My hypothesis is that the scrotum, which in mammals, is often exposed, relatively hairless, and with thin skin and little subcutaneous tissue, may have evolved for perhaps a different reason than simply to provide a lower temperature for spermatogenesis. Consider that humans produce about 25,000 sperm every minute. Why so many?…
Read moreIn Montreal, the federal government is building a new bridge over the St. Lawrence river, to replace the aging Champlain bridge. There has been plenty of discussion about whether tolls should be charged to users of the new bridge. It goes without saying that actual users are highly reluctant to pay tolls,…
Read moreOn July 6, 2013 an unattended freight train carrying crude oil rolled down a hill and derailed in the downtown area of the city of Lac-Mégantic, resulting in a huge explosion causing the loss of 47 lives. Many Canadian cities are concerned about the possibility of a similar disaster in their…
Read moreYesterday we heard that the tusks from 7,000 dead elephants, which had been confiscated by Kenya from illegal poaching of ivory, was set afire. Kenya’s President is hoping that this will help end the illegal trade which kills elephants. But what is the consequence of reducing the supply of ivory for which…
Read moreThe Q&A response to the question “What could multiple hyperdensities on brain MRI in the absence of migraine indicate?” (Parkhurst Exchange, April 2010, p28) did not include B12 deficiency as a possible cause. There are a number of case reports (1-4) reporting the finding of white matter hyperintensities on T2-weighted…
Read moreWhile catching up on my reading, I came across an item in “Consultant’s Corner” which piqued my interest, and I am writing to bring both your readers and your consultant up to date. In the Aug 2007 issue of the Canadian Journal of CME, a question was submitted by a…
Read moreThe article “Age-related macular degeneration” Oct 2008, p52) lists the risk factors for AMD as age, genetics, history of smoking, Caucasian race, and diet low in antioxidants. Not mentioned was the association between a lower risk of AMD and higher fish and/or omega-3 fatty acid consumption. Augood C, Chakravarthy U,…
Read moreI believe that there are many people in Canada who feel as I do, that the existing governmental structures are serving the needs of ordinary Canadians less and less. My proposal is that we create a new federal political party, and invite individuals like Marc Garneau and Andrew Coyne to…
Read moreWhen I was a medical student at McGill in the late 1970s, we learned a straightforward explanation for the cause of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes in adults, accounting for about 90 per cent of all diabetes cases. We were told the insulin resistance responsible for…
Read moreGout is caused by an excess of uric acid (urate) in the system, which can then form crystals in various places, including the joint of the big toe. Crystals in the joint cause inflammation and pain. Excess uric acid can be due to excessive dietary intake of purines, insufficient urinary…
Read moreWith the Mike Duffy trial figuring prominently in the news these days, The NDP is renewing calls for abolition of the Senate. Instead of outright abolition of the “House of sober second thought” perhaps a major restructuring should be considered. Here is one suggestion: Reduce the size of the senate,…
Read moreYesterday I attended an all-day symposium at the Montreal Neurological Institute, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre. I went to hear talks by David Van Essen, Principal Investigator, The Human Connectome Project; Henry Markram, Director, The Blue Brain Project, and Coordinator, The Human Brain Project; and Robert…
Read moreWhat does it mean to be conscious? Does it even have a meaning? As a psychiatrist, I am influenced by the way in which the terms “conscious”, “unconscious” and “subconscious” are used. The latter two terms generally refer to perceptions or emotions or thoughts that we are not aware of…
Read moreThe following was submitted as a letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette, and was published in the edition of 2014-11-1. Re: “Reforming health care” (Opinion, Oct. 22) Jacques Hendlisz and David Levine point out the danger of leaders becoming disconnected from the professionals who deliver care, when health…
Read moreThe following was submitted as a letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette, and was published on the Gazette’s website on 2014-10-23. The RCMP is reported to have taken away the passport of Martin (Ahmad) Couture-Rouleau out of concern that he would travel to Iraq or Syria. Would it…
Read moreWestern democracies are lining up to engage in bombing raids against Islamic State installations, citing the IS (aka ISIS, or ISIL) terrorists as particularly cruel and barbaric, a scourge that needs to be eliminated. We’ve seen the gruesome beheadings, and heard the warnings that Canadians may become radicalized, join IS,…
Read moreIn Canada and Quebec, the debate over the right to die with dignity, medically assisted suicide, and euthanasia is often heated. I am struck by the inconsistency, perhaps even hypocrisy, of governments that maintain that it is OK for individuals to commit suicide, but not to receive help from anyone…
Read moreThis was submitted as a Letter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette, on 2013-5-25: re: “Angelina Jolie got it right” (Friday, May 24): Dr. Labos is to be commended for his clearly written article on mastectomy for BRCA positive women. However, he did not mention that these unfortunate women…
Read moreThis article was published as an opinion piece in the 2009-2-10 edition of the Westmount Independent, under the heading “Make phase 1 report public, larger arena benefits city“. At Monday’s City Council meeting, a large audience heard Mayor Karin Marks explain that the report from the first phase of the…
Read moreThe study reported on in the article “Acute impact of immediate release methylphenidate administered three times a day on sleep in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (Corkum, Panton, Ironside, Macpherson, & Williams, 2008) found a significant reduction in total sleep time of almost an hour with medication compared to the no…
Read moreThis letter to the editor of the “Canadian Medical Association Journal” was published electronically on the CMAJ website, on 2008-11-18, in response to this article: Targownik LE, Lix LM, Metge CJ, Prior HJ, Leung S, Leslie WD. Use of proton pump inhibitors and risk of osteoporosis-related fractures. CMAJ. 2008;179:319-326. Article…
Read moreThis letter to the editor of “Canadian Psychiatry Aujourd’hui” , a newspaper published by the Canadian Psychiatric Association, appeared in the October 2008 issue (volume 4, no. 5) While I enjoyed the articles on sleep in your August 2008 issue, I felt that the headlines were misleading. For example, the…
Read moreLetter to the Editor, submitted to the Montreal Gazette on 2008-8-28. Many companies provide parking at no charge for their employees. This represents a subsidy, as parking spaces involve considerable costs including initial construction, drainage, paving, lighting as well as ongoing expenses such as snow removal, security, and electricity. Never…
Read moreI wrote this letter in response to an article, entitled “Omega-3 no help for Crohn’s”, which appeared in the 2008-5-6 edition of the Medical Post. My original letter, as submitted, included references, and was clear that it was a response to the Medical Post article, and not to the research…
Read moreMemorandum To: All physicians From: Henry Olders, MD Date: 2007-7-25 Subject: Methylmalonic acid test reference range As you are aware, the hospital has adopted a protocol for Vitamin B12 treatment that requires laboratory confirmation of a B12 deficiency. I have stated my position that this is bad medicine, as it…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2006-11-24 edition under the heading “Puerile bullyboy”. Dan McTeague criticises Prime Minister Harper (letters, 23 Nov 2006) for “openly” chastising China on its human-rights record and bringing up the case of Huseyin Celil, then complains that he should…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Quebec’s Minister of Health and Social Services, Philippe Couillard, trumpets his government’s injection of $56 million in new funding for the province’s beleaguered mental health system (Gazette, “Quebec making great strides in mental health”, 2006-5-15). This is very timely, as a report…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The City of Westmount, with financial support from the province, is erecting a section of transparent sound barrier (Gazette 2006-4-24, “Innovative barrier keeps view intact”, page A7) at the foot of Abbott avenue as a pilot project. If effective at significantly reducing…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2006-3-8 edition under the heading “Lack of vitamin B12 also causes lesions”. The article “Brain’s ‘sleeper cells’ stalking boomers” (7 mar 2006) points out that white matter lesions in the brain predict stroke and dementia. It fails to…
Read moreAn edited version of this letter to the editor appeared in the Montreal Gazette on 2005-5-10 under the heading “Taxpayers need their own senate”. Your editorial “Can taxes ever be cut?” (May 8) correctly points out that the majority of voters pay no income tax, effectively disenfranchising those middle-income “working…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. An edited version appeared in the 2005-3-3 edition under the heading “Students hurt only themselves”. The students who are striking to protest the loss of bursary funding, would be better advised to demonstrate against the quality of their education which has failed…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. An edited version appeared in the 2005-1-27 edition under the heading “It’s up to the PM to convince us”. It appears that once again the federal government is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Canadians. Prime Minister Paul Martin…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette, It appeared in the 2004-12-15 edition under the heading “Referendum way to express opinion”. Your editorial (”Vote no on this”, Gazette 2004-12-14) decries referendums as divisive, and blames them for creating or widening wounds in the fabric of Canadian society. In reality,…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. One would think we had learned nothing from the U.S. experience with Prohibition, or the War on Drugs. Banning a substance such as alcohol or marijuana inevitably leads to the creation of a criminal underground which profits enormously, and supports a large…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Immigration Minister Judy Sgro believes that it is inappropriate for churches and other faith communities to provide sanctuary to refugee claimants who have been ordered deported after their hearings. It has been argued that churches should not usurp the role of democratically…
Read moreAn edited version of this letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette appeared in the 2004-8-2 edition under the heading “Suspension with pay not a bad idea”. Given the demonstrated inability of many government or crown corporation bureaucrats to do their jobs properly, it seems pretty clear that they…
Read moreAn edited version of this letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette appeared in the 2004-6-18 edition under the heading “Lavish lunches exemplify abuses”. So Mayor Tremblay is outraged that members of his political party were reimbursed for lunches and vintage wines out of our taxes? Nothing to compare…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The federal liberals have made flouting the rules an art form, as demonstrated by the sponsorship scandal, Radwanski’s expense accounts, and the Shawinigate affair. Now, in Westmount, liberal incumbent Lucienne Robillard’s overeager campaign team are breaking the rules by erecting election posters…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The various arguments that have been made in favour of merging smaller municipalities into megacities have been demolished, one by one, as these undemocratically created monstrosities (monstrocities?) have failed to produce promised reductions in costs. It seems that the only remaining rationale…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2003-12-21 edition under the heading “Not a user fee”. Shame on you, Gazette! Your editorial “We didn’t vote for this” (14 Dec 2003) refers to user-fee increases as tax increases by another name, and rightly so. But to…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The recent school board elections were noteworthy for the low voter turnout, and for the mysterious process whereby some voters who previously had been on the English school board electoral lists saw their names turn up on the lists for francophone school…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The strike of MTC maintenance workers is a terrible hardship for many people, but is it really necessary to limit service to a few hours daily and none on weekends? After all, it isn’t the bus drivers who are striking; it’s the…
Read moreThis letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette appeared in the 2003-10-7 edition under the heading “Rules on legal insider trading unfair to small investors”. Your editorial on insider trading, “Get tough on market fraud” (Gazette, 5 Oct.) fails to make a sufficiently clear distinction between legal and illegal…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2003-7-4 edition under the heading “Similar campaign as no-call list needed to stop spam”. If it was so easy for U.S. regulators to come up with what promises to be an effective way to put the lid on…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Every couple of weeks or so, there appears an article about sleep, most recently “A mounting sleep debt is nothing to yawn about” (Gazette 2002-12-03) Typically, the authors decry the high prevalence of insufficient sleep, the deleterious effects of sleep deprivation, the…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2002-11-5 edition under the heading “Let’s make those long winter evenings brighter”. Dr. Colin Shapiro recently pointed out (Changing clocks causes temporary havoc, Gazette 2002-10-28) that the switch from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time, on the last…
Read moreWhen a patient’s wishes conflict with the doctor’s, or families disagree with medical teams about the treatment of a loved one, biomedical ethicists are often called in to help resolve the issues. Recent examples that made headlines include the case of Sophia Park, a twenty-five year old grad student, married…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appears that the Quebec government is employing a timeworn ploy to get its way with regard to the just-introduced legislation on the forced merger of Quebec cities. The ploy is: when trying to get a deal, always ask for more than…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. With reference to the article “Leading British doctors urge anesthetics for brain-dead organ donors” (Gazette, 20 Aug 2000, page A10), I find it surprising that the British Department of Health would reject in such a cavalier fashion the possibility that brain-dead individuals…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The recent shootings in Taber and Littleton have stirred up a great deal of commentary about the role of the media in promulgating violent behaviour. While the research seems to focus on the effects of watching violence on television or in the…
Read moreThis letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette appeared in an edited form in the 1998-5-30 edition with the title “”Programmers can do in millenium bug” The millenium bug has received a great deal of editorial comment. Hapless users of elevators, automobiles, banks, governments and all the other products,…
Read moreThis Letter to the Editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry was published in the April 1992 edition. Citation: Bishop M, Olders H. Alternatives to civil commitment.[letter]. Can J Psychiatry 1992;37(3):223. Download a pdf of the letter and a reply by Drs. Brouillette and Paris. 1 August 1991 The Editor The…
Read moreThis letter to the Editor of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry was co-authored by Dr. Virginia Duff and myself. It was published in the 1990 August edition (vol. 35, no. 6). Citation: Duff V, Olders H. Negative symptoms in schizophrenia.[letter]. Can J Psychiatry 1990;35(6):570-571. Download a pdf of the letter and…
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