Health & Wellness

TORONTO — A new study suggests incentives like free T-shirts and gift cards could boost blood donation rates without compromising blood safety.
Canadians are not paid cash for blood and rolling up one’s sleeve to donate is seen as an altruistic act.
But research by an international team of economists suggests that offering non-monetary incentives could bring in more donors.

TORONTO — A new study says teens who had a schoolmate die by suicide are more likely to consider or attempt taking their own lives than those who haven’t lost a peer to suicide.
Researchers say the effect known as “suicide contagion” can last for two years or longer.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought.
Same goes for soda.
Until now, the only way to find out what people in the United States eat and how many calories they consume has been government data, which can lag behind the rapidly expanding and changing food marketplace.

SASKATOON—Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz says the country’s food watchdog is planning to impose tougher rules to deal with the threat of E. coli in slaughterhouses.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency also will require that meat plants producing mechanically-tenderized beef cuts, such as steaks or roasts, label the products as tenderized and include cooking instructions for consumers.

CHICAGO — As the guitarist strums and softly sings a lullaby in Spanish, tiny Augustin Morales stops squirming in his hospital crib and closes his eyes.
This is therapy in a newborn intensive care unit, and research suggests that music may help those born way too soon adapt to life outside the womb.

Bicycle helmets may prevent head injuries, but a newly published study has found there’s no evidence that mandatory helmet laws do the same thing.
“It is a bit counterintuitive that we don’t see an effect of helmet laws on head injuries,” said University of Toronto researcher Jessica Dennis, whose work was published Tuesday in the journal of the British Medical Association.

NEW YORK — “I hope that other women can benefit from my experience,” Angelina Jolie wrote in a powerful op-ed article Tuesday, explaining her decision to go public with having her breasts removed to avoid cancer.

TORONTO — A study looking at technology used for mammography has found that one type is less effective at detecting breast cancer than others.
The Cancer Care Ontario study found digital direct radiography and screen film mammograms are better than digital computed radiography mammograms at uncovering breast tumours.

TORONTO—A study looking at technology used for mammography has found that one type is less effective at detecting breast cancer than others.
The Cancer Care Ontario study found digital direct radiography and screen film mammograms are better than digital computed radiography mammograms at uncovering breast tumours.

TORONTO — On any given day, about one in 12 adults in hospitals across Canada are either colonized or infected with a superbug, the first national survey to determine the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms has found.