A recent publication in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology warns patients at risk of cardiovascular disease to keep their total dietary cholesterol under 200 mg per day. This may be difficult if you like egg yolks, which according to the study can contain 215 to 275 mg of cholesterol. In comparison, certain fast food meals can contain only 150 mg of cholesterol.

The publication was authored by Dr. David Spence of The University of Western Ontario, a stroke prevention expert, Dr. David Jenkins of the Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, a nutrition expert, and Dr. Jean Davignon of the Clinique de nutrition métabolisme et athérosclérose in Montreal, a cholesterol expert. According to Dr. Spence: “We wanted to put cholesterol into perspective, as there’s been a widespread misconception developing among the Canadian public and even physicians, that consumption of dietary cholesterol and egg yolks is harmless. Much of this has to do with effective egg marketing.” … Read more →

Hospitals around the country are starting to advertise their emergency department wait times in some unexpected ways. Notwithstanding the obvious fascination with watching an enormous billboard post such information, does this help or hurt a local emergency health system?

Some critics argue that a patient with a true medical emergency may travel further to an emergency department with a shorter wait time, irrespective of the triage system employed by hospitals to ensure critical patients are seen as soon as possible.  Others find this may deter “unnecessary” visits to overcrowded facilities while sending marginal cases to the emptier ones. … Read more →

The mind is a funny thing. When it comes to certain events in our lives, we tend to “misremember” our expectations in advance, therefore revising our conclusions after so we are consistent with our actual feelings.  Or so concludes the research appearing in the November issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, a publication of the American Psychological Association.

Recognizing that the process of predicting emotions is imperfect at best, but the idea behind “misremembering” these emotions may be somewhat logical. Trust in one’s emotional instincts could be “nature’s feedback mechanism to steer us toward actions that are good for us,” said study author and psychologist Tom Meyvis, PhD, of New York University. The study finds that human “ignorance” of this proclivity may help with motivation as we avoid what may appear to be “bad” and pursue that which is “good”. … Read more →