Ozempic, Mounjaro linked to vision loss in diabetics
Researchers at the University of Toronto have found GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro double the risk of a severe form of vision loss among diabetics, affecting daily activities such as reading and driving.
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Lunenburg, N.S., cracks open time capsule from 2000
A time capsule buried in Lunenburg, N.S. in 2000 was opened this Saturday. (CTV Atlantic/ Paul DeWitt) Twenty-five years ago, the people of Lunenburg, N.S., filled a time capsule and buried it on the town's 247th birthday. This past Saturday, the town dug up the capsule, relieving memories from a quarter-century ago. 'The Bluenose Academy partnered with the town to put the time capsule together after Y2K,' said Mayor Jamie Myra. Myra said the capsule features pictures of the Bluenose Academy, a letter from then-prime minister Jean Chretien and documents on town committee meetings and bylaws. Lunenburg time capsule The Lunenburg time capsule buried in 2000 was opened on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (CTV Atlantic/ Paul DeWitt) Councillor Debbie Dauphinee said her father David Dauphinee, who is a former deputy mayor for the town, put a letter in the capsule for his grandson. Myra said the town plans to refill another time capsule this fall. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
‘Can't stop': Researchers say problematic smartphone use like an addiction
Anita Hagh, a post-doctoral researcher at Montreal's McGill University, is seen in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Anita Hagh EDMONTON — Anita Hagh couldn't stop pressing the corner of her phone screen where the Facebook app used to be. It was about five years ago, and she had deleted the social media platform from her cellphone. It was like muscle memory, she says, having clicked on the app countless times so she could scroll for hours through random online groups. She realized she had been losing out on sleep while scrolling and made the difficult decision to delete the app. 'After deleting it, I was very much thinking it was still there, kind of like a phantom limb situation,' said the 28-year-old post-doctoral researcher at McGill University's department of integrated studies in education. Hagh, who is researching the addictive nature of social media, said she believes she was likely experiencing what's called 'problematic smartphone use' or phone addiction. Jay Olson, a post-doctoral researcher in the University of Toronto's psychology department, led a 2023 global study that surveyed more than 50,000 people about their smartphone habits. He said it's an emerging problem. 'Normal smartphone use would become problematic when it starts negatively affecting your daily life and in different ways,' said Olson. 'It might make you feel depressed. It might be interfering with your sleep or your concentration.' Some young adults are showing symptoms of problematic smartphone use, Olson said, as they've never seen a world without phones or have spent most of their lives with the devices. 'Smartphones started to become more popular around 2009,' he said. 'A bunch of kids across the world got these phones. And so now we're starting to see what some of these effects might be.' It's harder for older generations to understand the magnitude of the problem and how using phones can become an ingrained habit, Olson added. '(They) haven't grown up using smartphones and social media for the majority of their free time throughout the day,' he said. Venture Academy, a private school for troubled teens with locations in Barrie, Ont., and Red Deer, Alta., offers treatment for problems including 'electronic addiction.' Gary Su, a clinical therapist with the school, said in an interview from Calgary that smartphone use has made the lives of many of his young clients more complex. 'We are seeing a very unique phenomenon,' he said. 'Things seem to be a lot more volatile or more extreme. Kids are exposed to things just way too early for their age. And it's harder to trace, because everything online is anonymous.' He said some students are using their phones so much they have difficulty socializing. Some don't leave their bedrooms for hours, because they're busy texting after school, he said. Su said phones stop others from spending time with their families, and online bullying has become rampant. Some are also sharing intimate photos and details at an earlier age, which continues to haunt them years later due to the permanent nature of the online world, he said. 'I see a lot of family just come in because of phone addiction or problematic phone use,' Su said. 'I feel for the parents. Most of us are not tech geniuses.' Problematic smartphone use hasn't been officially classified as an addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the reference book used by mental health professionals around the world. 'There isn't consensus among researchers right now,' said Olson, adding it's because the problem is so new. However, he said there is some agreement that problematic smartphone use shares similarities with different behavioural addictions. 'So often people report this compulsion, like when they wake up, they have to check their phone right away,' Olson said. 'They can't stop themselves.' Su said some of his patients could be classified as phone addicts. 'Addiction is when you are doing something that you know has negative consequences and you can't stop yourself from using it,' he said. 'I see a lot of youth I work with fit in that category. I tend to not label it, because labelling is not doing any good.' Olson said there needs to be more discussion about smartphone habits. Cellphone bans in schools across Canada are a good start, Olson added, but more needs to be done by governments, such as putting age limits on social media platforms. 'I certainly think that it's an important contributor to this decline in mental health that we're seeing,' he said. Hagh said she's keeping track of her phone habits, as she's still on social media for her research. 'It is very addicting. These platforms have been optimized to capture as much attention ... and arguably create an addiction. 'It's kind of like having to watch a train crash or a car crash,' she added. 'You just can't look away.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2025. Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
This rural P.E.I. community took health care into its own hands. Now it has a thriving clinic
Social Sharing Back in 2017, when Lisa Gallant saw that thousands of people in her own community of Crapaud and the surrounding areas suddenly were without a family doctor, she knew she had to take action. That year, longtime family doctor Dr. Hendrik Visser retired after 32 years of practice in Crapaud. A new physician took over, but the practice proved untenable for one person, and he left the same year. "We had no primary health care, and we knew that something had to be done," Gallant told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier during the CBC radio show's remote broadcast from her community Thursday. Gallant, who is a pharmacist and owner of South Shore Pharmacy, joined forces with other local leaders to form the non-profit South Shore Health and Wellness Inc. They raised about $10,000 to establish a walk-in clinic, at the time located in what had been the pharmacy's kitchen, in January 2018. Today, that small walk-in has grown into the South Shore Health and Wellness Centre, which has undergone two expansions and is now in the middle of a third. Once the work is complete, the centre will span more than 5,000 sqare feet. "There were times where I thought 'This is never going to happen,'" she said. The centre now has a comprehensive care team, including a full-time physician, two full-time nurse practitioners, three licensed practical nurses, two part-time nurses specializing in chronic disease management, and a part-time physiotherapist. The latest expansion will allow for even more staff in the future. This is exactly the kind of collaborative, multidisciplinary primary-care model that Gallant and her group envisioned from the start, one that could meet the health-care needs of a growing rural population. But Gallant said the journey hasn't been easy; it took years of persistent advocacy with the provincial government. Now, they hope the success in Crapaud can be replicated in other rural communities across Prince Edward Island. Collaborative care 'the way forward' The concept of collaborative, team-based health care is now being embraced across P.E.I. There are currently 17 of what the government calls medical homes in the province. These clinics offer a wide range of services, with doctors collaborating with other health-care workers. They have been touted by the province as a way to alleviate pressure on the health-care system. But it's not a new idea. Visser, the retired doctor who has since returned to Crapaud, said he pitched the concept to the province years ago, inspired by his early career in Africa. "That is the way forward. We saw that effectively implemented in resource-poor countries in Africa, where six of us as physicians were able to manage a hospital the size of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, all with allied health professionals, midwives, primary health-care workers and nurses and lab and rehabilitation services — all under one roof, all interdisciplinary," Visser said. "We were able to serve a population of about two million people with rural health centres that we equipped to be in the communities, and we would then be the referral centre from those small clinics out in the community." Even in his own practice in Crapaud, Visser collaborated with a nurse for years. Together, they managed care for more than 2,000 patients. A vision finally realized Before retiring, Visser said he proposed a collaborative model for rural health care to the provincial government, but he said there wasn't much reception around the idea at the time. In the years after Visser's retirement, Gallant and her group continued pushing the idea, bringing proposals and presentations to meetings with Health P.E.I. and government officials. "We just heard 'no' so many times," she said. "We just felt that if we kept being consistent and never gave up, we would eventually reach our goals." In 2020, they met with then-premier Dennis King. "We came in armed with all of our documents and our proposals and all of our facts, ready to do battle," she said. "The premier looked at us and said, 'Yes, I agree with you. You should have a doctor. You should have primary health care in Crapaud.'" King later visited the clinic and committed to making it a collaborative practice with a physician involved. In July 2023, Dr. Meghan Cameron joined the clinic — the community's first family doctor in five years. In total, Gallant's group has invested more than $30,000 in clinic improvements and equipment over the years. 'They want to be here' Gallant said the community has gone from desperately needing practitioners to receiving inquiries from physicians and nurse practitioners interested in working at the Crapaud clinic. She credits not only the facility but also the team atmosphere. "Health-care professionals talk to each other, and the team here is so great. They're so collaborative and wonderful, dedicated professionals, and there's a really good morale at the clinic," Gallant said. "Other health-care practitioners hear that, and they want to be here." Her group also works hard to support the team with things like thank-you cards, baking, and small gifts to express appreciation, Gallant said. "Everyone is so thankful to have that care here. So it's important that the health-care providers feel that," she said. They also help with recruitment by touring candidates around the facility and community, as well as presenting baskets filled with local products. A model for other communities What's been built in Crapaud should serve as a model for other rural areas, Health Minister Mark McLane told CBC News at the remote broadcast. "Back to rural health care in the past, we used to have a single physician in an office," he said. "Now, with the collaborative-care model, there's more supports around those physicians and nurse practitioners to provide service, so we're not as reliant on one position in one area." McLane said lessons can be learned from the model in Crapaud. While a nice setup helps to attract physicians, he said community support for these health providers is also essential, and Crapaud has both. When asked whether Health P.E.I. has made hires to staff the clinic's expansion, McLane did not say yes. "We keep hiring, and again, we have so many positions within our system… You know, the provider chooses where they go," the minister said. McLane also noted that the federal government's loan forgiveness program, introduced last year for doctors and nurses, serves as another tool to attract health-care professionals to rural and remote areas. Meanwhile, some communities on P.E.I. are taking similar action to Crapaud's. A newly opened walk-in clinic in Montague, also located in a pharmacy, was made possible by a $200,000 fundraising effort from a local volunteer group. Green MLA Matt MacFarlane, who was part of the Crapaud clinic's board, said the burden of getting a clinic open shouldn't fall on communities. "It's government's job to deliver health care, to provide health care, and to get the 37,000 Islanders on the wait list for a doctor off that wait list," he said. "It shouldn't fall to volunteers who have full-time jobs — farmers, fishers, whatever — to have to come in on the little bit of time they have and spend six years advocating for health care and building a clinic up from scratch and then having the government just take the key and then say, 'OK, now we have a clinic.' That's government's job." 'It will be joyous' Albany resident Darlene Smith, a retired teacher, has been on the P.E.I. patient registry for six years. While she has relied on the virtual platform Maple for minor issues, Smith said she often hesitates to seek in-person care for fear of burdening the system. "It's a little stressful because you just don't know what to do." But with the expansion, and Gallant saying the clinic is accepting new patients weekly, Smith hopes she and her husband will soon get the call. "It will be joyous," she said. "It's not that we're unwell and that we need to go see a doctor, but just to have that peace of mind, to be able to call someone that's going to take care of you." Gallant said her group isn't done.
