The last type of chemotherapy that David Easton tried in his five-year fight against prostate cancer left him living a life that was really no life at all.

The retired Ontario autoworker slept 20 hours a day. His little time awake was spent hunched on or over the toilet at his home in Ayton, a small community about two hours northwest of Toronto.

He and his wife, Ann Easton, decided in February of 2024 that he would stop chemotherapy, even though he had exhausted all other treatments and very much wanted to live.

Then, about a year later, Mr. Easton was presented with a new option: a radioactive drug delivered by IV that would target his cancer and spare his healthy cells, unlike chemotherapy. “The nurse said that chemo was like being hit with a sledgehammer,” Ms. Easton said, “and this stuff is like being tickled with a feather.”

The only catch was that the 73-year-old would have to limit time with his wife and grandchildren for a few days after the drug

Computed tomography scans have become vital, even lifesaving, medical imaging for diagnosing and monitoring health conditions. But they do expose patients to ionizing radiation at levels linked to higher risks of cancer. In a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers tried to estimate what those higher risks are exactly—and although the estimates come with uncertainty, they may seem startling.

Based on data from 93 million CT scans performed on 62 million people in 2023, the researchers estimated that the CT scans would lead to 103,000 future cancers. To put that in context, those 103,000 cancers would account for about 5 percent of cancers diagnosed each year, based on the current cancer rates and the current usage of CT scans. And the estimate puts CT scans on par with alcohol consumption and obesity in terms of risk factors for developing cancer.

The most common types of cancers estimated to be a r

As we saw during COVID, it's very important that we improve our pharmaceutical manufacturing and medical supply chains here in Canada. I also see this as a reason why an extensive national pharmacare plan is important. Countries that have implemented such programs have been able to negotiate better deals for the drugs by acting as a single unit instead of many smaller provincial and private organizations. Instead of cutting healthcare services, we could stop paying unreasonably high prices on pharmaceuticals.

Finally, maybe it's time that Canada reevaluated some of the IP protections that american pharmaceutical companies get.

Marketing for the new Last of Us season is out of control /s

A fungal superbug called Candida auris is spreading through hospitals and nursing homes at an “alarming rate,” with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently calling it an urgent antimicrobial resistance threat.

Last week, the CDC warned about the increasing threat of Candida auris, also called C. auris, as it not only is highly resistant to multiple antifungal drugs but also can withstand common hospital disinfectants.

“CDC has deemed C. auris as an urgent AR [antimicrobial resistance] threat, because it is often resistant to multiple antifungal drugs, spreads easily in healthcare facilities, and can cause severe infections with high death rates,” the statement read.

This worry extends beyond the U.S.

Since the pathogen was first discovered in Japan in 2009, it has spread worldwide, triggering prolonged and challenging outbreaks in hospitals and long-term car

In his resignation letter, Marks wrote that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wanted "subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."

Finasteride — or Propecia, its most popular brand name — was invented by Merck. The pharmaceutical company insists that it's rare for men on the medication to experience side-effects, and has long maintained they vanish once the medication is stopped.

But 25 people interviewed by CBC/Radio Canada during a six-month investigation of finasteride's side-effects tell a different story. They say the drug caused sexual, psychological and physical side-effects for them that have lasted months if not years after they ceased taking the drug.

The men interviewed by CBC/Radio-Canada said their symptoms are debilitating: loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, infertility, cognitive and physical issues, anxiety, insomnia, depression and, in many cases, suicidal ideation.

"It's a complete chemical castration where you have no chemical reaction to anything sexual, anything in life," said Michael, a British Columbia man who says his symptoms have lasted more than 15 years.

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7268399

I try not to delve into "conspiracism" (I know, I know, bourgeois do conspiratorial action, but I'm referring to the general overall attitude toward ruling-class actions or conspiracies; I believe that most conspiracies are out in the open and I'm not obsessed with "secret" actions or "deep state" doings). But I am interested in the current development of diseases and I try to get flu shots every now and then, despite my family looking askance at that. I'm trying to nip whatever I can in the bud before it affects my physical health over the life-span.

Do you think this channel is legit and who would you recommend in terms of keeping up with science-y news or stuff pertaining to disease, physical health, medical science, etc.?

Any YouTube channels are welcome!