If Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute scientist Dr. Alexander Rauscher has learned anything from studying concussions that happen during sports like ice hockey, it’s that helmets really can only protect so much – and it’s not enough.
It’s easy to take for granted that sexual attraction is a universal experience and that certain people can send our hearts fluttering and fantasies racing. But some people never experience feelings of sexual attraction – not in their youth, not during puberty when their peers’ hormones are raging, and not as adults.
Staff at Richmond Hospital’s Diabetes Education Centre realized they needed to rethink the healthy eating and nutrition program offered through the centre when they kept getting the same feedback from their diabetes patients: “I don’t eat half of the foods you just talked about.” Their patients’ honest response makes sense – most of them are of Chinese ethnicity, which reflects Richmond’s predominantly Chinese population. In Canada, people of Asian, Aboriginal, South Asian, Hispanic, and African descent are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes1.
In 2007, the International Agency for Research on Cancer officially classified shiftwork as a probable cause of cancer1. In particular, the agency found that women who work shiftwork for more than 20 years are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Knowing that exercise reduces this risk, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) scientist Dr. Kristin Campbell, and Dr.
There are athletes, and then there are masters athletes. These individuals – doing triathlons, running marathons, rock climbing, training multiple times a week, etc. – are often thought to be healthy and extremely fit. However, many masters athletes over age 35 may be at higher risk for experiencing a potentially life-threatening cardiac event, like a heart attack, during their strenuous physical exercise.
Ask 31-year-old Vancouver resident Madeline Laberge about what triggers her asthma and she’ll say with a sigh: “Basically any living thing the world”. Exposure to cats, dogs, trees, flowers, grasses, pollens, dust – the list goes on – all make breathing more challenging for Laberge whose asthma is categorized as severe and uncontrolled.
Since being diagnosed with asthma at two-and-a-half years old, Laberge has tried multiple different combinations of medications, most of which have been corticosteroids taken regularly to calm the inflammation of her airways.
Every day, we’re inundated with messages and images pressuring us to achieve impossible standards of physical beauty, the most important being a slim waistline. It’s not a surprise then that people living in larger bodies face weight bias. What is alarming is when that bias comes from their primary care physician.
Stroke patients have a lot of challenges, such as trying to relearn lost motor skills, dealing with paralysis, and finding new ways to communicate with speech impairment. But there’s another challenge that often presents long after a stroke, and is poorly understood: pain.
Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute investigators are trying to get a better picture of post-stroke pain and they’re asking patients to help.
