November

One of the privileges of working with young people is that the course of their lives is still so flexible and unshaped. I work at a pediatric hospital, and it’s been my distinct pleasure to meet children of all ages, sometimes just once or twice and often despite them seriously not wanting to meet me. 

The health risks associated with men’s gender or mascu­linity have remained largely unproblematic… Left un­ques­tioned, men’s shorter lifespan is often presumed to be natural and inevitable.[1]

One hundred years ago men and women had equal average lifespans. But over the past century a consistent pattern has developed in countries around the world, including Canada: males experience higher mortality rates than females across the spectrum of life, from conception to old age. 

References

I’m afraid I’m not a very good Canadian. I don’t eat much back bacon, seldom wear a toque and don’t really like the way our great late novelist, Robertson Davies, writes. He uses a fifty dollar word when a five cent word would suffice.

Farm practices involving antibiotics affect patients in our offices, some of whom die as a result of resistant infections.

In Canada, agriculture accounts for a large volume of antibiotic use believed to be employed to help farmers increase growth and prevent disease in their livestock. However, studies show that nontherapeutic use of antibiotics selects for resistance, and that resistance in humans is determined by the same mechanism as in animals. 

References

A number of factors common in the elderly make them vulnerable to acute kidney injury and subsequent digoxin toxicity.

Case
An 85-year-old female presented to emergency after a syncopal episode. She complained of having the flu and had been feeling unwell for several days. Six months earlier, she was prescribed digoxin 0.125 mg daily for atrial fibrillation. Other medications included furosemide, ramipril, metoprolol, ASA, and warfarin. 

References