A Cure for Hepatitis C! Since identifying the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989, scientists have attributed it with causing more than 500,000 deaths worldwide each year. Millions more suffer with chronic symptoms. HCV can damage the liver. Infection begins as acute hepatitis C, and while the virus can run its course through the body [...]
Is Your Gut Friend or Foe? “All disease begins in the gut.” Hippocrates made this statement more than 2,000 years ago. Since then, much has changed in medicine. However, this theory remains of great interest in the medical community, especially when considering the terrain of the individual, how robust their immune system may or may [...]
Can Traditional Chinese Medicine Offer Hope to those with Chronic GI Illness? The diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn’s disease is something each patient dreads. It is frightening enough to learn that we have a chronic condition that could affect us for the foreseeable future, but adding to the initial worry is [...]
Shedding Light on Peanut Allergies Peanuts are one of the most common – and most serious – allergens. In some individuals, the body’s immune system overreacts to a protein in the peanut, causing a variety of symptoms, which can range from mildly irritating to lethal. Peanut allergies typically begin in childhood, and most parents do [...]
Could Mother’s Milk Shape a Newborn’s Gut Microbiome? While research shows that a newborn’s gut microbiome colonizes heavily from bacteria ingested during vaginal birth,1 a new study from researchers at the University of California-Berkeley focuses on the potential impact of breastfeeding on preserving the integrity of an infant’s fledgling microbiome. In a study using mice, [...]
Do PPIs inhibit the gut microbiome? Physicians widely prescribe proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to treat and prevent symptoms associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and peptic ulcer disease. PPIs inhibit gastric acid secretion, resulting in reduced acid in the stomach (hypochlorhydria). While low acid provides an opportunity for injured mucosa in the upper GI tract [...]
Celiac Disease: Looking ForwardAt the 2018 Canadian Digestive Diseases Week (CDDW) in Toronto, gastroenterologists spoke about some of the challenges – and the exciting new possibilities – of treating celiac disease. In this article, we’ll focus on the current state of celiac disease treatment, and potential medications that we might see in the future.What [...]
Medical Cannabis Cannabis is a genus of plant that contains three varieties: Cannabis indica, Cannabis sativa, and Cannabis ruderalis. It is a flowering herb with a long, rich history of medicinal, recreational, nutritional, and industrial use throughout the world. With some countries, including Canada, having legalized cannabis, there has been a recent surge [...]
Product Review SOLIUS: New Technology to Help Vitamin D Deficient Canadians! Vitamin D is extremely important for human health. For decades, we’ve been supplementing foods with vitamin D to make sure we get enough of this vital nutrient. It is a hormone that the body needs to absorb calcium from the foods we eat, which [...]
Celiac Disease Risk Might be Linked to Seasons and Geography In Sweden, celiac disease occurs in 1.8% of the population, which is almost double the rate in the rest of the world (1%).1 While many studies have concentrated on genetics and early infections as factors influencing Sweden’s high prevalence rate, a new study suggests that [...]
Enemas Enemas have been popular for a long, long time. It makes sense that enemas were used historically; when individuals couldn’t take medicine by mouth, and before intravenous medication was common, there was only one route of administration left available! As humans paid more attention to cleaning themselves, it seemed logical to think that the [...]
Five Gluten-Free Grains You Might Not Have Tried Grains are nutritious energy-dense staples for countries all around the world, and this includes gluten-free grains such as rice, corn, and sorghum. Many of us tend to eat the same grains all the time, and yet there are so many to choose from. This article will discuss [...]
January 29, 2020 Gail Attara President & Chief Executive Officer, Gastrointestinal Society President, Canadian Society of Intestinal Research Forced Switching Policies: Will Ontario be Next? Government-led initiatives have never shown us so clearly how invasive their roles can become in the determination of our healthcare treatments. “Life in the hands of your doctor not the [...]
The Simplified Low FODMAP Diet Did you know that there is more than one way to do the low FODMAP diet? The low FODMAP diet involves removing certain fermentable carbohydrates from the diet for several weeks and then slowly reintroducing these foods to tolerable levels. It has shown great success in treating many individuals with [...]
Treatment of Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Pancreatic cancer, a rare disease, is projected to be the third leading cause of cancer death in Canada in 2020,1 which is an increase from fourth leading cause of cancer death in 2017.2 It also has a devastatingly low five-year net survival rate of 8%, especially when compared to other [...]
Survey Results: The Unmet Needs of IBD 2020 Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a term that refers to several diseases that are characterized by inflammation in the digestive tract. The most common of these are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, but IBD also includes diseases such as microscopic colitis (lymphocytic colitis and collagenous colitis), diversion [...]
Click here to download a PDF of this information. Pancreatic Cancer Pancreatic cancer is a rare disease, affecting less than 0.0002% of the population each year, yet it is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Canada. It has a devastatingly low five-year survival rate of only 8%, which is one of the [...]
Gastrointestinal Issues Associated with Obesity Obesity is a complex, chronic disease that affects many systems in the body. While discussions around complications associated with obesity tend to focus on conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, obesity can also have a large influence on the development and severity of many digestive conditions. Upper Gastrointestinal (GI) [...]
New Medication Available for IBS-C TRULANCE® (plecanatide tablets) for Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation in Adults Is now Available to Canadians to Help Meet Treatment Gap that leaves 70 Per cent of Patients Unsatisfied1 LAVAL, QC, February 8, 2022 - Bausch Health, Canada, part of Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC), ("Bausch Health" or the "Company") today announced the availability [...]
C. difficile Patient Journey Download the PDF report. C. difficile infection (CDI) occurs when Clostridioides difficile bacteria grow out of control in the digestive tract. The bacteria and their spores are resistant to many common cleaning methods so they can transfer easily between surfaces if people do not wash their hands adequately [...]
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