In the study lab, tablet users checked emails, surfed the Internet, played a game or watched a movie while researchers measured their head and neck postures with an infrared three-dimensional motion analysis system. The study was conducted by the Occupational Biomechanics and Ergonomics Laboratory at HSPH and the results were recently published in Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation. 

Four postures were tested:

• Lap-Hand: sitting on a chair with feet on a stool, device in lap
• Lap-Case: sitting on a chair with feet on the floor, device in lap
• Table-Case: sitting in a chair with device on a table at a low viewing angle
• Table-Movie: sitting in a chair with device on a table at a high viewing angle

You can see photos of the four postures here. But notice how in the Table-Movie position the person is not doing any typing? That’s great if you’re watching a movie, but how about if you need to type?

Here’s a solution I recently found at the Apple store: the Incase Origami Workstation. It’s a handy travel case for my wireless keyboard that flips into a workstation stand with a quick fold. It lets me take notes in client meetings or send out a live tweet stream during professional development seminars for PWAC Toronto Chapter without getting a stiff neck. Besides, I type faster on my usual keyboard rather than the iPad screen.

What works for you when you’re on the go with your mobile device and need to type?

Now, if I could only find standing desks when I’m not working from home.

Beyond pills and patches – new treatment options for chronic pain 

Chronic pain can arise from body injuries or health conditions such as migraines, diabetes, arthritis, shingles or cancer. But sometimes there is no obvious cause, which is frustrating for both patients and doctors. If the pain is not treated properly, pain signals can continue, leading to long-term changes in the central nervous system. Phillip Pizzo, M.D., Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine says, “We see that for many patients, chronic pain becomes a disease in its own right.”

Sean Mackey, MD, Chief for the Division of Pain Management at Stanford University points out that the two most common pain treatments available, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and opioids (narcotic pain killers), “are agents we have been using for hundreds of years, in one form or another and we have not come up with new agents. We need to identify and research more alternative mechanisms for treating chronic pain that can attack where the injury and signal are processed.”

Here are five currently available alternatives for chronic pain treatment that go beyond pills and patches to target the locations where pain signals arise:

2. Spinal Cord Stimulation – A small pacemaker is implanted under the skin near the spinal cord with electrodes inserted into the epidural space, to treat chronic pain of the trunk or limbs. The patient delivers low-level electrical signals to their spinal cord using a handheld programmer, controlling the on or off switch as well as the intensity of the signals that are targeted at the precise pain area to block pain messages from reaching the brain. Up to 6 visits may be required to refine the stimulator settings. Available devices include the Medtronic Neurostimulation System and the recently FDA cleared St. Jude Medical’s Epiducer system, which allows placement of multiple neurostimulation leads through a single incision.

3. Spinal Cord Drug Pump – Also called an intrathecal drug delivery system, a drug pump is implanted under the skin to deliver pain medication directly to the fluid around the spinal cord. Because medication goes directly to the pain receptors near the spine rather than travelling throughout the circulatory system, pain relief can be achieved with a fraction of an oral medication dose and can reduce pain by 50% or more. The device is filled with medication and programmed by a doctor. Refilling the pump is done by a needle injection through the skin at follow-up appointments. A hand-held programmer option can permit the patient to deliver the dose.

4. Nerve Blocks – An injection of a local anesthetic can be an effective weapon to stop pain in its tracks in specific situations like a pinched nerve, where acute pain is localized in one part of the body. The nerve block can relieve pain so that the patient can participate in physiotherapy. A nerve block is most useful if used early to help prevent chronic pain from developing.

5. Radiofrequency Ablation – This technique is seen as a big advance among pain doctors because it is a very localized treatment that can make a big difference for some forms of pain such as low back, neck or arthritis joint pain. A small part of the nerve tissue is heated in an outpatient procedure, using an electrical current produced by a radio wave, carefully conducted under guided imaging. Radiofrequency ablation is done as an outpatient procedure using a local anesthetic. Relief from chronic pain can last from 6-12 months using this method.

CONNECT THE DOTS

Visit the American Chronic Pain Association to browse their online library of resources and pain management tools. Learn about the Chronic Pain Self-Management Program, a series of workshops developed by Stanford University that are offered in community settings. Read the Institute of Medicine’s report brief, Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research to learn more about the scope of the burden of chronic pain or watch the webcast. You may also be interested in our earlier posts, Pain Patches Offer an Alternative to Pills and Biofeedback: A High-Tech Weapon Against Migraines.

Originally published on GE Healthy Outlook, October 18, 2011. Copyright Jane Langille.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Check out my latest post on GE Healthy Outlook where I extol the virtues of eating sweets for a change, for their potential personality benefits! A new study suggests that people with a sweet tooth have sweeter dispositions and are more likely to volunteer and actually help others. I enjoyed interviewing Brian Meier, Ph.D. associate professor of psychology at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania about the surprising findings about people who like to eat sweets.

I hope you are lucky enough to have people in your life who like to eat sweets.

We know that too much added sugar can sabotage a healthy diet and lead to obesity, higher triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol, all primary risk factors for heart disease. So why is it so hard to cut back?

We are wired to overeat sugar, fat, and salt – especially in combination.One study by the National Institutes of Health found that when high-sugar, high-fat and high-salt foods were available in abundant supply, participants consumed an average of 150% of the calories required to maintain a stable weight.

Eating too much sugar drives up insulin levels, which can lead to obesity.Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas to convert sugar into energy that can be used by cells in the body. When insulin is released, the sugar in your bloodstream is used in one of three ways: as an immediate fuel source for your brain and kidneys; storage as glycogen in the liver or muscles for short-term energy needs; or storage as fat for future energy. Therefore, when too much sugar is consumed, your body will store the unused glucose as fat. “Excess insulin tells your body to store fat and it blocks fat burning while it’s elevated,” says Natasha Turner, N.D. and author of The Hormone Diet and The Supercharged Hormone Diet.

Elevated insulin blocks the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin and cranks up your desire to eat more. Leptin is the hormone that produces a feeling of satiety and tells your brain you have eaten enough food. Excess insulin not only blocks leptin, it also causes a spike in dopamine, a hormone associated with reward pathways in the brain.

Chronic stress promotes consumption of added sugar as a form of self-medication. High-sugar foods can relieve pain or stress, stimulate or calm us down.

So how do you leave the sugar habit behind?

“The best way to kick the sugar habit is to go ‘cold turkey.’ Otherwise, if you eat sugar in small amounts here and there, all it’s going to do is perpetuate your cravings,” says Dr. Turner.

In her clinical practice, she recommends a two-week detoxification diet, cutting out all forms of added sugar while eating healthy foods like lean protein, carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables, adequate dietary fiber, and sufficient healthy fats. She finds that her patients have usually lost their sweet-tooth cravings by the end of the fourth day.

In order to resist backsliding to old habits, Dr. Turner recommends starting your day with a higher-protein breakfast such as eggs, a protein shake, or Greek yogurt and berries, to help prevent carbohydrate cravings in the middle of the afternoon. She also says, “Do not miss your afternoon snack, which should contain some protein, some carbohydrates and some healthy fats so you don’t binge at dinner time. Try 12-15 almonds with a piece of low fat cheese or hummus with veggie sticks.”

David Kessler, M.D., recommends four behaviors to reverse long-standing destructive eating habits in his book, The end of overeating: Taking control of the Insatiable North American Appetite:

1) Awareness. Does the smell of cookies baking make you want to eat them? Learn to recognize what sensory stimuli are creating your cravings for sweet foods so that you can decide whether to act on the urge or not.

2) Remove the temptation. Drive a different route to work to avoid seeing a fast-food outlet or purge your refrigerator and cupboards of sweets and treats so that they are not available.

3)  Form new thoughts to compete with the old ones. For example, instead of saying “I’ll just have one bite of that dessert,” say, “I’ll not have any because it will lead to eating too much.”

4)  Create a support network. Tell others about your healthy eating plan and you will sustain and reinforce your motivation. GE’s free My Diet Diary-Calorie Counter iPhone app allows users to track their food, exercise and weight goals and share their progress with friends on Facebook at MedHelp for support and encouragement.

What steps will you take to kick the added sugar habit?

CONNECT THE DOTS

Learn more about healthy eating to lose fat and balance your hormones at Clear Medicine, Natasha Turner’s wellness boutique in Toronto, Ontario. For further information about making good food choices at the grocery store, check out Marion Nestle’s book, What to Eat: An Aisle by Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating, or check out her blog, Food Politics. You may also enjoy reading our earlier Healthy Outlook Blog posts, “The Hidden Health Risks of Sweet Drinks,” “Is Too Much Sitting Putting Your Health at Risk?,” and “How the Mediterranean Diet Helps the Heart.”

Originally published on GE Healthy Outlook, December 15, 2011: “How to Kick the Added Sugar Habit“ Copyright Jane Langille.

Are you sitting down to read this? Perhaps you should be standing up. In a recent study, those who spent almost all of their time sitting had a 54% higher risk of mortality from all causes (except cancer) compared to those who hardly ever sat at all. Even more surprising, the increased risk of mortality was independent of whether they were meeting the recommended guidelines for leisure time physical activity.

Peter Katzmarzyk, PhD, Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and colleague at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, found that the increased risk of mortality associated with sitting was independent of whether people were exercising at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes, 5 days per week or at a vigorous intensity for 20 minutes, 3 days per week. The study was published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, May 2009. It analyzed sitting activity data for more than 17,000 Canadians ages 18-90, and then compared mortality statistics over 12 years.

“If you look at the overall human pattern of movement throughout the day, it doesn’t make sense to focus on 30 minutes of activity. What about the other 23.5 hours in the day? What you do for the rest of the day is also important. You need to look beyond small bumps of activity,” Katzmarzyk says.

The average American now spends 11 hours a day, 5 days a week, sitting. “When you sit for long periods of time,” Katzmarzyk added, “like working at your desk for 8 hours straight, or watching television for long stretches of time, your body shuts down, your metabolism just drops, the active muscle in your legs just go dormant. It’s hazardous to your health: you need to disrupt that sedentary behavior.”

Katzmarzyk and colleagues found in a recent U.S. study that since 1960, the estimated daily energy expenditure from work-related physical activity has dropped by more than 100 calories per day for both women and men. In the early 1960s, almost 50% of jobs required moderate activity whereas now, five decades later, less than 20% of jobs require moderate activity. That 100 calories per day may not seem like much, but over a year, the lost opportunity to burn 36,500 calories accounts for a significant part of the overall increase in U.S. body weights.

So what can we do to take a stand against so much sitting in our daily lives? James A. Levine, MD, PhD, has some compelling recommendations from his research at the NEAT Center at the Mayo Clinic. He calls our increasingly sedentary lifestyle a “sitting disease” and links it directly with the obesity epidemic. In his book, Move a Little, Lose a Lot, he notes that fifty years ago there were no gyms, people didn’t workout, and yet very few people struggled to maintain a healthy weight. Levine says we are plagued now with an obesity epidemic “because we are desk sentenced.”

NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, represents the calories you burn doing regular daily activities like taking the stairs, walking to lunch or standing up to answer the phone. Incorporating NEAT activities throughout the day helps burn up to an additional 2,000 calories per day by boosting your metabolic rate. Additional benefits are lower blood pressure and increased mental clarity.

Some ideas to get you up out of your chair at frequent intervals:

* Take more steps in a day – Levine says when you walk, “your metabolism literally blasts off.” Add steps to your workday by taking public transit rather than driving to work, use the stairs, go for a walk at lunch, or try conducting a walking meeting. Get a pedometer and track your progress.

* Standup desks are gaining popularity in many workplaces. Levine’s research found that standing burns 3 times as many calories compared to sitting. There are also desks with integrated treadmills that allow you to walk at a slow but steady pace while working.

CONNECT THE DOTS

Download Morsel, GE healthymagination’s free mobile app to recommend easy, healthy activities to incorporate into your day. Check out Standupdesks.com and Trekdesk.com to learn about non-sitting desk alternatives for your workspace at home or the office. Watch a video featuring James Levine to see a presentation about NEAT science and the obesity epidemic.

Originally published on GE Healthy Outlook, September 2, 2011: “Is Too Much Sitting Putting Your Health at Risk?” Copyright Jane Langille.

I’m thrilled that this story was posted today for World AIDS Day. The evidence is clear: Treatment as Prevention reduces HIV transmission by almost 100% and the sooner we treat everyone globally who is infected, the sooner the AIDS epidemic will be eradicated for good. It was both a privilege and an honour to interview Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Past-President of the International AIDS Society.

Check out my story on GE Healthy Outlook.

A closer look at the study abstract from the journal Injury Prevention revealed that the teens were indeed not blowing apart, but rather were found to have an anger problem associated with soft drink consumption. Here’s the scoop: a study among Boston teenagers found that those who drank more than five cans of soft drinks per week were significantly more likely to carry a weapon and to have been violent with peers, family members and dates. Frequent soda guzzling was associated with a 9-15% increase in the probability of engaging in aggressive actions, even after controlling for other factors like gender, race, body mass index, sleep patterns, tobacco and alcohol use and having family dinners.

At least the researchers were kind enough to point out that the association could be due to other factors that weren’t accounted for in the study and that a direct cause-and-effect relationship could not be proven. Yes! The survey’s major limitation was relying on self-reported data by the teens. Yes, again!

Bottom line: I suspect there is a group of teenagers in Boston somewhere having a good laugh about how they were able to skew this study’s results.

By Jane Langille

1. Shellac is made from bug excrement

Jellybeans are a tasty treat and come in many flavours, but did you realize their shiny coating is made from bug feces? Shellac, also known as confectioner’s glaze, is made from a resin excreted by the female lac beetle, indigenous to India and Thailand. The resin is processed into flakes, dissolved in denatured alcohol to make liquid shellac, and then sprayed on food products or used to make lacquer for hardwood floors and furniture. 

Shellac is also sprayed on grocery store apples to make them shiny and keep them fresh in the store. When you pick an apple fresh from the tree and rub it on your shirt, you will produce a nice shine from the natural waxy protection already present in the apple skin. But if you wash that apple first, you won’t be able to make it shine as washing it removes the waxy coating. Apples sold in grocery stores must be washed for sanitary reasons and then sprayed with a fine mist of shellac to restore outer skin protection. Without this waxy layer, the washed apples would spoil too quickly.

2. Acceptable levels for rodent hairs and insect parts

Have you ever found a hair in your bagel? It might belong to a rodent, and according to Health Canada, that may not be a food safety infraction. Health Canada provides guidelines for the general cleanliness of food, outlining how much microbiological or extraneous matter can be present before it is considered a food safety issue. Extraneous matter includes “animal and insect filth such as excreta, hairs, feather barbules, whole or parts of insects.” 

Under these same guidelines, it is acceptable to find up to 10 insects, defined as “whole or equivalent whole forms of insects (more than half a head including entire frons)” in a 225g serving (about 1.5 cups) of processed raisins or currants. The unacceptable upper limit is 20 insects per 225 g. You will probably never find any insects in your raisins or currants, as these are the testing protocols for determining food safety. But knowing there are permissible levels of rodent hairs or insects in some foods, you may want to inspect them closely before consuming.

3. Gelatin is made from cattle hides and pork skins

Gelatin is used to make many desserts, such as jelly powders, marshmallows and frozen cakes. Gelatin is made from the collagen of animal skin and bones. Gelatin melts to a liquid state when heated, and solidifies when it cools. You may see gelatin form if you use animal bones to make your own soup stock and cool the broth. 

Gelatin is the main ingredient in jelly powder. On its website, Kraft Canada states that the gelatin used in JELL-O is extracted only from cattle hides and pork skins, and only from the hides of healthy animals that have passed strict inspections and are found fit for human consumption. You do not recognize gelatin’s taste as an animal product because, as Kraft says, “during the manufacturing of gelatin, chemical changes take place so that the final product, the composition, and the identity of the original material is completely eliminated.” If you have chosen to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you may prefer to avoid eating products made with gelatin.

4. Fruit flavoured snacks are made with the same wax found in car wax

Carnauba wax, a key ingredient in car wax that produces a brilliant shine, is also found in gummy bears and fruit flavoured snacks. Carnauba wax comes from the leaves of the carnauba palm tree, native to Brazil. The leaves are beaten to loosen the wax and then the wax is refined, bleached and sold.

While it may also be found in floor polish, shoe polish, or cosmetics, carnauba wax is used to give a glossy shine to many things you put in your mouth, such as chewing gum, candies, gravies and sauces. It is also commonly used on pharmaceuticals as a coating on tablets to aid swallowing.

5. Honey is made from nectar and bee vomit

If you think honey is made from flower nectar you are only partially correct. An important part of the process is what happens inside the bee. Bees use their digestive systems to process the nectar by swallowing and regurgitating it several times before finally depositing it into the honeycomb for evaporation and storage. 

While this sounds gross, it helps remove some of the water and natural yeasts present in the nectar, which could otherwise cause the sugars to ferment. Ripe honey is shelf stable and never spoils. Honey comes in various tastes and colours, depending on the type of flower nectar the bees collected. For example, clover honey is mild tasting and light in colour whereas buckwheat honey is bolder tasting and darker. Honey may also darken or become a bit stronger tasting with age, but will keep indefinitely in a sealed container at room temperature. If older honey crystallizes, simply warm it up until it turns clear.

6. One solvent used to decaffeinate tea and coffee is a known carcinogen

Canada’s Food and Drug Actpermits three food additives for decaffeination of tea and coffee: carbon dioxide, ethyl acetate and methylene chloride. The last two are chemical solvents that strip the caffeine from green coffee beans or tea leaves. Green tealabelled as “naturally decaffeinated” may have been decaffeinated using carbon dioxide, whereas methylene chloride is more often used to remove caffeine from black tea or coffee. 

Methylene chloride, or dichloromethane is recognized as possibly carcinogenic, and for this reason, many manufacturers have switched to using carbon dioxide or the Swiss Water process instead.  Of course, the methylene chloride is removed from the coffee or tea before it is packaged and sold, but knowing your tea or coffee has been processed using a carcinogenic solvent may influence your shopping choices.

7. Supersized beverages can contain most of your daily liquid needs

While hydration needs vary depending on your gender, size and activity level, you should aim to drink enough water during the day so that you are rarely thirsty and produce at least 1.5 L of colourless or pale yellow urine a day.  Your body needs water on an ongoing basis to aid digestion, replace fluid lost through breathing and perspiration, transport nutrients to your cells and get rid of waste. Many people drink 8 glasses of water per day, or about 1.9 L to meet their goal. 

But would you really drink a large part of your daily volume goal all at once? Some soft drinksand sport drinksare now sold in gargantuan sizes. For example, a large soft drink from a fast food outlet can range in size from 730 mL to 960 mL.  The same is true for sport drinks, which are sold in 591 mL, 710 mL and 946 mL bottles. Bottled water is sold in 591 mL bottles but also in 1L and 1.5L sizes. Keep in mind that the average capacity of an adult human stomach is about 900 mL. Rather than overloading your body with fluid all at once, it’s much healthier to drink smaller amounts that add up to your goal throughout the day.

8. Corn products are in many more foods than you think

Corn is a key ingredient in breakfast cereals, bread, potato chips and French fries, soft drinks, and many prepared foods. In his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan writes that more than a quarter of the items for sale in the average grocery store now contain ingredients that came from corn. Check the food label of any processed food and you will most likely find an ingredient derived from corn, provided you know what to look for. For example, corn syrup is added to dried fruit or soft drinks to make them sweeter. Corn ingredients such as cornstarch and corn fibre provide body and a crispy texture to foods like french fries.  

A chicken nugget contains modified cornstarch to hold it together, corn flour in the coating and corn oil from frying. But what you might not realize is that the leavenings, lecithin, mono-, di-, and triglycerides and citric acid, can also be made from corn. If you see modified or unmodified starch, glucose syrup, maltodextrin, crystalline fructose, ascorbic acid, lecithin, dextrose, lactic acid, lysine, maltose, HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup), MSG (monosodium glutamate), polyols, caramel colour, or xanthan gum, on an ingredient label, it was likely derived from corn.

9. Where did that red food colour come from?

Check the ingredient list on your strawberry or raspberry yogurt for “natural colour”. The natural colour in your red-berry yogurt could be carmine, a red food colour made from the dried bodies of female cochineal insects, sourced from South America or Mexico. Cochineal extract has been used for thousands of years to dye fabrics but today is used primarily as a food or cosmetic colouring. Canada’s Food and Drug Act currently allows food manufacturers to declare an added colour by either its common name or simply as “colour”, and carmine is considered a natural colour. 

Your red sport drink is another place you will find the use of added colour. But where did it come from? Some sport drinks use Allura Red (also known as Red 40), a petroleum-based azo dye. Allura Red is approved for use in products such as jam, concentrated fruit juice, ice cream, pickles and relishes, ketchup and flavoured milk products. Canadian law regulates the maximum percentage of Allura Red that can be used.

While rare, some people can experience severe allergic reactions to food colouring.  However, food colour was not identified as a “priority allergen” in the recent announcement by Health Canada to enhance labeling for food allergens, gluten sources and added sulphites. If you have a concern about a particular product, you should contact the manufacturer and ask specifically which food colouring is used.

10. Some foods are exposed to radiation

Irradiation is the process by which food is exposed to a controlled amount of iodizing radiation in order to increase shelf life and kill harmful bacteria. Health Canada determines which foods may be irradiated, as well as the levels of treatment allowed and which products are exempt from indicating irradiation on packaging labels. The exempt products are potatoes, onions, wheat, flour, whole-wheat flour, whole or ground spicesand dehydrated seasoning preparations. Canada’s Food and Drug Act allows for the irradiation of potatoes and onions to inhibit sprouting during storage. In the case of flour, irradiation is used to control insect infestation in stored food. For spices and dehydrated seasoning preparations, irradiation reduces microbes. 

Labelling regulations for irradiated foods are managed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. If irradiation is used on any other foods sold in Canada, whether they are domestic or imported, the food label must identify that the product was irradiated, using both a written statement like “irradiated” or “treated with irradiation,” together with the international symbol for irradiation.

Originally published on Best Health online, March 2011. Reprinted with permission.  

Copyright (c) 2011 by Reader’s Digest Magazines Canada Limited. Further reproduction, distribution or posting strictly prohibited. 

The only good thing about finding one grey hair was that I could pluck it out and nobody was the wiser. It was my little secret — a freak of nature that wouldn’t happen again. Or so I hoped. Every couple of months, there were a couple of hairs to yank. They kept creeping in with their silent ambush of betrayal.

In my early twenties, my husband and I started our first jobs. The grey hair came in more frequently, and started growing in all over. By 28, I couldn’t reach to pluck the ones at the back so I asked my husband to help. He obliged for a while, until….

“Um, you don’t really want me to yank out entire patches, right?”

Making the decision to dye

His refusal to scalp me coincided with my decision to stay home with our first child. I no longer had a professional image to uphold and soon enough I was so busy with two young children, I didn’t have time to care about things like hair colour — until the day my daughter changed everything.

When she was only five, she ran her fingers through my hair as I pretended to be asleep. She sighed to her little brother, ever so slowly and apologetically, “Oh…look…Mommy’s getting old.” Already she knew that grey hair was for old people. It was at that moment I decided to colour my hair. No kid of mine was going to think 33 was old!

Deception was in order. After a hairdresser worked his magic with chemicals and scissors, my hair looked fabulous: The grey was completely eradicated. Take that, time! Pride had its price, however: The makeover was expensive and a huge time-suck. It drove me nuts just to sit and cook my hair in a salon chair. I had become a master multi-tasker, so it was difficult to be unproductive for so long. I couldn’t even read to pass the time until my hairdresser invented “condoms” for the arms of my glasses using the cut-off fingers from a latex glove.

The steep cost of covering grey

But it just wasn’t worth it: On top of paying $120 for the whole job, I had to pay a babysitter too. Maintenance visits were necessary every four weeks to keep the grey roots from showing.

Over the next few years, I moved on to the at-home kit solution. This alternative was much cheaper and took less time than a salon visit, but I’d forgotten that I’m a klutz. My hair got coloured all right, but so did everything else in the bathroom. Eventually I was back to enlisting my husband’s help. While he was certainly much neater, his patience with this chore faded over time, and so did mine.

Presenter Amanda Strong has been a medical freelance writer for over 10 years. She has developed courses for the American Medical Writer’s Association (AMWA) and currently teaches medical writing with the School for Extended Learning at Concordia University. She covers medical conferences and advisory board  meetings on a regular basis.

Giancarlo La Giorgia, is a medical freelancer who has written over 300 articles on health, technology, architecture, food and travel in a wide range of consumer magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the former editor of the Canadian Journal of Diagnosis and is currently a copywriter at pharma ad agency BOOM CDM.

Is is a drug or is it a pokemon?

Drug names can be difficult to manage, so much so that there is a web game called “Drug or  Pokemon?” to prove the point. Consult references carefully! The Merck Manual is available online in both a consumer and physician format. Another recommended reference is the Compendium of Pharmaceuticals, you know, that large blue text book your doctor refers to. It’s fairly expensive to purchase, so one idea is to ask your doctor for last year’s copy before it gets thrown out.

There are many markets for medical writing

The three main market areas for selling medical writing: research and regulatory; journalism and publishing; and pharmaceutical and health information.

Research and regulatory – Doctors apparently can’t write well: ghostwriting for a researcher can be an effective way to get your foot in the door and lead to pharmaceutical or corporate writing gigs with device manufacturers.

Journalism and publishing – Consider the usual consumer publications but also the not-so obvious ones, e.g. askmen.com does carry some health content. Many associations for diseases or health issues have their own publications: Abilities, Birthing, Diabetes Dialogue, Moods, En Sante, etc. Universities with medical schools publish internal magazines and newsletters. Trade publications such as Pharmacy Practice, Drugstore Card, Optical Prism, Dental Practise Management. Trade publications may only pay 50 cents/word, but the whole job can work out okay on an hourly rate basis if they provide an interview source.

Pharmaceutical and health information – Pharmaceutical companies sometimes hire freelance writers to produce newsletters about conferences or technical materials to be distributed at the conferences. Academic publishers like Elsevier will hire freelancers to cover conferences, which can be intense or formulaic work if you can summarize what the speaker presented and insert some interview clips.

What if I don’t have a science background?

Both presenters agreed that you do not necessarily have to have a science background to be a successful medical writer. While it helps, the degree of technical understanding required will vary depending on which market you wish to write for.

Giancarlo mentioned the Certified National Pharmaceutical Representative course, usually taken by pharmaceutical company sales representatives that have no pharmacology or medical education. This certification could make you an attractive hire if you wish to write for the pharmaceutical industry and don’t have a science degree. The CNPR is a US-based online course that takes 200 hours to complete, and covers the basics of physiology and pharmaceuticals.

Consider specializing

Amanda recommended  specializing in a specific therapeutic class or disease area to make the most of your time investment understanding a specific subject area. Therapies, treatments and research are changing all the time. She said she would not feel comfortable writing about a medical area she has not written about for 2 years or more, as it would take too much time to come up to speed on the latest information. Sources of information for subject areas that change rapidly are Up to Date and clinicaltrials.gov , (which I agree is also good for finding expert sources!).

Note to PWACers – if you were at this session and I have missed something, please add your thoughts in the comments.