People are saying to say “to heck with it, I’m done with COVID’, but the reality is that COVID is not done with us Even at the best of times, mental health issues make up a big proportion of the work done by family physicians. During the pandemic, this has only gone up. There is evidence that many Canadians have taken to some of the usual crutches (including alcohol and drugs) to help them cope. Don’t hesitate to make use of formal supports – probably the easiest way in Alberta is just to call Health Link (dial 811). Take the time to think about what is important to you. Whether this is spen ..read more

It can be tough to make a health behaviour change. Many people find that having the support of a friend or family member to help hold them accountable can make all the difference There are a number of principles from behavioural economics (such as future discounting) which explain why we often don’t achieve our goals. Keeping a journal, or using some other form of commitment device can be helpful. Finding an accountability buddy can be hard, especially during lockdowns for COVID-19. The good news is that there are a number of dedicated websites and apps, including GetMotivatedBuddies. These ca ..read more

In this show we looked at the case of a 60 year old man who works for a motor dealership. He was fairly typical of an Albertan, carrying a few extra pounds and not physically very active. As with our previous shows, we have used a couple of calculators to determine the risks – and you can too. We like QDiabetes and CanRisk. (As ever, we recommend interpreting the results of these calculators with support from a medical professional). Click above to listen again and learn about the number one risk factor for diabetes (as well as some others). We provided listeners with some top tips, whether yo ..read more

Along with heart disease, cancer is the commonest cause of death among Canadians. Quite apart from death, the chronic illness that it causes has a huge impact on our social, economic and general wellbeing. It might shock you to learn that almost half of cancers are preventable. There’s no drug that is going to reduce cancer rates by almost 50% The statistics and information used in today’s show is taken from the Community Cancer Prevention Dashboard from the Government of Alberta Healthier Together website. Like heart disease, the way that we live our lives can have a huge impact on our risk ..read more

We have come to accept illness and disease as an inevitable part of life, but in today’s show Dr Dan and Jamieson question this assumption. They reveal why the decisions you make now can have a dramatic impact on your health in the future. We talked about using different calculators to work out your own individual risk of heart disease. These are available online here. (A caution – it is best to interpret the results from these calculators in conjunction with medical advice. Mr Smith is a 65 year old man from Vegreville, who is looking forward to his retirement. We use the Framingham risk calc ..read more

In today’s episode, Dr Dan and Jamieson discussed a crucial element which deeply shapes views of our own health. The locus of control refers to how much of a sense you have that you as an individual have control over your own life. People with an internal locus of control tend to think they have significant influence over their own lives, whereas those with an external locus of control tend to think that their fate is determined more by chance or luck, or by the decisions of other people. There is a link to personality development and locus of control is often quite situational. People with an ..read more

In this episode, we talked about the impact of different generational views of health, and what these differences mean for us as patients and healthcare providers. Our experiences of the world, significant events that shaped our lives, and the prevailing social cultures or attitudes in our formative years, mean that individuals born in different generations have very different views on health, and what it means to be healthy. It is important for healthcare providers and systems to take these attitudes into account, when planning and delivering healthcare, whether at the level of a population ..read more

With the pandemic, people haven’t been able to get out and about over the summer – many listeners have had to put their travel plans on hold. As some consolation, in today’s show Dr Dan and Jamieson took a road trip based on the Kubasonics hit “Giants of the Prairies”. In every stop, they came across a monument connected with health. Join us in the County 106.5 Community Cruiser on our crazy tour of the Prairies, by clicking the link above to listen again ..read more

The liver is an often misunderstood organ. As well as its role in managing blood sugar, it has a huge number of other functions. In this show, we talked about what the liver is and what it does, common causes of injury (including alcohol, viruses such as hepatitis C, obesity and hemochromatosis), and symptoms of liver disease. In Canada, we are increasingly worried about non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and it is becoming a commoner cause of irreversible liver scarring (known as cirrhosis). We also talked about ways to prevent liver disease – with the right lifestyle measures, a significant ..read more

Blood sugar is generally not very well understood but is popularly referred to in every day speech. It is normally very well controlled and in general, unless you have an underlying medical condition or participated in extreme exercise, your blood sugar will not go low. What we call blood sugar, is really glucose. It is fuel for the brain – and indeed glucose is the only fuel source for the pink squishy organ. Your body is also very good at avoiding excessively high blood sugar and it’s only with conditions like diabetes, that this normally tight control is lost. Glycogen is used by the body t ..read more