Health Archives - Page 5 of 18

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians needlessly fracture bones each year due to osteoporosis

London Drugs’ Osteoporosis Screening Clinics to aid in prevention

Dubbed the ‘silent thief’, bone loss from osteoporosis occurs without symptoms – until the first fracture. According to Osteoporosis Canada, fractures from osteoporosis are more common than a heart attack, stroke or breast cancer combined, and yet over 80 per cent of fracture patients are never offered screening or treatment post fracture . Around 30,000 Canadians each year suffer from hip fractures, and many more suffer osteoporotic fractures affecting the spine, wrist, shoulder, and pelvis .

London Drugs offers Osteoporosis Screening Clinics to help patients determine their risk of developing osteoporosis, before a fracture occurs. Using the World Health Organization’s FRAX assessment tool and Sunlight Omnisense® device, Patient Care Pharmacists scan and measure the patient’s bone strength and assess their risk for falls and fractures. The consultation takes about 45-minutes.

Post-screening, patients are given an assessment of their vitamin D and calcium intake, lifestyle factors, and existing medical conditions as they relate to fracture risk. Each patient is then provided with tips on how to minimize their risks, and a personalized action plan to fit their wellness goals.

“Since osteoporosis often has no noticeable symptoms, routine screenings are crucial to help you stay informed about the changes that happen in the body during the aging process. We can develop an action plan to help improve bone health and minimize your risk,” explains Lily Liang, a Patient Care Pharmacist at London Drugs.

Osteoporosis Screening Clinics can be booked online or by calling the pharmacy.

Fat and fit

So if you are overweight but you are also fit, do you erase the added risk of heart disease that carrying extra weight is said to add to your life?

No, according to a study from Imperial College London’s School of Public Health and published in the August 14 issue of the European Heart Journal.

In this study that covered participants from several different European countries for more than 12 years follow-up, researchers compared 10,000 people who didn’t have heart problems with slightly more than 7600 people who had known cardiovascular disease, and the researchers concluded that excess weight is a problem for your heart no matter how fit you think you are.

In other words, no matter how many or how few risk factors these study participants had for heart disease – they had high blood pressure, for example, or abnormal cholesterol levels, or diabetes, and so on – those people who were overweight had a higher chance of suffering a heart attack or dying suddenly from a heart problem than people with similar cardiac risks but who were also thin or at normal weight.

Bottom line: although some studies have claimed to show that if you are fat you are still OK in terms of your heart – so long as you also maintain a good level of cardiovascular fitness – this study found that is likely not true.

Back to School Essentials for Happy, Healthy Kids

It’s almost that time of year again. Time for eager kids to explore a new set of subjects. Time for growing bodies to eat healthy, balanced lunches while enjoying the company of their friends. That’s right – It’s time for bright young minds to start a fresh new school year!

The best way to ensure that your kids are getting the nutrition they need, is to prepare a delicious and healthy lunch for them. Thanks to great products from Rubbermaid, this task is much simpler.

With Rubbermaid LunchBlox, you can easily pack a well-balanced meal with snap-together containers. Not only are these containers convenient, but they are pretty darn fun too! Is your kid messy? That’s okay, most of them are. But now you can help prevent the mess with 100% leak-proof Rubbermaid Brilliance containers. Rubbermaid Balance helps regulate portions and ensure kids are getting the right mix of nutritious foods. Field trip coming up? Not to fear! Rubbermaid Takealongs are perfect for on-the-go.

Now that we have messy meals all sealed up, let’s put a lid on that kid’s messy hair! With Goody Ouchless Brushes and Goody Ouchless Elastics , you can have your little ones looking their finest.

And nothing says new school year like a bunch of fun, colorful writing utensils! From doodling for fun to completing math equations, we have you covered with a wide selection of fun brands:

Visit your nearest London Drugs today and get a head start on your back-to-school shopping!

Last – but definitely not least – you have the chance to win a $2,500 RESP contribution to use toward your child’s education. Plus, there are great secondary prizes consisting of a $1,000 London Drugs gift card and 3 Back to School gift packs for your kid when you buy one of the qualifying brands listed above. Click here to learn more and for full contest rules!

Respiratory Information During Forest Fires

Forest fires can be an inevitable part of living in Western Canada. The information below provides tips to reduce your personal health risk, as well as contact numbers to report a forest fire in each Western Canadian province.

Air Quality

The Ministry of Environment to monitors air quality impact due to wildfires across the province. For the most up to date conditions and a list of active advisories for BC, please visit: www.bcairquality.ca

Tips to reduce personal risk:

Smoke can affect each person differently, based on their health, age, and exposure.

People with heart or lung conditions may be more sensitive to the effects of smoke and should watch for any change in symptoms that may be due to smoke exposure. If you notice any symptoms, take steps to reduce your exposure to smoke and if necessary see a physician. People with symptoms should go to their health care provider, walk-in clinic or emergency department depending on the severity of symptoms.

Residents with asthma, COPD or other chronic illness should activate their asthma, respiratory or personal care plan.
Use common sense regarding outdoor physical activity – if your breathing becomes difficult or uncomfortable, stop or reduce the activity.
Stay cool and drink plenty of fluids.
Smoke levels may be lower indoors, however levels of smoke particles will still be increased. If you stay indoors, be aware of your symptoms.
Commercially available HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters can further reduce poor indoor air quality near the device.
Reduce indoor pollution sources such as smoking or burning other materials.
Consider visiting a location like a shopping mall with cooler filtered air. Keep in mind that staying indoors may help you stay cool and provide some relief from the smoke, however, many air conditioning systems do not filter the air or improve indoor air quality.
You may be able to reduce your exposure to smoke by moving to cleaner air. Conditions can vary dramatically by area and elevation.
Pay attention to local air quality reports; air quality may be poor even though smoke may not be visible.
Maintaining good overall health is a good way to prevent health effects resulting from short-term exposure to air pollution.

Report a Wildfire

To report a wildfire or irresponsible behaviour:
In B.C. call 1 800 663-5555 or *5555 from a cell phone.
In Alberta call 310-FIRE.
In Saskatchewan call 1-800-667-9660.
In Manitoba call 1-800-782-0076.

Information from the public is crucial to ensuring wildfires are responded to as soon as possible.

When reporting a forest fire, any information you can provide is helpful, however, you can expect the emergency call-taker to ask for details about the fire, such as;

Location
i.e. Where is the fire? How far up the hillside?
Size
e.g. Metres? Hectares? Size of a house? Size of a football field?
Rate of spread
i.e. How quickly is the fire spreading?
Fuel
i.e. What is burning? Grass, bushes, trees?
Smoke/flames
i.e. What colour is the smoke? Are flames visible?
Threat
i.e. Are there any people or buildings at risk?
Action
i.e. Is anyone fighting the fire?

Some information for this post sourced from:

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/wildfire-status/wildfire-situation

Sun Care 101: A Parents’ Guide to Sun Safety

It can be time-consuming (and maybe a little annoying) to apply protective sunscreen on you and your family members—especially if these people happen to be squealing kids, just waiting to get outside in the sunshine! We’ve got some great tricks and tips for easy (ish) sun care application that will help keep your family covered. Here’s our guide to sun safety for parents.

Rules for Parents

Plan on five minutes per body

You might be thinking, “That is completely nuts! Sunscreen doesn’t take that long.” You may be right, but many of us groan at the thought of applying sunscreen on our kids because we don’t plan enough time for it. After gathering up all the snacks, water bottles, extra clothes, towels, sand toys, and so on, we’re already leaving an hour later than we wanted to. At this point, we’re often not in a good head space to tackle a rushed sunscreen job, so we either lose our tempers, give up, or decide to apply upon arrival. None of these are ideal.

So, yes, allowing five minutes per person is over-planning, but if you budget this much time there is a better chance you’ll actually leave the house smiling (and maybe even have a toy shovel packed for each kid!).

Apply 20 to 30 minutes before going out

We know: what a pain! But experts say sunscreen takes 20-30 minutes to become effective. Good thing we’ve already budgeted our time at home! Plus, following this rule means slathering on sunscreen away from all of the playground distractions and blowing sand. You may even schedule time between pajamas and getting dressed for the beach–it’s easier to apply sunscreen when kids are changing clothes. Also, remember to reapply regularly, especially after hitting the pool or the ocean for a swim.

Think of sun protection like you would a car seat

Toddlers cry and fight, but you still buckle them into a car seat (forcibly, if necessary), right? Sun protection is the same: a necessity. It’s not one of those teachable moments where you let your child choose not to wear a raincoat and get uncomfortably wet. One blistery sunburn in childhood can increase the risk of melanoma by 50%. Safety trumps tantrums, and that’s that.

Tricks for Kids

A quick internet search yields loads of tricks for making sunscreen tolerable for kids. Here are a few of our favourites.

A blogger at Happily Ever Mom lists seven ways to speed up the slather. One of her great methods is to make it into a timed challenge she calls “The Countdown”. The Countdown challenges mom or dad to finish the job before getting to number 10. She advises that parents make sure they are in charge of the counting, so they can stretch the countdown if they need to.

Another good trick is a game called “What’s Missing?” Apply everywhere but the nose, or one arm, and let your kid guess which body part still needs lotion. This gives your child the all-important power to point out mom or dad’s “mistake.”

Alternatively, you could give your child a sponge paintbrush and put her in charge of everyone’s sunscreen, like the girl in this video. It’s messy, but it works. And maybe their enthusiasm will solve this doctor’s number one complaint: that parents don’t apply enough lotion.

Sun Safety while Solo

Remember back before you had kids, when you took a book to the beach, and the biggest problem you faced was trying to put sunscreen on your own back? Simpler times. If your kids hit the pool as soon as you get there, and you don’t have help for your own sun care, we’ve got you covered there too. Here are a few hilarious, but strangely practical tips for applying sunscreen to your own hard-to-reach places. The toilet brush isn’t for everyone, but maybe a spatula or paint roller could do the trick.

As you gear up to take on the summer sun, set challenging, yet realistic goals. Try to finish the application process without losing your temper, and work on getting through a whole summer without a sunburn. You can do this!

Stay safe out there in the sunshine.

Still On Track With Your New Year’s Resolutions?

It can be discouraging setting your fitness New Year’s Resolutions and not being able to keep them by the time spring arrives. You feel motivated to start but somewhere along the way you lose energy, can’t keep up with your exercise routine and don’t have anyone to hold you accountable.

Here’s 4 ways to stay on a track with your fitness resolutions:

Set realistic goals

At the start, you’re motivated to make your health a priority but tend to overexert yourself. You’re willing to implement a new meal plan and exercise 4 times a week. Eating well and exercising multiple times a week are both realistic lifestyle changes, however, when you begin, it’s important to stay realistic.

Tip: Look at your current schedule and plan 1-2 fitness activities for the week. Once you feel comfortable and consistent with those days, add another class. This will allow you to ease into a new routine and make sustainable positive changes.

Find an activity that you enjoy

Doing an exercise routine that feels like a chore, limits your ability to achieve your goal. Exercise comes in many forms and can even include activities such as gardening, playing with your kids or going for a walk.

Tip: Brainstorm a list of activities that get you moving and you enjoy, or think you might enjoy, and schedule them in your calendar.

Find the right support

Not only should you set realistic goals and enjoy what you do, you should find the right support group or partner that will hold you accountable throughout the year. Kevin O’Connor, a competitive road runner and coach, relies on his support team to get through the rainy cooler months in Vancouver, BC. “Training through the colder months, I think it’s very important to find a group. If you can’t find a group then try and find a training partner so you know that when it’s cold, wet and miserable, someone’s going to be there and you’re accountable.”

Tip: Sign up for a weekly fitness group or pair up with a friend. Exercising with a group or friend will be more enjoyable and you can keep track of each other’s progress.

Supplement with the right joint health product

Increasing your physical activity may leave you feeling too sore to continue and increase your chances of giving up on your goals all together. Your recovery process is an important part of your fitness routine and should not be avoided. Stretching, hydrating, eating a balanced diet and supplementing with the right joint health product, allows you to regain your energy and support your joint health and mobility.

“As a running athlete, I find SierraSil Joint Formula14 and Pain Relief Topical Spray enables my recovery from the same hard workouts that I ran 17 years ago when I was at my peak. Taking SierraSil products has assisted greatly in my training with confidence after hard workouts and now I’m running almost as well as I was in 1994 and 1996.” – Kevin O’Connor

SierraSil, a clay-mineral that aids in easing joint and muscle aches, reduces delayed onset muscle soreness and calms inflammation. SierraSil has allowed many to get back to their regular physical activities without experiencing chronic pain and stiffness.

Tip: Pick up a bottle of Joint Formula14 at your nearest London Drugs to help you ease into your fitness routine.

For more advice on joint health products such as SierraSil, speak to a London Drugs pharmacist today.

Living a healthy lifestyle

When it comes to trying to convince people to be more active to lower their health risks, one of the most frustrating things for doctors is that the people who tend to listen to this advice most are usually those people who are already somewhat active, not those who are most sedentary.

But the studies show over and over and over again that the biggest gains from making a bit of a positive adjustment in activity level actually come to those who are the least active to start with.

For example, in a huge study which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, researchers set out to examine the effect that genes confer on heart health and whether or not living a healthy lifestyle could offset any negative contribution to life expectancy from inheriting “bad” genes.

And their happy conclusion is that yes, healthy living can indeed offset “bad” genes.

More encouragingly, perhaps, even if you inherited a higher risk of heart disease from your ungenerous parents, you don’t have to do all that much in terms of trying to live a healthy lifestyle to counter the effect of those genes.

In this study, the researchers concluded that even a small upward tick in healthy living – some exercise but not necessarily 5 times a week and not necessarily very vigorous workouts, eating some veggies and fruit but not necessarily 10 servings a day, maintaining a decent body weight even in the mild overweight category – significantly lowered the risk of dying from heart disease that “bad” genes confer.

Or to put this in the words of the study’s authors, “the biggest protective effect by far (on life expectancy in this study) came from going from a terrible lifestyle to one that was moderately good.”

In other words, the people who are likely to gain the most benefit are those who manage to finally get off the couch, even if it’s only to walk around the block to start, not those who go from jogging a half-hour a day to running faster and longer.

So the great news is that genes are not destiny.

The bad (sort of) news is that you do have to do something about it, however.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians needlessly fracture bones each year due to osteoporosis

Fat and fit

Back to School Essentials for Happy, Healthy Kids