Controversial Commercial

The National Association of Mental Illness is furious about a commercial General Motors ran during the Super Bowl that depicted a GM manufacturing robot taking a suicidal leap from a bridge because it had made a mistake on the assembly line. The robot is fired because of GM's "obsession" with quality.

In a letter to GM on February 7, NAMI warned that concerns over depictions of suicide in mass media have been raised in the past by the U.S. Surgeon General, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institute of Mental Health -- as well as groups like NAMI -- because of the risk of "suicide contagion," the clinical term for "copy cat" suicides.

'She likes to say she's a tough cookie'

A few months after my surgery, I went to visit Ruth Jacobi. My roommate from the hospital lives at Kensington Gardens, on College St. in downtown Toronto. It's a long-term care facility that evolved out of the old Doctor's Hospital.

John Jacobi, her son, led me upstairs to his mother's room. It was decorated with family photographs and furniture, including a beautiful old carved wooden cabinet. (When you visit a "home," it's easy to see who has family to help them and who doesn't. Some rooms are depressingly barren; the resident sits alone, usually with a TV blaring in the corner. The average length of stay in a long-term care facility is two years, followed by death. Ruth Jacobi has lived at Kensington Gardens for five years.)

Signs and Symptoms of Inflammatory Breast Cancer

I was sitting in my home office furtively scratching a rash on my swollen left breast when an email arrived from an old friend. The subject line screamed, “URGENT WARNING! OPEN IMMEDIATELY!” Annoyed because it was just another “pass on” message, I pointed my mouse to the delete button – then hesitated. On the outside chance she had included a personal message, I opened it.

Staring from the monitor was the photo of a woman’s breasts, frighteningly similar to the reflection in my bathroom mirror a few hours ago. One breast was swollen with an angry red crescent around the edge of a dimpled nipple – just like mine. The title on the article read “Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC).

Health Benefits of Taking a Nap

What will be more likely to give you a better boost – taking a nap or drinking a cup of coffee? Sleep experts say, in almost every instance, a short snooze is the winner.

The fable afternoon siesta has a rotten reputation as the refuge of the lazy and weak-willed, but the reputation is undeserved. Napping is actually normal, healthy behavior, a natural response to human body rhythms that society has suppressed in all except babies and seniors. Harry S. Truman was a well-known napper as was Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and John F. Kennedy.

A short break can dissipate tress, increase alertness, and even boost productivity. As researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found, people were better able to solve mathematical problems after a brief rest.

Cloning debate slow

Whether a United Nations body will recommend that some human cloning be allowed is -- at this point -- still too close to call, according to a Canadian researcher who just returned from Paris where the group is meeting.

"It could go either way," Rosario Isasi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre de recherche en droit public at the University of Montreal and a law and bioethics expert, told me this afternoon.

Isasi, who had to return to Canada before the International Bioethics Committee could make a decision, has been working the phones and sending e-mails to find out what happened. No announcement has been made by the committee, which is part of UNESCO.

Babies abroad

France is revisiting its limits on in vitro fertilization, or IVF, in the wake of stories about a 59-year-old woman who sidestepped national regulations by going to Vietnam for the treatment.

She is expecting triplets.

IVF in France is only available to women 43 years old and younger. Unwilling to accept that, the woman went to Vietnam for the treatment. She is now being treated under France's medicare system at Cochin Hospital in Paris.

French bioethicists condemned the woman's actions.

"Certainly we are seeing a change in society where the age to get pregnant naturally is rising but everyone must understand that you cannot have a child at any age," said Sadek Beloucif, president of the ethics board of the l'Agence de la Biomédecine.

Foods That Do a Heart Good

We're tempted by high-calorie foods, but they should always be an occasional treat, not everyday fare. Eating too many foods high in fat and sodium can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death for women and men in the United States.

The American Heart Association says a heart-healthy diet is rich in vegetables and fruits, with whole grains, high-fiber foods, lean meats and poultry, fish at least twice a week, and fat-free or 1 percent fat dairy products.

"Most of us want to keep our hearts healthy," registered dietitian Fran Williams said. "But the question remains, how do we do that?"

Health professionals to get wider powers

The province has unveiled reforms that will enable physiotherapists to order X-rays, midwives to use breathing tubes on struggling newborns and pharmacists to refill prescriptions without doctors' orders.

The changes are part of a Liberal initiative to ease long hospital wait times and address the provincial doctor shortage. About 850,000 Ontarians need a family doctor.

In the Legislature yesterday, Health Minister David Caplan introduced amendments to expand the scope of practice for 14 health professions. "Some people will say we have gone too far; others that we have not gone far enough," he said.

Joint Replacement: Solution for Your Everyday Aches & Pains?

It used to be that doctors would say you should wait for as long as possible to have joint replacement surgery. But now, in order to improve their patients' quality of life and reduce pain, some doctors are recommending joint replacement surgery at a younger age. Surgery is done on everything from fingers and wrists to knees, ankles, hips, shoulders and elbows.

The factors that influence a doctor's decision to recommend joint replacement surgery are the degree of pain you're experiencing, if the pain is restricting your daily movement, and if the pain is keeping you from going out and enjoying your life. If you've already tried a series of medications for the pain but have not found relief, surgery might be your next option.

British fertility bill delayed

A British bill that would allow researchers to take tissue from the mentally ill and Alheimer's patients to use in animal/human hybrid experiments may not be voted on today, as expected, as the bill's sections on abortion continue to cause controversy.

The bill, among other things, would liberlize abortion laws in the country -- leading activists on both sides of that debate to demonstrate outside Parliament today.

Procedural delays today, however, have led to speculation the broad-based fertility bill may be shelved for up to two years.

Baroness Ruth Deech, former chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said said the abortion reform should be treated under separate legislation.

Medical tourism growing fast

Medical tourism, already a big industry, is on the cusp of really taking off.

Just a few minutes ago, David Williams, a medical tourism consultant in Massachusetts, opened the Health Care Globalization Summit here is Las Vegas with an overview of the industry and made a few predictions of where it's headed.

U.S. medical insurance companies, he said, will start providing medical tourism policies later this year. Small and medium-sized forms will likely be first, offering policies to the millions of Americans with no health insurance. With U.S. health costs so hight, they simply can't afford the insurance. With medical tourism offering care at 10 to 25 per cent of the cost, some of those people might now be able to afford insurance. "These are really people on the cusp" of affording health insurance, he said.

Exhausted? Short of Breath? It Could Be Anemia

What You Should Know

Feeling tired is not unusual. Many people don't get enough sleep. Others work on their feet all day. Some people don't eat wisely or exercise enough. These conditions are usually temporary.

Sometimes being tired is more serious than a lack of sleep or a hard day at work. When there are not enough red blood cells in your blood, it lack the iron-rich protein (hemoglobin) that carries oxygen to your organs and muscles. This condition is called anemia. Anemia can make you feel exhausted and short of breath.

Signs of anemia may include pale skin, cold hands and feet and brittle nails. Some people with iron shortage may eat ice or crave unusual foods. Some patients may have irregular heartbeats. The heart may need to pump harder to distribute oxygen throughout the body; this may cause the heart wall to thicken.

Floxin

Floxin

Generic Name: ofloxacin (oh FLOX a sin)

Brand Names: Floxin

What is Floxin?

Floxin is in a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. This group of antibiotics is used to fight bacteria in the body.

Floxin is used to treat bacterial infections that cause bronchitis, pneumonia, chlamydia, gonorrhea, skin infections, urinary tract infections, and infections of the prostate.

Floxin may also be used for other purposes not listed in this medication guide.

Important information about Floxin

You should not use Floxin if you are allergic to ofloxacin or similar antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin (Cipro), levofloxacin (Levaquin), norfloxacin (Noroxin), lomefloxacin (Maxaquin), and others.