The St. Albert and Sturgeon Primary Care Network has named Dena Pederson as its new executive director. Pederson joined the PCN three years ago as clinical director.
The St. Albert and Sturgeon Primary Care Network has named Dena Pederson as its new executive director.
Pederson joined the PCN three years ago as clinical director. Pederson has front line primary care nursing experience and completed her master's in nursing with a focus on primary care clinical intervention.
She has worked at various management levels in both Alberta Health Services and PCN environments for the last eight years. Her new role as executive director is effective immediately.
A provincial initiative to keep seniors active kicked off Nov. 1.
Until the end of November, seniors are encouraged to join the TREK challenge as part of the seventh annual Finding Balance campaign.
Participants count and record the number of steps they take until Nov. 30 in the virtual walking challenge. The goal is 3,263,500 steps or 2,610 km.
The goal of the challenge is also to reduce the risk of injury from falls. Falls are the leading cause of serious injuries in older adults.
“Every year, one in three Alberta seniors will fall,” says Kathy Belton, associate director for the Injury Prevention Centre.
“While falling may not seem serious, falls can disable, cause physical and mental distress and seriously diminish your quality of life.”
In 2011, there were more than 8,700 hospital admissions costing Albertans more than $160 million.
The Injury Prevention Centre (formerly Alberta Centre for Injury Control & Research) recommends doing at least 150 minutes of activity every week. Regular physical activity, especially strength and balance exercises, increases muscle function, improves balance and helps prevent falls.
Seniors can reduce their risk of falling by:
• Keeping Active – exercise for strength and balance
• Check Your Medications – talk to your doctor or pharmacist
• Watch Your Step – wherever you are
• Speak Up About Dizziness – talk to your doctor and take action
For more information visit: http://www.findingbalancealberta.ca
People with lactose intolerance are at reduced risk of suffering from lung, breast and ovarian cancers, says a new study by researchers in Sweden.
Using nationwide registry data, researchers identified more than 22,000 individuals with lactose intolerance and found the risk of suffering from lung, breast and ovarian cancers was significantly lower compared to people without lactose intolerance, irrespective of country of birth and gender.
“The risks in their siblings and parents were the same as in the general population. This suggests that the lower cancer risk in people with lactose intolerance may be due to their diet,” says researcher Jianguang Ji.
The incidence of breast and ovarian cancers is highest in North America, Western Europe and Nordic countries, and lowest in East Asia and Central African countries.
Lifestyle factors such as high consumption of milk and other dairy products have been suspected to contribute to the high incidence of breast and ovarian cancers in North America and Western Europe.
Lung cancer was also investigated because studies have shown that milk consumption and lung cancer risk are both associated with the protein IGF-1 (insulin like growth factor-1).
A recent review by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute of Cancer Research found a lack of evidence linking consumption of dairy products to breast cancer risk.
Lower calorie intake because of low milk consumption and protective factors in plant-based milk drinks may contribute to the observed negative association between lactose intolerance and the studied cancers, state researchers.
However, the association is insufficient to conclude a causative effect, says Ji.
“It would be wrong to conclude that milk is a risk factor for these cancers. Further studies are needed to identify factors that explain the study's results.”
