Canadian Health Network

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		November 15, 2007 World COPD Day (14 Nov.) National Addictions Awareness Week (18-24 Nov.) National Child Day (20 Nov.) National Home Fire Safety Week (24-30 Nov.) AIDS Awareness Week (24 Nov.-1 Dec.)

November 2007

• CPR Awareness Month
• Diabetes Month
• National Lung Cancer Awareness Month
• Osteoporosis Month
• National Media Education Week
• National Seniors Safety Week
• World Diabetes Day

CPR Awareness Month

You can save a life

Learning CPR is key to saving the life of someone who is in cardiac arrest. Most cardiac arrests happen at home, so that someone is likely going to be a person you know.

People of all ages are at risk. Cardiac arrest occurs when someone stops breathing and has no heartbeat. Causes of cardiac arrest include heart attack, stroke, drowning, electrocution, suffocation, drug overdose and physical trauma.

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Don’t let the words scare you off from learning the technique. CPR can be learned easily through short courses offered by training organizations across the country, including St. John Ambulance, Canadian Red Cross, Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Lifesaving Society.

Diabetes Month

More than two million Canadians have diabetes, and the numbers are growing steadily.

Are you at risk?

Approximately 10% of people with diabetes have type 1 diabetes. However, the number of people with type 2 diabetes is increasing dramatically. It is important to know what can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes so that you can take the steps to delay or prevent it.

You are at risk if you:

• are age 40 or over.
• have a parent, brother or sister with diabetes.
• are a member of a high-risk group (aboriginal, Hispanic, asian, south asian or African descent).
• have a health complication that is associated with diabetes, like heart disease.
• gave birth to a baby that weighed over 4 kg (9 lbs) at birth.
• had gestational diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy).
• have impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) or impaired fasting glucose (IFG).
• have high blood pressure.
• have high cholesterol or other fats in blood.
• are overweight (especially if weight is carried around the middle)
• have been diagnosed with any of the following conditions:
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome
  • Acanthosis nigricans (darkened patches of skin)
  • Schizophrenia

If you are at risk for type 2 diabetes, you should be tested at least every three years. Left untreated or improperly managed, diabetes can result in a variety of serious complications, including heart disease, kidney disease, eye disease, problems with erection (impotence) and nerve damage.

Diabetes in Canada

During Diabetes Month 2007, the Canadian Diabetes Association wants Canadians to get serious about preventing type 2 diabetes. To delay or prevent diabetes:

• Eat healthy
• Be active regularly
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Don’t smoke
• Reduce your stress

For information on type 2 diabetes in children, see this month’s feature article, Type 2 diabetes—why too many kids are at risk.

National Lung Cancer Awareness Month

Smoking causes lung cancer

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women.

The main cause of lung cancer is smoking. Most people who develop lung cancer are long-term heavy smokers – the more you smoke and the longer you smoke, the higher your risk. But no amount of tobacco is safe. People who live with or work closely with a smoker are also at increased risk from exposure to second-hand smoke.

Other factors that appear to increase the risk of lung cancer are:

• Working with materials such as asbestos, arsenic, nickel and petroleum products, especially if you are a smoker.



• Exposure to radon gas.

Other workplace exposures and air pollutants are being studied. Some people develop lung cancer without any of these risk factors.

Quit smoking

Quit now and reduce the risk of developing cancer. In general, the longer you don't smoke the more you lower your risk.

• Within 10 years of quitting, the overall risk of an ex-smoker dying from lung cancer is cut in half.



• After 10 years, the overall risk of an ex-smoker developing cancer approaches that of a non-smoker.

Osteoporosis Month

Beat the break!

November is Osteoporosis Month and Osteoporosis Canada is letting Canadians know that they can beat the break.

Osteoporosis affects more than 1.4 million Canadians, including one in four women and at least one in eight men over the age of 50. Its symptoms are low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue which increases the risk of breaking bones. It can drastically change people's lives, resulting in loss of independence, low self-esteem, and reduced or lost mobility.

Build strong, young bones

Building strong bones in childhood and young adulthood is your best defense against osteoporosis. As children and teenagers, we build the bone that lasts us throughout our life. However, maintaining bone health as you age is also a key part of fighting osteoporosis.

Here are a few of the simple steps you can take to reduce your risk:

• Get adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D.
  Osteoporosis Canada recommends that adults over 50 have a daily calcium intake of 1500 mg and a daily vitamin D intake of 800 mg.



• Be physically active.
  Resistance training and weight-bearing exercises such as walking or dancing help build bone mass and reduce the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures.



• Limit your alcohol and caffeine consumption.
  Excessive alcohol and caffeine consumption decreases bone mineral density.

For more information, visit the Osteoporosis Canada website at www.osteoporosis.ca.

National Media Education Week

The purpose of National Media Education Week is to promote media literacy for young people, and to encourage media education in Canadian homes, schools and communities. Young people today need to develop knowledge and critical thinking skills to understand and reflect on the impact of media on their lives.

The National Media Education Week website has many ideas to promote awareness. Here are just a few:

• Host a media fair to highlight student-produced media productions. For examples of media fairs taking place during National Media Education Week, see the Events Calendar.



• Organize a parent information evening or workshop, such as the free Parenting the Net Generation workshop is available to English provincial home and school associations through a partnership with the Canadian Home and School Federation.



• Hold a public forum, panel discussion or town hall meeting and choose a media-related topic of interest to your community.



• Hold a media or Internet literacy professional development workshop for teachers or librarians in your community. Workshops are available through media literacy organizations such as the Media Awareness Network, and the Association for Media Literacy.

For more information, visit the website for National Media Education Week.

National Seniors Safety Week

Seniors living alone can be victims of fraud

During National Seniors’ Safety Week, the Canada Safety Council reminds Canadian seniors living on their own to be careful to avoid telemarketing and other scams.

Seniors can be a victim of a fraud or get-rich-quick scheme. PhoneBusters, a Canadian anti-fraud centre, estimates that 84% of the money lost to bogus prize and lottery telephone scams was from people aged 60 and over.

Protect yourself from fraud!

Be very wary about information that you give out over the telephone. Some warning signs of fraud are when the person contacting you:

• asks for your credit card number
• wants you to pay for a prize they say you have already won
• pressures you into deciding quickly
• seems extremely excited about the opportunity they are offering
• is overly friendly
• wants to give you money in exchange for letting them use your bank account to transfer a large amount of money.

To find out more about the financial abuse of seniors, read the Canadian Health Network article Stolen money and stolen health, or visit the website for National Seniors' Safety Week.

World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day is celebrated every year on November 14, the birthday of Canadian Sir Frederick Banting (1891-1941) who, along with Sir Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1921.

On December 20, 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed a landmark Resolution recognizing diabetes as a chronic, debilitating and costly disease. The Resolution designates World Diabetes Day as a United Nations Day to be observed every year starting in 2007.

2007 theme for World Diabetes Day is The Year of the Child

This year World Diabetes Day's focus is to raise awareness about Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.

More children and youth are living with diabetes

Today, more than 240 million people worldwide are living with diabetes. Within 20 years, this number is expected to grow to 380 million. Children are not spared from this global epidemic, with its debilitating and life-threatening complications. Type 1 diabetes is growing by 3% per year in children and adolescents, and at an alarming 5% per year among pre-school children. It is estimated that 70,000 children under 15 develop type 1 diabetes each year (almost 200 children a day).

Type 2 diabetes was once seen as a disease of adults. Today, this type of diabetes is growing at alarming rates in children and adolescents. Over a 20-year period, type 2 diabetes has doubled in children in Japan, so that it is now more common than type 1. In Aboriginal children in North America and Australia, the prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes ranges from 1.3 to 5.3%.

For more information on diabetes in Canada and events during November, visit the Canadian Diabetes Association. For information on type 2 diabetes in Canadian children, see this month's feature article, Type 2 diabetes-why too many kids are at risk.