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Create AccountScurvy is a disease caused by a dietary deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). The disease has occurred with regular frequency throughout human history and prehistory in populations lacking fresh foods, especially vegetables and meat.
Birth control means the deliberate prevention of conception and pregnancy. The birth control methods used in Canada range from the simplest (like abstinence) to the most complex (like male or female surgical sterilization). (See also History of Birth Control in Canada.)
Ophthalmology is the medical specialty concerned with the eyes and their relationship to the body.
Music therapy. As defined by the Canadian Association for Music Therapy, music therapy is 'the skilful use of music to aid the physical, psychological and emotional integration of the individual, and in the treatment of an illness or disability.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on December 1, 1997. Partner content is not updated.
The first serious bout was back in 1963, when he was attending Queen's University and, just before final exams, locked himself in his dorm room for two weeks.The ultrasound showed seven babies. Septuplets, the doctor told the mother, and the odds against their survival were "astronomical." She could, of course, choose to abort some or all of the seven fetuses.
Canada's national health-insurance program (also called medicare) is designed to ensure that every resident of Canada receives medical care and hospital treatment, the cost of which is paid through general taxes or through compulsory health-insurance premiums. Medicare developed in 2 stages.
Medicine bundles (also called “sacred bundles”), wrapped collections of spiritually significant items, were the focus of most Indigenous spiritual rituals in the Plains region (see Plains Indigenous Peoples in Canada). A bundle might be a few feathers wrapped in skin or a multitude of objects such as animal skins, roots, or stone pipes inside a rawhide bag.
Canada adopted quarantine legislation in 1872, five years after Confederation. It was replaced by the current Quarantine Act, which was passed by the Parliament of Canada and received royal assent in 2005. The act gives sweeping powers to the federal health minister to prevent the introduction and spread of communicable diseases. These powers can include health screenings, the creation of quarantine facilities and mandatory isolation orders. The Quarantine Act was introduced in the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis of 2003. It was invoked in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A doctor's diagnosis can land like a punch in the solar plexus: you have Parkinson's disease. Chronic, progressive and incurable. In the life-altering reverberations that follow come the questions.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on February 8, 1999. Partner content is not updated.
On all sides, the relief was obvious. Last week, the poisonous, 2 ½-year feud that pitted internationally acclaimed blood researcher Dr. Nancy Olivieri against the prestige and power of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children ended in a face-saving compromise.This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on April 14, 2003. Partner content is not updated.
Stress was originally viewed as an overpowering external force acting upon individuals or objects. The mechanical engineer still uses the word in this sense, but human biologists have been less consistent in their terminology.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on October 25, 1999. Partner content is not updated.
In the waning light of a brisk October evening in Quebec City, patrons flock to a bar in a yuppie neighbourhood near the Plains of Abraham. Inside, Sarah McLachlan's sensual voice spills out of the sound system.Medical ethics are concerned with moral questions raised by the practice of medicine and, more generally, by health care.
Cod Liver Oil was in the past a primary source of vitamin A, essential for bone growth, health of skin and mucous membranes, and night vision. Today, many other preparations containing vitamin A are available. Before the 1920s, most cod liver oil came from Norwegian COD.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on April 1, 1996. Partner content is not updated.
The virus first makes its presence felt when the victim runs a high temperature, followed by vomiting, chest pains and skin rashes. Then hemorrhaging develops - from the eyes and ears, the stomach and the bowels.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on December 21, 1998. Partner content is not updated.
By enduring frequent blood transfusions and painful injections that allow a drug to be pumped into her body at night, 14-year-old Julie Vizza has survived a rare blood disease called thalassemia that leaves her body dangerously short of oxygen.
