Health Warnings

For me, the most fascinating segment of Morgan Spurlock's documentary on McDonalds, called Super Size Me, involved the man who has become famous for eating almost nothing but Big Macs since 1972. Don Gorske is the Guinness world record holder for number of Big Macs eaten, having passed 19,800 Big Macs as of June, 2004. Read more

Originally published in March 2009

In the wake of the tragic passing of actress Natasha Richardson, I'd like to share a few details on head injuries that everyone should know about.

Based on what I've read in several newspaper reports, Natasha Richardson died from an epidural hematoma, which medical professionals will tell you is one of the most frightening conditions around because it can be caused by a low force blow to the head, and also because initially, there may be no signs to indicate that a serious injury has occurred. Read more

Dr. David Phillips, professor of sociology at the University of California in San Diego published a study in 2008 that highlighted an alarming trend: From 1983 to 2004, while deaths caused by firearms, fires, drownings, and traffic accidents decreased, the rate of deaths from prescription and over-the-counter drugs increased at a rapid clip. Read more

Female night shift workers have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than the rest of the female population. An interesting study in the December 1, 2005 issue of Cancer Research provides new information that might partly explain why this is.

Researchers found that sleeping for several hours in nighttime darkness promotes a healthy blood level of a hormone called melatonin, which can significantly suppress the growth and proliferation of breast tumours. Read more