‘Old Bear’ has his day
By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, March 18, 2010 - 0 Comments
It took eight years, but Kevin Martin has finally avenged the sting of a last-shot loss in the final at Salt Lake City. Canada’s best curler is now an Olympic champion.
Photograph by Morry Gash/Associated Press
The crowd didn’t bother waiting for the podium ceremony. Halfway through the final end, with Kevin Martin’s rink up by three in the gold-medal match, a few fans started singing O Canada. It spread slowly at first, section by section, but by “God keep our land glorious and free,” the entire place was belting out the anthem. Even Martin—Mr. Serious—couldn’t keep from smiling.
Eight long years after a heartbreaking silver medal in Salt Lake City, the best curler in the world had his Olympic gold, beating Norway and their diamond-checkered pants in the men’s final. The 6-3 win capped off Canada’s best day at the Vancouver Games (three gold and one bronze) and marked a raucous return to glory for the country’s other national sport. “Finally,” Martin said, the invisible monkey gone from his back. “It’s been a lot of work and a lot of years, and it feels really good. I said to the guys when we were coming to the podium: ‘It’s like we’re walking through a dream.’ ”
It was certainly a dream tournament for the Martin rink, which didn’t lose a single match on the way to gold. Their play in the finale was equally dominant. Third John Morris had the game of his life, landing one double takeout after another, and the skip sealed the deal in the seventh end with a perfect freeze in the circle that set up two points and a commanding lead. After both sides exchanged singles in the eighth and ninth, it was anthem time. “You get tingles and jitters up the spine,” said Marc Kennedy, Martin’s second. “You’re up three, you have a home crowd in the Olympic Games, and they’re singing the anthem. It just doesn’t get any better.” Thomas Ulsrud, the Norwegian skip, actually leaned over to Martin and said: “You’ve got to love this crowd, don’t you?’ ”
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A new meaning to ‘cabin fever’
By Kate Lunau - Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 4 Comments
Exposure to tainted cabin air may have real long-term effects
As the airplane pulled up to the gate after a routine flight from Memphis to Dallas, veteran flight attendant Terry Williams saw something strange: a smoky haze, she says, was coming from the ventilation system. The fumes soon dissipated; but for Williams, their impact would be long-lasting. Since that flight two years ago, she says she’s suffered from migraines, asthma, and a tremor in her left arm, as well as vision impairment and memory loss. “I don’t feel I’m the wife my husband married, or the mother I want to be,” says Williams, who has two young sons. “It’s affected me in every possible way.”Williams, now 40, recently launched a lawsuit against Boeing and its subsidiary, McDonnell Douglas, contending the airplane’s manufacturers “knew or should have known” that tainted fumes could enter the ventilation system, causing serious health effects to those on board. According to Seattle aviation attorney Alisa Brodkowitz, who’s representing Williams, in most Boeing aircraft—including the MD-82 on which Williams was travelling—fresh air is sucked in through the jet engines before being cooled and vented into the cabin (mixed with filtered, recirculated air). Along the way, Brodkowitz says, it can pick up contaminates ranging from engine oil to metals. Continue…
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Why are asthma rates among kids on the rise? Should we still take vitamin D supplements in the summer?
By Dr. Elaine Chin - Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 12:06 PM - 0 Comments
Dr. Elaine Chin answers your health questions
There seem to be many more children with asthma than ever before. Are asthma rates on the rise, and if so, why?North American asthma rates in children under the age of five have increased more than 160 per cent from 1980 to 1994. Children between five and 17 years of age missed 12.8 million school days due to asthma in 2003.
Some causes of asthma are known:
Genetics: Approximately 40 per cent of children who have asthmatic parents will develop asthma. The cause of this relationship is somewhat unclear but it may be due to genetic hypersensitivities to environmental chemicals and food.
Environmental: exposure to fumes, gases or dust, are responsible for 11 per cent of asthma cases worldwide.
Food and environmental allergies: About 70 per cent of asthmatics also have allergies. In our clinic, we perform antibody testing in clients with a history of asthma. What we are discovering is many of them have some form of food allergies especially to dairy, wheat and/or eggs. This is consistent with a U.S. study in 2007 that found 29 per cent of children who had a food allergy also had asthma.
As a Mom of a child with asthma, I am an advocate of doing whatever we can to prevent an asthma attack.
Keep a clean breathing environment – have a clean home, install a HEPA air filter, use hypoallergenic pillow cases and a mattress cover
Perform a food allergy test – blood IgG and IgE antibodies. (not a skin scratch test)It has made a significant difference to my child’s life.
During the summer, we get a lot of sunlight. Should we still take vitamin D supplements?
The short answer is, usually not. Most of our body’s vitamin D is produced by our skin, using ultraviolet rays from the sun and not from food fortified with vitamin D. For most of us, ensuring adequate production of vitamin D means exposing our faces and arms to moderately strong (midday) sunlight 10 to 15 minutes a day, three to four times a week. This can be easily achieved during the summer months. However, for many Canadians winter means reduced sun exposure. This leads to a reduction of vitamin D production and the depletion of this vitamin’s stored supplies in the body. A genetic problem – the inability of some individuals to manufacture good amounts of vitamin D – may compound this. The best way to decide how much vitamin D you require is to determine your vitamin D blood level. Storage vitamin D (Vit D – 25 OH) levels should be at least 75 nmol/L. Once you know the level you can decide if basking in the sun, eating fortified foods and/or taking a vitamin D supplement is right for you. Because vitamin D has such a strong impact on so many body organs and processes, vitamin D deficiency has been implicated as a causative factor in a variety of diseases. So it’s understandable why so many experts advocate the need to maintain high levels of vitamin D year round to help prevent diseases such as osteoporosis, cancer, depression, coronary disease, lupus, and multiple sclerosis.
Send your questions for Dr. Elaine Chin, chief medical officer of the Scienta Health Group, to macleanshealth@rci.rogers.com
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