All Posts Tagged With: "Health"
Get them where they live
New program shows less-wealthy kids a path to medicine
Photo by Richmond Lam
Ridge Cross-McComber is about as blasé as your average overachiever when it comes to his laundry list of goals for the next few years and beyond. He’ll finish his year at Montreal’s Dawson College, move to Vanier College for either nursing or pure and applied science, then go to medical school to become a surgeon. After that, he’ll practise medicine in Kahnawake, his hometown. “I want to be a role model for my community,” says the 17-year-old, sitting in a café in the native reserve near Montreal. “It’s something I want to do for my town and my people. I want to show that I can do this.”
As far as medical school goes, history and statistics are stacked against Cross-McComber. Wealthy students tend to be overrepresented in the field, for one. According to a study by the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, nearly 45 per cent of medical students come from families making over $100,000 a year. (Only about 26 per cent of Canadian families are in this demographic, according to the AFMC study.) And while medical schools are decidedly less uniformly Caucasian than they used to be, the AFMC study indicates that many visible minorites continue to be under-represented.
College makes drug tests mandatory
Students fight back with class-action lawsuit
Photo courtesy of JosephAdams on Flickr
An American college, Linn State Technical in Missouri, implemented a mandatory drug testing program this month, claiming to be the first college in the U.S. to sample students’ urine.
“Drug screening is becoming an increasingly important part of the world of work,” the school wrote in a statement. If students refuse to urinate in a cup, they face possible expulsions.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit Wednesday alleging the school has violated its students’ constitutional rights. Also on Wednesday, a Missouri federal judge granted the ACLU’s request for a restraining order to stop the school from analysing the urine specimens it collected or releasing any of the test results, an ACLU spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.
“Linn State Technical College…. has had no documented drug problems over the course of its 50-year history and no reason to suspect that the students subject to testing have been engaged in the use or abuse of illegal drugs,” says the statement of claim filed by the ACLU. “The mandatory, suspicionless drug testing required under the College’s new policy is a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Ordinarily, the Fourth Amendment prohibits such searches…”
Kent Brown, a lawyer representing the college told the Wall Street Journal: “Linn State Technical College takes seriously its responsibility to deliver quality technical education to Missouri students while exploring every available avenue to protect and prepare those students to compete effectively in occupations where pre-employment drug testing is quickly becoming the norm.”
What to do if you don’t get into medical school
From the 2011 Maclean’s Professional Schools Rankings
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Roughly three-quarters of medical school applicants are rejected each year. Bummer. Luckily for them, wannabe doctors have better alternatives than ever. These four professional health care programs can be completed in just a few years, are in high demand, and pay well directly out of school. That means graduates can start paying off their student loans while medical residents are still driving beat-up old cars to 24-hour shifts.
Health Care Manager
The Job: Health care managers work in hospitals, medical clinics and nursing homes where they direct teams of health care providers. Their job is to make sure patients get excellent care and, simultaneously, that Canadians get good value for the nearly $200 billion they spend on health care each year.
Continue reading What to do if you don’t get into medical school
Acadia student dies after binge drinking
Student was seen playing “flip cup” in residence
Acadia photo courtesy of Martin Cathrae on Flickr
An male student at Acadia University who was sent to hospital earlier this week has died.
The 19-year-old from Calgary was found unconscious Tuesday morning around 12:30 a.m. in a basement dorm room inside Chipman House residence, reports CBC News.
“It is with tremendous sorrow that Acadia University today confirms that our student, who had been critically ill since September 6, has died. Our deepest and most heartfelt condolences are extended to all family members and friends,” the school wrote on its website. “Acadia will continue to respect the family’s request that no other personal details be released.”
Nathan Rodger told CBC News on Tuesday that the student in question had been playing a drinking game before paramedics took him away to the hospital.
“He was drinking a 40 [oz.] of something and he pretty much drank the whole thing,” Rodger said. “Yeah, we were playing ‘flip cup’ and he had it straight in the can, just right in the thing. Not even mixing it. I think he finished probably most of it, all of it.”
Student has heart attack during exam
Doctors blame exam anxiety, heart condition
Photo courtesy of rileyroxx on Flickr
Jairaj Chandran, 18, was 10 minutes into his high school theology exam in Cambridge, U.K. when he felt his chest getting tight and he started to having trouble breathing. He asked to step outside.
“My legs and fingers were numb. It was terrifying,” he told The Sun. Luckily, he knew about his existing heart condition and asked to be sent to the hospital. It was, as he suspected, a heart attack. Surgeons performed emergency surgery to replace a valve, leaving him with an eight-inch scar.
“The doctors said it was probably stress related and I was nervous because theology was one of my worst subjects,” said Chandran. The university used earlier marks to determine his A-grade in the class. He plans to study politics in Australia.
Ontario students warned about mumps
University town has had four cases already this year
After discovering four cases of the mumps, London, Ont. heath officials are warning students to make sure they’re vaccinated against the disease, which spreads easily in school residences.
“It’s not an epidemic,” Marlene Price, manager of vaccine and preventable diseases for the local health unit, told the London Free Press. But she does warn anyone born since 1970 to make sure they’ve had a second dose of vaccine. (People born before 1970 usually have immunity, she said.)
Mumps can cause severe swelling of the salivary glands, pain in the throat, breasts or head, fatigue and respiratory symptoms. Occasionally, there are dangerous complications of the pancreas.
The number of cases of Mumps in Canada dropped from 34,000 per year in the 1950s to an average of 87 between 2000 and 2004 following widespread vaccination, says Health Canada.
However, there was an outbreak at Dalhousie University in 2007, which affected at least 350 students. Many had received only a single dose of the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine.
Since that outbreak, cases have been reported at Fanshawe College, Nipissing University, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Calgary, SAIT Polytechnic and Mount Royal College.
Texas first to require vaccine for students
Rare disease kills 10 per cent of victims: Health Canada
Photo courtesy of skippyjon on Flickr
Texas is the first state to require that everyone who attends college in person be vaccinated against meningococcal meningitis (also known as bacterial meningitis), reports the Texas Tribune.
Gov. Rick Perry signed the bill in May and it will take effect in January 2012. One Republican state representative, Charlie Howard, lost a son to the disease and supported the bill. But other Republicans saw the new law as an intrusion into family health decisions and therefore opposed it.
Meningococcal meningitis is rare, but often deadly or debilitating. It kills roughly 10 per cent of those who get sick and causes permanent damage, such as deafness, in another 10 per cent, says Health Canada. The number of cases reported in Canada ranges from 160 to 350 per year. There was an outbreak of the disease in 2001.
Continue reading Texas first to require vaccine for students
Youth suicides rise in step with film suicides
Authors blame PG-13 rating for increasingly graphic portrayals
Photo courtesy of HaoJan on Flickr
Authors of a report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center have shown a correlation between the dramatic rise in the portrayal of graphic suicides on film and the increase in the youth suicide rate.
Their study looked at 855 films produced between 1950 to 2006 and found that the number of explicit representations of suicide had tripled over the period. That increase paralleled the tripling of suicide by young people aged 15 to 24 in the U.S. from 1960 to 1990.
“While we cannot establish a causal connection here, it is interesting to note that the tripling of U.S. teen suicide since 1960 coincided with this increase in movie suicide portrayal,” Patrick E. Jamieson, the lead author, said in a press release.
Continue reading Youth suicides rise in step with film suicides
Memorial to ban smoking by 2013
Marine Institute ban effective immediately
Memorial University plans to ban smoking entirely by 2013, citing health concerns about second-hand smoke.
“Restricting smoking to designated areas will help make Memorial University’s campuses healthier places to live, study and work,” school officials wrote in a statement.
The Board of Regents approved a new smoking policy on July 7 that bans smoking near doorways as of Aug. 1. and compels smokers in residences to use designated areas only.
Smoking is no longer permitted anywhere on the Marine Institute’s property.
UBC student died of cocaine-induced heart attack
Coroner concerned by head injuries during police custody
Photo courtesy of andronicusmax on Flickr
A University of British Columbia student died from a cocaine-induced heart attack three days after being released from police custody in Whistler on Feb. 23, 2010.
Silas Rogers, 20, was arrested for public intoxication during the Vancouver Winter Olympics after taking heroin, alcohol and snorting a crushed-up anti-anxiety medication. He was then taken to the local RCMP detachment, where he stayed for 11 hours. Following his release, he went to a friend’s house in Vancouver and continued to take drugs, including cocaine. He was found unconscious by friends a few hours after retiring to bed, during which time he experienced the deadly cocaine-induced heart attack, reports Metro News.
During his time in jail, recordings showed that Rogers struck his head eight times against the floor and the walls. The jail guards didn’t notice because the video monitor at their workstation was broken. Owen Court, the regional coroner, said in his report that although the falls were not the cause of death, he found it troubling that “an obviously intoxicated individual fell and struck his head numerous times while in police custody, yet received so little attention.”
Nutrition ratings don’t change eating habits
Even when shown that it’s unhealthy, students pick bad food
Photo courtesy of SpecialKRB on Flickr
Sorry dietitians, but a new study says that showing students how unhealthy their food is won’t change what they eat.
“Although it is important to inform consumers about the nutritional characteristics of the food offered, providing nutrition information in less healthy food environments is unlikely to alter consumers’ food choices,” researchers Christine Hoefkens and Wim Verbeke told Reuters.
Their study at Ghent University asked 224 students who regularly ate at the university’s cafeterias to log their diets for several days. Then, without participants’ knowledge, the researchers started putting up posters that showed how health meals were, using a three-star rating system (one star for the worst meals and three for the best) and warnings about high salt, calories and saturated fat content.
Six months later, the participants, once again logged what they ate. The posters didn’t change a thing. Students ate the same amount of bad food and no more good food than before.
Top five fitness myths for students
Is there really a freshman 15? Will diet soda help me lose weight?
Photo courtesy of Rance Costa on Flickr
Myth #1 — The freshmen 15
Does university make you fat? Well, not as fat as you might think. The freshmen 15 (that legendary amount of weight gain from eating all those cafeteria meals) is really more like the freshman five, according to dietitians from the University of Guelph. Between high school and the end of their first year of university, female students in their study had gained only five pounds on average.
Myth #2 — Diet pop helps you lose weight
Diet pop won’t help you lose weight, according to a 500-person study from the University of Texas in San Antonio. The study compared diet soda drinkers with those who avoid the stuff over a period of 10 years and found that the diet soda drinkers had a 70 per cent bigger increase in waist circumference than the control group.
Myth #3 — Exercising on an empty stomach burns more fat
Contrary to the popular belief among many fitness advocates, exercising on an empty stomach doesn’t burn more fat, according to the New York Times. A report published in Strength and Conditioning concluded that regardless of what someone eats or doesn’t eat directly before a workout, the body will burn about the same amount of calories.
Myth #4 — Exercise can’t help rid the body of toxins
That yoga instructor might be right that exercise helps rid the body of toxins, at least according to new research from a graduate nursing student at the University of New Brunswick. An article about the results appeared the Daily Gleaner last week.
Myth #5 — Only exhausting workouts help
In fact, small bursts of exercise can help make you fitter. It all adds up, according to research written about in the Vancouver Sun. A study at Queen’s University showed that walking to the photocopier or tapping your feet to music can improve heart and respiratory fitness. Forget waiting until you have a block of time to get to the gym — if you want to get fit, start moving throughout the day.
Blackout drunk? Watch out!
Students get drunk, hurt themselves and forget what happened
More than half of students got blackout drunk — in other words, they couldn’t remember what happened — at least once in the past 12 months. Seven per cent reported six or more blackouts. That’s according to a new study of 800 undergraduates and 150 postgraduates at North American schools that’s published in the journal Injury Prevention.
What’s worse, the researchers found that more blackouts mean more injuries — a lot more. Overall, 25 per cent of drinkers reported injuries while drunk. That figure increased by 57 per cent when that person had blacked out at least once in the past year and by 300 per cent when they had blacked out more than six times. So, either watch those drinks — or watch out for hazards!
Two new things you should know about drinking
Study shows brain damage, but that’s not all
Another study suggests that binge drinking damages the brain. But this time, there’s reason to be hopeful too.
Tim McQueeny, a psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati (UC), looked at 29 high-resolution brain scans from students aged 18 to 25. Those who reported regularly consuming more than four to five drinks at a time had more thinning of the pre-frontal cortex, which is the area where executive decisions are made. Executive decisions include paying attention and keeping control of emotions — things that become difficult when intoxicated.
“Alcohol might be neurotoxic to the neuron cells, or, since the brain is developing in one’s 20s, it could be interacting with developmental factors and possibly altering the ways in which the brain is still growing,” warns McQueeny.
However, his adviser and co-author Krista Lisdahl Medina also had some hopeful news. Their preliminary data also show that grey matter appears to be fine in those who were once binge drinkers, but who have since abstained. That, she says, warrants further study.
The prevalence of binge drinking on North American campuses is undeniable. In the most recent National College Health Assessment, which surveyed 30,000 students, nearly one in three reported that they consumed at least five standard drinks the last time they went to a party or socialized. Five per cent of them reported having more than 11 drinks the last time they socialized.
Research shows why boys avoid gym class
“Disturbing” stories about locker room environment
Photo courtesy of russell pix on Flickr
“Boys who have more valued bodies — leaner, stronger, more valorized bodies — are routinely monitoring the heavier or skinnier boys’ bodies and harassing them, making comments about them in the locker room, making a game of throwing things at them, slapping them, talking about their bodies at them and around them,” researcher Michael Kehler told an international symposium on male body image in Ottawa last week, reports The Londoner.
Kehler’s new research shows that as a result of such teasing, many boys avoid the locker room by staying dressed in gym clothes all day, by changing in a washrooms, by being purposefully late for class or by choosing to skip gym class altogether.
“The stories these young men are telling us in our research are disturbing, unsettling,” Kehler says. ”For many of these boys, it’s not that they don’t want to be healthy and active, it’s that they don’t want to participate in the kind of posturing and ‘boyness’ that’s allowed to manifest itself in the locker room,” Kehler says. “If they could go in there and just feel welcome and participate without being denigrated or berated, they would be able to develop healthy life practices.”
Kehler says governments should integrate body image discussions into physical education.
University students with early classes sleep more, not less
The reason? Late risers are big drinkers
Photo courtesy of Mark Sebastian on Flickr
University sudents who start classes earlier in the morning sleep more — not less — than those who start classes later in the day, says a new study of 253 American students. The reason is that those without morning classes are more likely to stay out drinking on school nights, which leads to a lower quantity of sleep overall, according to study co-author Pamela Thacher, a psychologist from St. Lawrence University in New York State. Night owls also reported lower grade averages than their early rising peers. The study also found that the average amount of sleep students report getting each day is 8.0 hours — exactly what experts recommend.
University returns to all-male and all-female dorms
President says single-sex residences will reduce binge drinking and sex
Photo courtesy of adpowers on Flickr
The president of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. says his school will return to all-male and all-female dormitories in September. Here’s his reasoning. “The two most serious ethical challenges college students face are binge drinking and the culture of hooking up,” wrote John Garvey in The Wall Street Journal Monday. “Here is one simple step colleges can take to reduce both binge drinking and hooking up: Go back to single-sex residences,” he writes.
His only evidence appears to be a study by Christopher Kaczor of Loyola Marymount University that shows students in co-ed dorms report binge drinking more than twice as often as students in single-sex housing, and that students in co-ed housing are significantly more likely to have had a sexual partner in the past year. What the article doesn’t mention is whether Kaczor’s study controlled for the fact that many students who live in single-sex dorms have chosen to live there precisely because they wish to avoid alcohol and sex.
Carleton researcher discovers cells that decide when we’re full
Discovery could lead to weight loss drugs
Alfonso Abizaid, a Carleton University neuroscientist, is part of a team that has found a way to stimulate the exact hypothalamus cells that receive signals that indicate when we’re full. The researchers suspected that this might be possible after discovering that the appetite suppressant nicotine, the pleasurable ingredient in tobacco, stimulates the same brain region. Smokers tend to gain 10 to 15 pounds on average when they quit, likely due to the fact that their brains are no longer falsely being told that they’ve had enough to eat, Abizaid told the Ottawa Citizen. The researchers, whose article is published today in Science, hope that they can use this discovery to develop a drug to help obese people lose weight.
Are antidepressants over-prescribed to young people?
Excerpt from McClung’s Magazine
With faith in her FP’s knowledge, Elle accepted treatment. “I was 16. I didn’t know what I needed. I just didn’t want to feel shitty anymore,” Elle says. “So when an opportunity comes up like, ‘take this pill and everything will be okay,’ what 16-year-old is going to turn that down?” There was no discussion about side effects. Elle started on the lowest dose of Effexor.
Elle also didn’t know that antidepressants are not approved for people under 19 in Canada, because they can increase their risk of suicide and self-harm. The year before Elle began treatment, the FDA ordered SSRI manufacturers to add black-box warnings to their product labels, advising physicians that their patients may become suicidal, especially within the first few weeks of treatment or with an altered dose.
Elle began awaking in an anxious state after two weeks on Effexor. “I almost felt as though I was startled awake every morning,” she says. At times, she felt euphoric. Everything in between, however, was dull and grey. “Nothing was too bad, but nothing was very great either. I felt flat-lined and out of focus.” Elle went back to her FP and declared that the antidepressant was ineffective.
Her FP assured her she simply needed an increased dose.
Dr. Stewart says follow-up appointments like this are important, but don’t happen as often as they should.
“[Patients] should been seen regularly once the antidepressant is started to ask about possible side effects, how they’re feeling, whether the antidepressant is working or if they need the dose adjusted,” she says. “That’s really where the important work can get done.”
A problem arises, however, when women who start SSRI treatment experience persistent or aggravated symptoms of their disorder, but their FP mistakes the reaction for further mental-health problems. Rather than take the patient off the medication and try alternative treatments, they increase the dosage.
Elle’s side effects worsened with her increased dose. She became impulsive, frustrated and developed self-harming thoughts. She cut her thighs, her arms and her wrists, and covered the evidence with pants, long sleeves and thick wristbands.
“Before taking the drug I had never had any self-harming behaviours, all of that came after,” she says. Once more, she expressed her distress to her FP.
Again, the FP’s response—increase the dosage.
Nothing improved. Elle called it quits, ending treatment on her own—a dangerous step.
Effexor is known for its lightning-fast withdrawal symptoms. About 78 per cent of patients who stop Effexor cold turkey experience symptoms such as electric shock sensations, irritability, dizziness, confusion, moodiness, anxiety, insomnia—and suicidal tendencies.
Elle was no different. Her condition deteriorated leading to the moment where she attempted suicide by overdosing on a medication that was supposed to help regulate her mood. She was admitted into the youth psychiatric wing in a nearby hospital.
About 70 per cent of FPs are unaware of SSRI withdrawal symptoms, and are often untrained in the delicate processes of tapering patients off the medication. Unwary FPs can mistake withdrawal symptoms for the return or worsening of a patient’s original condition, and put them back on the medication.
Dr. Healy and Dr. Stewart agree patients need to be carefully tapered off SSRIs, usually over the course of few weeks.
“Ideally, you would do this working closely with your doctor,” Dr. Healy says. “The problem is there are still a lot of doctors who don’t believe you can become physically hooked to the drug or that withdrawal problems can be serious. People who do want to be advised by their doctor… may find that their doctor is not very sympathetic.”
Nevertheless, it can be beneficial for FPs to assist patients with mental health needs. Private psychological services can be pricey and the waiting lists lengthy. The national median waiting time for psychiatric care is about 17 weeks, according to the Fraser Institute.
“[FPs] are the first point of entrance into the system,” Dr. Stewart says. “They provide most of the mental health care in Canada and in most other countries.”
With this in mind, a committee of doctors and members of the Ministry of Health in British Columbia united to establish a mental health training program for FPs, designed to provide them with the knowledge and confidence to better screen, diagnose and treat mental illnesses. By August 2010, about 30 per cent of the province’s FPs enrolled in the program. About 90 per cent of participants agreed that the training enhanced their skills in treating mental health conditions. More than 40 per cent said they became less reliant on prescribing antidepressants.
Dr. Healy also says FPs can handle antidepressants well—if they are given the right information.
“I don’t think specialists [psychiatrists] are really much safer than generalists [FPs] when it comes to using drugs like the antidepressants,” he says. “The problem is the information that has been withheld from generalists and specialists.”
To read the rest of Chemicals for Candy, please click here.
Bedbugs weren’t a huge problem this year say two universities
But campus residences remain exposed to infestations
Student housing officials in Waterloo are reporting that very few bedbug infestations were recorded this year, writes the Waterloo Region Record. During the school year that ended in April, there were fewer than 10 known cases in the 5,188 residence rooms at the University of Waterloo; at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), there were between 10 and 20. WLU spokesperson Kevin Crowley told the Record that the problem is “only one room here and one room there,” rather than big clusters. Although bed bugs aren’t known to spread disease, their bites can be itchy and getting rid of them is a difficult and expensive process. Multi-unit residences are especially prone because students are constantly moving in and moving out, bringing the tiny bloodsuckers with them. Other schools that have reported bedbugs in recent years are the University of New Brunswick, Ryerson University, the University of Alberta, McGill University and Humber College. Simon Fraser University uses bug-detecting sniffer dogs to find small infestations so that they can be addressed before spreading.
