The Medic's BlogExclusive Solutions For Health Improvement

If your beer can resembles Burt Reynolds, your taxi is a moving Dali tribute and your co-worker could sustain a family of birds with the food on his upper lip, you know it’s Movember.

Like pink ribbons before them, moustaches are putting a friendly face on cancer, thanks to an international campaign in which facial furniture is sprouted in the name of fundraising. The good-humoured movement has brought in $184 million since 2004, making Movember the world’s largest source of private-sector funds for prostate cancer research.

But if breast cancer’s “pinkwashing” has taught us anything, it’s that with a high profile comes high risk of abuse. And nobody is

Read more…

We heard from a patient during our dermatology week, who worked as a medical laboratory technician, running hundreds of blood samples every day, and frequently using her own blood as the negative control. Then she began to notice that the numbers stopped making sense. Her ANA had shot through the roof and her white blood cells started dropping.

I couldn’t use my blood as the negative control anymore, she said, shrugging slightly.

Her stoic face didn’t reveal much, but I imagine that being dethroned from the pristine world of negative controls into the confusing milieu of mucked up numbers and unsteady ground couldn’t have been an easy thing to accept.

She had lupus.

A few more things followed. A fri

Read more…

In honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, weve partnered with Spookley the Square Pumpk to give away a prize package filled with Spookley books, DVDs, toys and more! “It’s the things that make us different that make us special.”

To win, sign up to our newsletter below or visit the MOMfinds Facebook page

Bluetooth headset maker Jawbone released Jawbone UP this week, a continuously-worn wristband sensor that tracks daily activity and sleep patterns. The device retails for $99.99 and is available starting November 6 at retailers including Target, Apple Stores, and Best Buy.

The UP bands sensors track steps walked, pace, calories burned, and active versus inactive time. Its sleep sensor tracks phases of sleep, hours slept, overall sleep quality, and includes a smart alarm, which are most but not all of the metrics tracked by the best known sleep management device, Zeo.

As the global health crisis mounted, we felt a strong sense of responsibility to see if we could leverage our resources, talents, and ecosystem to try and help make a difference,” stated Hosain Rahman, Jawbone founder and CEO, in a press release. UP i Read more…