Having normal regular bowel movements can be one of life’s joys. The appearance of your stool is important to notice if your movements are not normal. If you want a picture chart on the appearance of stools showing what is normal and what isn’t, do a search for the Bristol Stool Chart.
A study done in Britain confirmed that people who eat little or no meat have lower rates of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers. The lowest rates of these cancers were found among vegetarians. Fish-eaters (pescatarians) were the next lowest, then came those who minimally ate meat (twice weekly). It’s not confirmed whether these results were entirely due to diet but they do constitute “food for thought”.
About 10 per cent of people are left-handed. Interestingly, four of seven recent US presidents have been left-handed: Ford, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Obama. Left-handers make good pitchers and boxers and it’s twice as common in twins. It’s not known what causes left-handedness. Genetics is involved only 25 per cent of the time. Some say it might be due to stress during pregnancy, low birth weight or being born to older mothers. One good thing…children aren’t forced to learn to write right-handed in schools anymore.
If you lined up all the blood vessels in the human body end to end, they would reach 60,000 miles (about 100,000 km), enough to go around the earth two-and-a-half times.
Mask-wearing in Japan has a hundred-year-old history. When COVID hit, the Japanese didn’t have to be ordered to wear masks. Many already were and knew the positive effects of mask-wearing on preventing the transmission of diseases like colds and flu.
Each summer, people look for “natural” insect repellents. Taking extra vitamin B1 (thiamine) was not effective as a repellent. Others like lemon grass, citronella, peppermint, and rosemary have mixed results. Products containing picardin (a synthesized chemical made to mimic a compound in the pepper plant) is one of the best repellents. Another that did have a seal of approval from the EPA and Consumer Reports was oil of lemon eucalyptus, not to be confused with lemon eucalyptus oil.
Did you know only the female mosquitoes bite? They need blood for nourishment but the males feed on plant nectar. Mosquitoes are attracted to sweat, dark clothing, body odour, and of course the carbon dioxide we breathe out. Not too much can be done about the latter but work on the rest and use a repellent proven to work.
A common complaint that women express against quitting smoking is possible weight gain. Weight gain can happen but this gain in weight doesn’t last forever The act of quitting smoking is a good health decision that will continue to give benefits for a lifetime. Remember, cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of death and illness.
There aren’t too many products on pharmacy shelves today that were around 150 years ago but Vaseline is one of them. It was discovered by an American chemist, Robert Chesebrough, in 1870. Its origin is actually a distillation product from petroleum, and it is still in use today.
“CAM” is an acronym for complementary and alternative medicines. These include vitamins, oils, and herbal products. It is estimated that about one-third of North Americans have used a CAM in the past year. If you are one of them, share this information with your family doctor so she has the whole picture of what you are taking for your health. Physicians are also encouraged to ask their patients what CAMs they are taking.
Did you get good grades in your high school English classes? One study of over 600 people with mild cognitive impairment showed that if you did well in those English and grammar courses, you have a better chance of converting to normal cognition. Not a huge definitive study but one that might be encouraging to those with good language skills.
Over the past three years, over 1.2 million people have died worldwide from infections caused by bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotics. Overuse of existing antibiotics for trivial infections is part of the reason why this is happening. More research and investment is needed to find new antibiotics to combat these super bugs.
Bill Coon graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto in 1984, and was the Faculty’s Centennial Scholar that same year. Bill and his pharmacist wife, Barbara, along with Paul Whitehead, opened Muskoka Medical Centre Pharmacy in 1990. Bill and Barbara, along with their business partner Jenna Whitehead, opened Campus Trail Pharmacy in 2020. The understanding that medications are only part of the health solution has led to Bill’s interest in fitness and health, both personally and professionally. Bill’s Capsule Comments provide a full range of up-to-date health information.
Muskoka Medical Centre Pharmacy is conveniently located in the Huntsville Professional Building at 348 Muskoka Road 3 North. Phone: (705) 789-1785.
The Campus Trail Pharmacy is at 39 Campus Trail, in the new Campus Trails Wellness Centre off Muskoka Rd 3 N beside The Tom condominiums. Phone: (705) 789-5331.
Read more from Bill on the Muskoka Medical Centre Pharmacy Facebook page.
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