Canada’s new 24-Hour Movement Guidelines include brand-new recommendations for sleep. The move reflects a growing awareness among researchers that rest and recovery is crucial to overall wellness. Not getting enough shut-eye can lead to weight gain, memory problems and poor mental health. In this episode, host Shaun Francis interviews Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput, the expert who helped to develop both Canadian and World Health Organization guidelines.
Nov 16, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Heart disease remains the second highest cause of death of Canadians, behind cancer. About 63,000 Canadians have heart attacks every year. Dr. Beth Abramson is a Toronto cardiologist and the director of the Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital. She argues that recent advances in cardiology are changing the way we understand life after heart attacks. Statins, pills of concentrated fish oil and COVID’s effect on the heart round out her conversation with our guest ...
Nov 09, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Time-restricted eating is said to encourage weight loss and improve metabolic health. But how effective is it? In conversation with guest host Leslie Beck is Dr. Ethan Weiss, a cardiologist who studies human metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Weiss used to be a fan of intermittent fasting—until he conducted his own randomized controlled trial on humans. His findings may surprise you. LINKS AND HIGHLIGHTS: Dr. Ethan J. Weiss’s web page at UCSF, and his Twitter feed . D...
Nov 02, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In the U.S. and Canada the public-health response to COVID-19 discouraged people from visiting hospitals or seeking care from MDs, prompting cancellations for childhood vaccinations, colonoscopies and mammograms. How will such decisions affect overall wellness? And what should we learn from what happened? To discover the answers, host Shaun Francis interviews Dr. Ateev Mehrotra of Harvard Medical School, who tracks large data sets of doctor visits. In public health emergencies, Dr. Mehrotra says...
Oct 26, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Today wearable technology is integral to wellness and the future of precision medicine, with such devices as the Fitbit, the Oura Ring and the just-released Apple Watch Series 6. But which tech is best? For guidance, host Shaun Francis talked to the most tapped-in tech observer out there, Amber Mac, about the little-known wearable that Amber thinks tops everyone else. Plus, the goods on the COVID Alert app and Amber’s recent interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Oct 19, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Disagreeing with stop-the-spread coronavirus strategies is Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine in biostatistics at Harvard. As a founding signatory to the Great Barrington Declaration, Prof. Kulldorff believes most COVID government policy is wrong. Protect the vulnerable, he says, and allow the virus to spread through the young healthy population to achieve herd immunity. Here, in a feature interview with host Shaun Francis, Kulldorf describes his logic.
Oct 12, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 35
The pandemic is spurring positive lifestyle changes — such as the transition away from restaurant eating, and toward home cooking. In this episode, guest host Leslie Beck, Medcan’s director of food and nutrition, interviews Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, an expert in food trends and eating patterns. Based on surveys Charlebois has conducted at the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, the so-called “Food Professor” argues that the pandemic has triggered long-term changes in the way that pe...
Oct 05, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Health columnist André Picard has been at the Globe and Mail newspaper since 1987. Covering the coronavirus has made him one of the most closely-read pundits of the pandemic. Here, Picard speaks with host Shaun Francis about his belief that we have to learn to live with COVID-19, the disastrous effects of the virus on long-term care, and what the pandemic reveals about our health-care system overall.
Sep 28, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Leading the fight against the professional weight loss industry is Dr. Arya Sharma, a crusader for a new, medical approach to treating obesity that recognizes the patient’s lived experience and takes into account just how difficult it can be for a person to lose weight and keep it off. But hope is on the horizon, Dr. Sharma says. Here, Dr. David Macklin, Medcan’s director of weight management, interviews Dr. Arya Sharma, the founder and scientific director of Obesity Canada ....
Sep 21, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 32
The COVID-19 vaccine prompts a lot of questions. How effective should we expect it to be? How long will its protection last? Will it be safe? Has Canada secured enough doses and from the right pharmaceutical companies? And perhaps the single biggest issue: When will a vaccine actually arrive for Canadians? In a wide-ranging interview with executive producer Christopher Shulgan, Medcan's Dr. Jason Abrams explains how vaccines work, and provides answers on the race to solve the global pandemic....
Sep 14, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 31
In the movies, few people seemed healthier than Black Panther—which is what made the recent death of the actor who played the superhero, Chadwick Boseman, so surprising. Boseman was only 43. What can you do to prevent colon cancer? What’s the future of colon cancer treatment? Guest host Dr. Peter Nord, Medcan’s chief medical officer, interviews gastroenterologist Dr. Jeff Axler to get the answers.
Sep 07, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 30
How should parents prepare children for back to school? How to speak to anxieties about masks and social distancing? What do you say to a child who is worried about catching the coronavirus? Or passing it on to grandparents or immunocompromised parents? Child psychologist Dr. Naomi Slonim provides her tips for moms and dads looking to prepare schoolchildren of all ages. Eat Move Think is produced by Ghost Bureau . Executive producer is Chris Shulgan . Senior producer is Russell Gragg. Remember t...
Aug 31, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 29
How much protein do you need if you’re trying to lose weight but also build muscle? What’s better—plant- or animal-based protein? Why is protein so key in preventing sarcopenia, or age-related decline in strength? And, is it possible to consume too much protein? In a special feature interview with protein expert Stuart Phillips of McMaster University, guest host Leslie Beck, Medcan’s director of food and nutrition and the Globe and Mail ’s nutrition columnist, tackles these questions and more. L...
Aug 24, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Strength and conditioning training is key to long-term wellness—but fitness culture has been profoundly affected by the pandemic’s social-distancing requirements. So how should we work out in future? How should gyms change—and how should we equip at-home workout facilities? To find out, guest host Stephen Salzmann, Medcan’s director of fitness, consulted with legendary strength and conditioning training expert Mike Boyle of strengthcoach.com , formerly of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins and th...
Aug 17, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 27
The pandemic forced many couples to spend more time together than ever before—and anecdotal evidence suggests some relationships are suffering as a result. Guest host Dr. Gina Di Giulio, Medcan’s Director of Mental Health, spoke with sexologist Jessica O’Reilly of “Sex with Dr. Jess” fame, for some fresh, easy-to-follow tips on how to renew intimacy and return some romance to your relationship. For complete show notes, visit eatmovethinkpodcast.com . Eat Move Think is produced by Ghost Bureau . ...
Aug 10, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Find yourself with an aching lower back because your work-from-home arrangement sees you typing away on your bed or a bar stool? Turns out many people are feeling lower back pain these days. So we arranged an interview with the world authority on the causal mechanisms of disc and spine issues: Dr. Stuart McGill, the author of Back Mechanic and the founder of Backfitpro . McGill fixed back issues without surgery for NFL superstars, PGA Tour golf coaches and world-record breaking powerlifters. In ...
Aug 03, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Is the COVID-19 virus really able to waft about on tiny aerosol droplets for tens of metres through HVAC systems? How possible is it to catch the virus from an elevator button or a playground slide? Lots of people have lots of worries about catching COVID — but how is it really transmitted? To find out, guest host Dr. Peter Nord, chief medical officer of Medcan, interviews two experts: Queen’s University medical school infectious disease chair Dr. Gerald Evans, and Rutgers University virologist ...
Jul 27, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Travel restrictions are easing for some countries, and some of us are considering air travel. So what special considerations should you take the next time you find yourself on a plane? How can you mitigate infection risk when flying? To investigate, guest host Dr. Aisha Khatib, the clinical director of travel medicine at Medcan, interviews Dr. Vincent Poirier, a medical advisor to both Air Canada and Air Transat and an assistant professor at the McGill University medical school. For complete sho...
Jul 20, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Do you find yourself exercising and eating well but it doesn’t seem to make any difference? In this episode, the registered dietitian Leslie Beck, Medcan’s director of food and nutrition and a columnist at the Globe and Mail newspaper, steps in as a guest host to describe eight common calorie blunders that could be keeping you from losing weight—and provides tips on how to solve them. For complete show notes, visit eatmovethinkpodcast.com . Visit Leslie’s website at lesliebeck.com . Follow her o...
Jul 13, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Maybe you haven't been on a sports team for years. Maybe you've never even played a sport. But as we embark on this pandemic-inspired societal reboot, maybe you’re thinking of taking something up. So which sport should you pursue? What's the best sport for long-term health and fitness? Host Shaun Francis investigates with triathlon historian Bob Babbitt, football-is-medicine pioneer Peter Krustrup and hockey evangelist Lawrence Spriet, among others. For complete show notes, visit eatmovethinkpod...
Jul 06, 2020•21 min•Season 1Ep. 21
There’s a national effort underway to get people to download what’s known as a contact tracing app. To help listeners understand why they’re so important, Eat Move Think host Shaun Francis talks to the University of Waterloo math PhD candidate who pioneered the “decentralized Bluetooth exposure notification” technology that started it all—James Petrie, the director of research at Covid Watch . Also featuring an interview with Florian Kerschbaum, the director of the University of Waterloo’s Cyber...
Jun 29, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 20
At 55, Deedee Moscoe looked around one day and realized her life needed a reboot. Caring for her aging parents left her without any time for her career—or herself. Deedee’s journey to remake her life is chronicled in a documentary called Hack Your Age , airing on Zoomer Media’s Vision TV. It’s also emblematic of the moment we’re in, as society returns to the next normal. With host Shaun Francis, Deedee explores a typically human dilemma with extraordinary honesty and humour....
Jun 22, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 19
By devoting so much of our attention to stopping the spread of COVID-19, with lockdowns, with physical distancing measures, by closing borders and many businesses, are we ignoring the possibility we could be harming population health in other ways? That’s what host Shaun Francis explores with Dr. Vivek Goel, member of the federal government’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and vice-president of research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, at the University of Toronto. Mentioned in this epis...
Jun 15, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 18
What’s the objective for COVID-19 management? Is the model to eradicate the virus altogether? To contain it until we have a vaccine? And how does that objective affect our U.S. border strategy? Irfan Dhalla is a physician and a vice-president at Unity Health Toronto who is challenging policy makers to think about such issues. In this episode, he and host Shaun Francis engage in a fulsome debate about the future. For complete show notes visit eatmovethinkpodcast.com . Follow Irfan Dhalla on Twitt...
Jun 08, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Dr. David Carr is an ER doc who has been on the front lines caring for patients affected by COVID-19 in Toronto. Host Shaun Francis spoke to Dr. Carr about the mistakes we’ve made these last few months, what it’s like to tell someone they’re infected with COVID, and the dangerous resource crunch we’re facing as the health care system tackles the elective surgery backlog while still fighting the pandemic—with flu season around the corner. Follow Dr. David Carr on Twitter @davidcarr333 . For compl...
Jun 01, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Exercise is the most important thing you can do to help yourself cope. But the pandemic makes it difficult for us to get physical activity. Host Shaun Francis spoke with brain health expert Dr. Jennifer Heisz, the professor who leads McMaster University’s Neurofit Lab, to learn a set of easy-to-follow tips and tricks that use physical activity to decrease stress even in these uncertain times. For complete show notes go to eatmovethinkpodcast.com . Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite p...
May 25, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 15
The need for more testing has existed throughout the pandemic. To stop COVID-19, you need to be able to see it and assess how many people have it. Most jurisdictions in North America are nowhere near the ideal yet. To learn what’s going on, host Shaun Francis spoke to one of the most outspoken of the experts on the issue, Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, a clinical epidemiologist. For complete show notes go to eatmovethinkpodcast.com . Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcast platform. Ea...
May 18, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 14
A recent poll revealed that 50% of us feel our mental health has worsened since the pandemic started. Dr. Jonathan Danson is a clinical psychologist who believes that the extra time we all have, from not having to commute or take kids to sports practices, is particularly difficult for high achievers. He says it induces “analysis paralysis,” and his prescription for how to address that forms a large part of his conversation with host Shaun Francis. Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite p...
May 11, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Why do some large gatherings of people become superspreader events, while some do not? Jonathan Kay is a Canadian journalist who compiled a database of the most important COVID-19 clusters. His analysis features surprising implications for business and government, and may help all of us return to work safely — as well as make life more enjoyable over the next few months. Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcast platform. Visit eatmovethinkpodcast.com for complete show notes. Follow...
May 04, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 12
What’s to come? For those seeking guidance, we checked in with the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Kai Singbartl. He’s the chair of infection control and prevention at Mayo Arizona, and he spoke to Medcan’s chief medical officer, Dr. Peter Nord, about the COVID-19 therapies that excite him, and when to expect a vaccine. Also, please check out Medcan’s Dr. David Carr on the Toronto Star’s This Matters podcast. Please subscribe and rate us on your favourite podcast platform. Eat Move Think host Shaun Francis is...
Apr 27, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 11
