I’m writing from Tokyo, where small fish are eaten with remarkable regularity. A traditional Japanese breakfast includes such fish – salted, dried, grilled and served cold – consumed head-to-tail, bones, eyeballs and all. Small sardines are tucked into lunch boxes. Convenience stores sell little fish for snacking. It’s common to […]
It’s a sad irony. But the truth is, loneliness is one of the most crowded experiences in modern society. Some prefer their own company and are emotionally stable. There’s no harm in letting them be. But there is an astonishingly high number of people who can be called “situational loners”. […]
There’s a common organizational saying: structure drives behaviour. In institutional theory, it’s called path dependence. Once a structure or pattern is established, it becomes self-reinforcing. This is a problem in medicine. Researchers and specialists become deeply immersed in their own areas of expertise. They network within tight knowledge clusters. They […]
The Olympics showcase people pushing to their limits. Athletes soar, leap, slide and score! Watching from the couch, feet up, drink in hand, we marvel at these feats. In the natural world, certain animals push their limits too. Some migratory birds can fly for days – sometimes weeks – without […]
In 1982, PubMed, a research database, indexed 740 papers with “vitamin D” in the title. In 2020, there were 5,566. Clearly interest has increased. Today, vitamin D is studied as a system-wide regulator and an essential component of skeletal, immune, metabolic, cardiovascular, neurological, and inflammatory processes. But even a century […]
Hot flashes, disrupted sleep, decreased sex drive, and irrational urges to kick your husband for no good reason. The menopausal transition can make life hard to manage! Many women find themselves weighing the pros and cons of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). But not everyone can take HRT, and not everyone […]
Why is it the face lines of aging men can make them handsome while a wrinkled female face needs improvement? That double standard should be put to bed. Nevertheless, looking and feeling younger is not a cosmetic matter, for women or men. Studies show that “feeling younger”, or perceiving oneself […]
By any measure, what happened in Switzerland a couple weeks ago is a human catastrophe. A room filled with young people full of promise was turned into a scene of lifelong grief. Families shattered. Futures erased. Survivors left with horrible scars. Authorities will do what they must. Investigators will trace […]
I hear paternal grumbling at what I’m about to say. Dr. Gifford-Jones often warned we are a “nation of wimps” when it comes to pain. He believed we were losing the toughening effect that ordinary aches and setbacks once gave us. Furthermore, anyone who has run a marathon, climbed a […]
How many of us can recall our grandfathers leaning back in a favourite chair, saying, “Let me tell you something you should remember.” What followed was usually a story that had grown larger with time, about hardship, happenstance, or a decision made when the stakes were high. On the other […]
How many times in 2025 did you complain about something? And with good reason! But this is the time of year for setting aside our thoughts about the issues driving us crazy. Take a step back during the holidays and reflect on what really counts. Health and happiness. That’s the […]
Last week I shared thoughts on aging parents. Many of you wrote asking for more, particularly about the challenges of caring for a parent with dementia. It’s not an easy assignment, but here is a list of practical advice. 1. Start legal, financial, and medical planning now, not later. The […]
I have been lucky as my parents aged past 90. My father, Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, stayed vibrant longer than most people dare hope. In his nineties he was still hopping on planes, giving talks across Canada, researching and writing his next column, and scheming about the next promotion or the […]
Hernias are an ancient ailment. And modern medicine still debates the best ways to repair or live with them. One of the earliest references appears in the Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical scroll from around 1550 BCE. The treatment for hernias was to push them back into place, in techniques […]
We applaud people solving problems who are focused, efficient, and fast. But I was recently reminded that progress doesn’t always follow a straight line. Before investigators can conduct studies that yield breakthroughs, they often need others to finance and build major research infrastructure. It takes time, with various stops and […]
We don’t choose the starting line. The family and life circumstances into which we are born is happenstance. Reading “Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper,” a book described as ‘sheer horror’ and the ‘saddest autobiography ever written’, I’m reminded of my more fortunate start. Pepper was a jazz musician, […]
I have been sorting through unpublished Gifford-Jones columns. Among them, I found a dusty clipping from a Reader’s Digest article by Robert A. Siegel and a rough draft of this week’s column. In it, we find a glimpse into a lecture hall at Harvard Medical School 75 years ago, and […]
It’s a night when we willfully indulge children in alarming amounts of things we call treats. Halloween is a lot of fun for kids, and for adults too. But otherwise intelligent people are facilitating the celebration of a tradition that has swerved in the wrong direction. What could be high-quality, […]
“The superfluous,” said Voltaire, the French philosopher, “is a very necessary thing.” Alas, his thinking predated our understanding of the norovirus. The norovirus is one of the most common viruses on the planet – yet it seems to be doing nothing useful, let alone necessary. It’s just making hundreds of […]
Do you ever find yourself a little low on fuel, right when you could really use some? Men may discover they need a touch of help with their tiger, so to speak. But being low on steam could occur at less exciting moments too, like when walking up the stairs. […]
Why do so many women ignore one of the most obvious warning signs of uterine cancer? It’s a cancer that usually announces itself early. But women wait, or brush off the warning signs, and that allows the disease to take hold. Uterine cancer, also called endometrial cancer, is not rare. […]
Are you in the group of people who treat insurance the way you do exercise? You know it’s good for you, but you put it off until it’s too late. Human behaviour can be so irrational! But insurance really should be a priority for your attention among the list of […]
Every so often, history taps you on the shoulder. That happened to me recently when I discovered a book on the science, culture, and regulation of drugs by Professor Lucas Richert, a historian of pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The book devotes its entire first chapter to none other […]
When it comes to health, my father always told me that good luck is as important, if not more so, than good genes. Like genes, luck is allocated at life’s outset. Watching nightly news on wars, famine, and other disasters has always made me grateful to have been born in […]
Many of us have the experience of boarding a plane with a prayer that the pilot has had enough sleep. With your surgeon, it’s a similar problem. Few people get to choose who will do their surgery. Even if you’ve gone to the trouble of arranging a referral to the […]
Starting in 1975, my father, Ken Walker, under the penname W. Gifford-Jones MD, wrote a weekly column first appearing in the Globe and Mail, and subsequently syndicated in Canada and the U.S. This year, the column crossed the 50-year mark, my father passed away at 101, and now I’m carrying on. […]
There’s no harm in being gullible when the stakes are low or when you are having fun. Being open to the incredulous is part of being a curious person. And playing along with a friend’s tall tale strengthens your connection while giving you both a good laugh. But in matters […]
One should never use the word “crusade” lightly. But if you’ve ever watched someone battle against deeply entrenched systems, close-mindedness, or worst of all, indifference, then there’s no better word for what needs doing. There is unfinished business that I must pick up. And sure as night follows day, there […]
In these final dog days of summer, take a moment to reaffirm the simplest and most powerful tools for staying healthy: timely, evidence-based screening tests. Forget the full-body MRI and the blood test that promises to predict your future. But remember, as if your life depended on it, the screening […]
I’m writing this column with a pencil and paper, in a therapeutic affirmation that what results comes only from me and my thoughts. I’m making a point about authenticity. There is something truly cathartic – and healthy – about “being oneself.” One’s authentic self. No mirrors. No makeup. No pretenses. […]
I have a strong belief in personal responsibility. From an early age, I was taught that my own daily decisions will determine my future. You will know, for example, where I heard that sugar is the “white devil.” It’s a conviction helps me avoid it. For another, if I don’t […]
I was 6 years old when I first calculated how many years I could expect to have with my father. He was 44 when I was born; and therefore 50 when I turned 6. I decided I would be lucky if I got to 35 and still had him. That […]
Dr. Ken Walker (W. Gifford-Jones, MD) Dr. Ken Walker was born in Croydon, England, the son of Walter and Annie Walker. At the age of three, his parents emigrated to Montreal and later moved to Niagara Falls, Ontario. He received premedical training at the University of Toronto and graduated from the […]