Browse "Health & Medicine"

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) is the name now used to describe a group of infections previously referred to as venereal diseases (VD) or sexually transmitted diseases (STD).

Shaking Tent rite was widespread among the Ojibwa, Innu (Montagnais-Naskapi), Cree, Penobscot and Abenaki and involved the shamanistic use of a special cylindrical lodge or tent.

Smallpox is an infectious disease caused by the variola virus. The disease arrived in what is now Canada with French settlers in the early 17th century. Indigenous people had no immunity to smallpox, resulting in devastating infection and death rates. In 1768, arm-to-arm inoculation became more widely practised in North America. By 1800, advances in vaccination helped control the spread of smallpox. Public health efforts also reduced rates of infection. In the 20th century, Canadian scientists helped the World Health Organization eradicate smallpox. Eradication was achieved in 1979, but virus stocks still exist for research and safety reasons.

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Smoking is a universal health hazard. All forms of TOBACCO smoking are risky. Canadian consumption of cigarettes has been declining since the monitoring of smoking began in 1965, when an estimated 50% of adults smoked. In 1981 smoking prevalence had dropped below 40%.

​Children and youth with learning disabilities typically have average to above average intelligence but also have problems perceiving (making sense of) or using information that results in a pattern of uneven abilities and observable weaknesses in reading, writing, speaking, listening, problem solving, mathematics, and social skills.

Sports medicine practitioners help serious athletes plan preseason training and testing, provide early treatment for injuries, identify groups that may be susceptible to risk, and record frequencies in patterns of injuries.

Statistics is the science concerned with the collection and analysis of numerical information to answer questions wisely. The term also refers to the numerical information that has been collected. Statistics has many applications in Canada, from government censuses and surveys, to decision making in industry, to medical research and technological innovation.

Stem cells are the body's "building blocks"; they are the cells from which all tissues and organs are derived. They have the ability to divide while still maintaining their identity, yet they can also develop into specialized cells in response to certain stimuli.

The practice of sterilization arose out of the eugenics movement and has a long, often hidden history in Canada. Sterilization legislation in Alberta (1928–72) and British Columbia (1933–73) attempted to limit the reproduction of “unfit” persons, and increasingly targeted Indigenous women. Coerced sterilization of Indigenous women took place both within and outside existing legislation, and in federally operated Indian hospitals. The practice has continued into the 21st century. Approximately 100 Indigenous women have alleged that they were pressured to consent to sterilization between the 1970s and 2018, often while in the vulnerable state of pregnancy or childbirth.

Stress was originally viewed as an overpowering external force acting upon individuals or objects. The mechanical engineer still uses the word in this sense, but human biologists have been less consistent in their terminology.

They're everywhere. Turn on the TV, pick up a newspaper or magazine, and the stories leap out: stem cells to heal the body's failing nervous system; transplanted wombs; the smaller-than-small world of nanotechnology; and yes, as in the previous story, the feverish quest for an artificial heart.

"No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous," wrote Edgar Allan Poe of the "Red Death." "Blood was its Avatar and its seal - the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.

For many years scientists believed that some kind of internal secretion of the pancreas was the key to preventing diabetes and controlling normal metabolism. No one could find it, until in the summer of 1921 a team at the University of Toronto began trying a new experimental approach suggested by Dr. Frederick Banting.

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IT WAS NOT what health-care officials had hoped for, to say the least. Only a week earlier, one of Health Canada's leading authorities on infectious diseases had speculated that SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome - might actually be "easy to control.

Tommy Douglas — the father of socialized medicine in Canada and one of the country’s most beloved figures — once supported eugenic policies. In 1933, he received a Master of Arts in sociology from McMaster University for his thesis, “The Problems of the Subnormal Family.” In the thesis, Douglas recommended several eugenic policies, including the sterilization of “mental defectives and those incurably diseased.” His ideas were not unique, as two Canadian provinces (and 32 American states) passed sexual-sterilization legislation in the 1920s and 1930s. However, by the time Douglas became premier of Saskatchewan in 1944, he had abandoned his support for eugenic policies. When Douglas received two reports that recommended legalizing sexual sterilization in the province, he rejected the idea.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on April 14, 2003. Partner content is not updated.

This text is from the free Toronto in Time app, which was created by The Canadian Encyclopedia. The app is available from the App Store and the Google Play store. Visit its companion website, which is linked below, to explore all the features of the app online.

This text is from the free Toronto in Time app, which was created by The Canadian Encyclopedia. The app is available from the App Store and the Google Play store. Visit its companion website, which is linked below, to explore all the features of the app online.

Inspired by the realization that schizophrenia is a biochemical brain disorder - and not, as doctors once believed, the result of family influences during childhood - a growing number of scientists are studying the disease.