn on that–aah!–heating pad, fill that–mmm–ice pack, and slip into–whew!–bed. Yes, ’tis the season for athletic injuries, as those who haven’t done anything except shovel snow for half a …

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Aspirin

Roughly 24 centuries ago, the father of medicine, Hippocrates, urged women in the throes of childbirth to chew on willow bark. The bitter bark contained a substance that eased their pain. (There’s no record of what the women thought of his suggestion.) By the 19th century scientists knew that mysterious substance was salicylic acid. Synthesized …

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Nausea

There’s a lot of traveling going on this time of a year via car, plane, train or boat, and somewhere this very second, a 10-year-old is looking up from the book she’s been reading in the back seat of her parents’ station wagon and speaking the words that, for many people, define the whole summer …

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Influenza

The single phrase that’s probably heard more this time of the year than any other, aside from “Cold enough for ya?”, is “the flu.” “Jimmy’s come down with the flu.” “I won’t be in today, I’ve got a touch of the flu.” “Hey, have you caught the flu that’s going around?” Although we tend to …

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Fatigue

The Grey Cup in Regina is over. You could tell the day after the game by the number of people wandering around with dazed expressions and bags under their eyes…which inspired me to write this week about two souvenirs of the festivities almost everyone picked up: fatigue and/or a hangover. Fatigue is characterized by an …

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