Canada will donate 10 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to the COVAX vaccine-sharing alliance and another $15 million to help make mRNA vaccines in Africa.

People can safely receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in one arm and a flu shot in the other during the same clinic visit, health experts say. Meanwhile, scientists are working on a way to combine them in a single jab.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Saturday that Canada will donate millions more COVID-19 vaccine doses to a global vaccine-sharing initiative as rich countries scramble to send more shots to the developing world to help curb stubbornly high case counts.

Canada's vaccine advisory committee has given advice that's repeatedly been proven right throughout the pandemic, but experts say its failure to do so quickly and transparently threatens to undermine public confidence and forces provinces and territories to make crucial decisions on their own.

U.S. intelligence agencies said on Friday they may never be able to identify the origins of COVID-19, as they released a new, more detailed version of their review into whether the coronavirus was transmitted from animals to humans or was leaked from a lab.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday paved the way for children ages five to 11 to get Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.

Patients who underwent non-elective surgery and used technology for regular remote monitoring with health-care providers had better outcomes a month after leaving hospital, compared to people who were asked to go see their doctors for followup concerns, according to a new Canadian study in the British Medical Journal.

Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization is recommending COVID-19 booster shots for all adults 80 years of age and older, as well as certain other groups who may be at increased risk of lowered protection over time since their initial vaccinations.  

Almost 11 months after the first Canadians got their COVID-19 vaccinations, many people have questions about how their immunity defence is holding up. Here's what we know and what we don't.

Russia on Friday reported another record of daily coronavirus deaths as authorities hoped to stem contagion by keeping most people off work.

Despite easing many restrictions for vaccinated travellers, the federal government still requires proof of a negative COVID-19 molecular test before entering Canada. But it's not cheap. Depending on where you are travelling from, you may have to shell out between $150 and $300 for one.

Personal information belonging to more than 17,000 users of private proof-of-vaccination app Portpass is still unsecured and visible online — including, in some cases, photos of drivers' licences and passports — despite assurances from the company that its data-security problems have been fixed.

Saskatchewan's organ donation program has been suspended and surgeries are postponed due to hospitals being packed with COVID-19 patients.

The World Health Organization and other aid groups on Thursday appealed to leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies to fund a $23.4 billion US plan to bring COVID-19 vaccines, tests and drugs to poorer countries in the next year.

Dr. Kami Kandola and Dr. Anne MariePegg answered listeners' questions on The Trailbreaker Thursday morning. "We will be offering booster doses as of today to anyone in the territory 18 or over as of December 31," Pegg said.

New modelling projects COVID-19 in Alberta will continue to decline if the province stays the course.

Some new studies that look at natural immunity — a degree of protection against COVID-19 that a person develops after being infected — have triggered discussion within the scientific community about the strength of such immunity. However, scientists tell CBC News it is no substitute for vaccination.

Every diagnosis brings on unique challenges. As an individual becomes aware of symptoms affecting their wellbeing, navigates the health system, receives a diagnosis, and then learns to manage the disease, the way they see their body and interact with their environment may change significantly.

The Russian capital brought in its strictest COVID-19-related lockdown measures in more than a year on Thursday as nationwide one-day pandemic deaths and infections hit new highs amid slow vaccination uptake.

Pharmaceutical company Merck agreed to allow other drugmakers to produce its COVID-19 pill, in a move aimed at helping millions of people in poorer countries get access to the potentially life-saving drug, a United Nations-backed public health organization said on Wednesday.

For the past week and a half, I tried out Nutrisense and wore a CGM to monitor my glucoses levels. Sharing a recap of my experience here! I was gifted the Nutrisense membership for 1 month to try, and this post is not sponsored. My code to try it out is GINA50 for $50 off  <— not affiliate, just wanted to share a discount with you all.

Hi friends! How’s the week going? Thank you so much for all of the beautiful birthday wishes for P! We had a great day celebrating and capped it off with the requested hibachi dinner. I hope you’re having a wonderful week, too!

For today’s post, I wanted to share a recap of my experience using Nutrisense. I’ve been curious about this company for a while, especially after doing my Inside Tracker bloodwork earlier this year. My fasting glucose levels were a little on the high side, and I was concerned that it may be a deeper problem. I waited it out, and after my good friend Mia posted about using Nutrisense to monitor her blood glucose levels, I knew I wanted to give it a try. I reached out to the company and was excited when they offered me a month to try it out and see how I liked it.

I received the product and was SO nervous to put it on (hi, I’m a giant needle phobe) and waited and waited until Mia said that she’d walk me through the whole process and attach hers at the same time. You can watch the video here and witness the moment I almost started having a panic attack on live video. (She was like, “See, you can see the needle right there” and I turned white.) I really wanted the data, so I took a deep breath and went for it. I’m really glad I did, because having the ability to see my body’s response to different foods was extremely valuable.

(I’m smiling but panicking. Turns out, attaching the CGM was NOTHING like I imagined it would be. It was painless and super easy.)

Why I tried Nutrisense (and What I Learned)

What is Nutrisense and how does it work?

Nutrisense is a program that offers expert guidance in alignment with a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). The CGM tracks your blood glucose at 15-minute intervals throughout the day, so you’re able to see how sleep patterns, diet, exercise, stress, and nutrition impact your blood glucose levels. Continuously elevated glucose can cause inflammation and damage in the body, so it can be helpful to see how your body responds to the factors above, particularly how it recovers. For example, if your blood glucose spikes after a carb-heavy or sugary meal, does it stay elevated? Or does it recover within 2 hours? How high is the spike??  

When you sign up for Nutrisense, your CGM is delivered to you, along with details on how to attach it. (You can watch me do this here!) You’ll attach the CGM and protective patch, download the app, and scan your CGM to start tracking the data. It usually takes about an hour after adding it for your phone to recognize it and start scanning. (You just click “scan” on the app and hold your phone up the the CGM where the camera is located.)

Within the app, you’re initially paired with a Registered Dietitian who can help you interpret the data, make recommendations, and run experiments.

The service starts at $350 for month, and the cost goes down depending on the time commitment. (With a 12-month commitment, it’s $199/month.)

The CGM that Nutrisense uses is the Freestyle Libre and they expire in 14 days. (You app will let you know when your sensor is expiring.)

What type of data do you receive and how do you interpret the data?

Your blood glucose is charted 24/7 and you can see how high gets and how long it takes to stabilize. It can be interesting to see spikes throughout the night how different patterns affect your blood glucose.

I got this from my RD, who messaged me frequently and was always available to answer questions: (this was after a smoothie that caused a higher spike than I expected)

To help provide more context, I want to walk you through what I’m looking at as I assess a glucose response so let’s check out your breakfast on 10/11 as an example (chocolate, smoothie, almond milk):

Peak (^ on your meal card). First, we want to look at the peak glucose value and aim to avoid repeated exposure above 140. Your peak glucose value was 114, which is well below the threshold and a normal peak!

Exposure (squiggly line on meal card). Second, we also want a small area under the curve (AUC). So a quick glucose spike to 150 but a return to pre-meal glucose values within 1 hour of eating is a small area under the curve, but a slow glucose climb to 130 and staying elevated for 4 hours would be a much larger area under the curve. We want glucose to return to pre-meal values within 2-3 hours after eating. You can help monitor your AUC by assessing your meal card AUC values and by checking your standard deviation in the analytics. Your AUC was 42.9- I would say optimally I’m looking for <30, but <50 is still okay!

Stability (triangle on meal card). We also want to avoid major “shifts” in glucose. So it may be possible that after a meal you only went to 130 (which is good!), but your pre-meal value was 70, so that would be quite a big swing. You can monitor this by assessing your delta values, as we always want to strive for a delta <30. Your delta was 33, which is great!!

Recovery (2h score on meal card). Finally, we want glucose to return to pre-meal values within 2-3 hours after eating. Your response was 23, which tells me you were 23 points from baseline value at the 2 hour mark.

What I learned using a Nutrisense CGM:

– Some buffers to prevent a blood sugar spike, especially when you’re having higher-carb meals: take a walk before or after your meal, have some type of protein first, moderate carb intake, and meal timing. Since your insulin sensitivity is better during the day and wanes towards the evening, you may tolerate foods better if consumed in the afternoon instead of late at night. This is absolutely the case for wine with me – if I have it late-afternoon, it doesn’t affect my sleep.

– Whole foods-based carbs do not have a significant effect on me, especially when they’re paired with protein. (Berries, apples, bananas, and oranges didn’t cause a spike, even when I ate them by themselves.) Oatmeal, paleo pancakes, Siete tortillas, and starchy veggies were the same. Refined carbs, on the other hand, did cause a spike. We went to a party at a friend’s house and I had more sweets and refined carbs than usual (plus champagne) and my blood glucose was elevated all night and the following day. It was interesting to see how one meal can affect your insulin sensitivity for the following day.

– Wine spikes my blood sugar, tequila does not. (An important lesson haha.) Both recover fine if I have one glass, but two glasses led to increased levels the following day. This experiment verified the fact that I don’t do well with a ton of alcohol, and it’s been a good reminder to minimize it. (Right now I’m at one or maybe two drinks per week.)

– Also, my body loves tacos, beans, and rice. 🙂 I had my usual Wednesday night Mexican meal with the family and no huge spike.

– Peace of mind. A large percentage of our population is not metabolically flexible, which can impact how we handle stress, injuries, and recover from illness. I was concerned that my last blood test showed a higher fasting glucose, but this was able to verify that it isn’t the case for me normally (my blood test was an outlier) and a good indicator of my metabolic health. That was my main concern going into this and it was a welcomed sigh of relief.

Pros:

 – The RD support was invaluable. I loved having the ability to ask questions, and she did an excellent job about teaching me how to see my patterns, assess my response, and ideal target ranges.

– The app is very well-designed, easy to navigate and use. I liked using the app and found that even as a newbie, I figured it out fairly easily.

Cons:

– I ate a little strangely when I first put it on. It’s like I was afraid to eat anything that would spike it, and eventually I had to tell myself to get over it and eat normally after a couple of days. The data wasn’t going to help me if I only ate protein and vegetables for 14 days. So I had margaritas, tacos, desserts, all of the things I normally eat, so it would provide a true picture. If you have a history with disordered eating, I wouldn’t recommend using this.

 – It was uncomfortable and I ended up taking it off a few days early. (I think it was more the adhesive than the actual sensor.) I recognize the privilege I have to be able to say, “I don’t want to wear this anymore” and remove it, when I have friends out there who depend upon a CGM for survival. Just wanted to put a little note here that I see you. <3 I didn’t sleep well at all for the 11 days I had it attached – it was super light sleep because I was subconsciously worried about rolling onto it and sleeping on it during the night. Also, I was a little shocked by the catheter when the Pilot removed it for me – it’s a teeny plastic tube, but it was longer than I expected lol.

All in all, it was a really valuable experience and I enjoyed having access to all of the data + learning from my Nutrisense RD.

Am I going to attach the second sensor? I think I’ll definitely do it eventually but am taking a break for a couple of weeks. I want to run some more experiments with meal timing and eating certain foods by themselves + in conjunction with other foods.

Any questions about Nutrisense? Is this something you think you would do? If you decide to try it out, you can use the code GINA50 for $50 off 🙂

xo

Gina

The post Why I tried Nutrisense (and What I Learned) appeared first on The Fitnessista.

Russia has hit another record for daily COVID-19 deaths as authorities across the country moved to keep most people off work in line with a Kremlin order aimed at stemming the spread.

Everyone in B.C. will have access to a COVID-19 booster shot in the coming months, the provincial government announced Tuesday. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration isn't bound by the committee's recommendation, but is expected to consider it and make a decision in the coming days on whether to approve the vaccine for kids five to 11 years old.

A London nursing home faces charges under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act for unsafe working conditions early into the pandemic, after a registered nurse died from COVID-19 and many others were infected.

The two Hamilton paramedics guilty for their part in the death of 19-year-old Yosif Al-Hasnawi, who was shot outside a mosque in 2017, will be sentenced in mid-January.

Medical health officers across Saskatchewan are once again pleading with the provincial government to do more to combat COVID-19, according to a letter obtained by CBC News.

While there are no active cases territory-wide, outbreaks in a handful of communities are still considered ongoing, including in Coral Harbour since Sept. 29, Kugluktuk since Sept. 21, Iqaluit since Sept. 13 and Kinngait since Sept. 19.

The provincial government announced Tuesday that it is spending $20 million this year to hire 193 new inspections staff and launch a proactive inspections program in Ontario's long-term care homes.

Yosif Al-Hasnawi's mother says in a statement read at the sentencing of two Hamilton paramedics that the 19-year-old's death "feels like someone has ripped your heart out of your chest." The hearing for the men, found guilty of failing to give proper care to Al-Hasnawi after he was shot in 2017, continues Tuesday.

Some funeral homes are pivoting to meet increasing demands for a new kind of service: Providing a place where clients can have a medically assisted death surrounded by loved ones but away from their own home.

New Zealand's government says it will expand a vaccine mandate to include thousands of workers who have close contact with their customers — including those at restaurants, bars, gyms and hair salons.

Our baby is 6 and for some reason, 6 is hitting SO much harder than 5. She truly feels like a big kid now, and I’m constantly in this mode of wanting to freeze time while simultaneously loving to see these babies grow into such amazing and fun kids.

Some things about our now 6-year old:

– She’s always ready for a snuggle, and I call her my baby koala. If I had a pouch, she’d let me carry her around in there all day… and I would love it.

– She’s our little engineer and can build or create anything. It’s not unusual for her to have tape, scissors, glue, and paper, crafting or making some type of contraption, or building elaborate Lego sets. When she’s in Lego mode, I can’t even go near her until she’s gone through the entire book and built the whole thing by herself.

– Our little comedian; she’s constantly cracking us up with silly voices and facial expressions. Her Zingo victory dance is a gold star, let me tell ya.

– Her favorite foods are avocado toast, poke bowls, scrambled eggs, and sushi.

– This kid is full of hip hop dance moves, soccer dribbling, and can ride a horse better than most kids twice her age. She loves animals and they always seem to love her back.

– She has such inherent goodness in her heart and is always bursting with joy. The first 6 months her life were filled with the most painful and horrifying reflux, and we think that once she realized how great she feels when she doesn’t have reflux, she’s been the happiest little goose ever since.

– She’s super smart and very silly… and watching her and Liv play together is one of my favorite favorite things.

We had her birthday party this weekend (on the Pilot’s actual birthday… sorry Pilot haha) and are celebrating her all day today 🙂 Her party was at TRAK (horse rides, petting zoo, face painter) and we had a blast celebrating with friends and family. It was a double celebration, because the Pilot’s birthday dinner was at our house later that evening. For dinner tonight, she requested, “The place where they light the table on fire and cook your food” so that’s where we’ll be. 😉

Have a lovely day, friends! I’ll see ya in the am with a full post on my experience using Nutrisense.

xo

Gina

P’s birth story is here. Reading it for a good cry today <3

The post Happy birthday, P appeared first on The Fitnessista.

The latest figures come from an internal memo prepared by the Ontario Critical Care COVID Command Centre and obtained by CBC News.

As an increasingly deadly fourth wave of COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm Russia's hospitals, officials who had been hesitant to implement restrictions in recent months are doing so now in a desperate attempt to try to reduce the record number of people dying every day. 

Moderna says its clinical trials with children aged six to 11 showed two doses that were half the size of its adult shots produced similar levels of virus-fighting antibodies in children.

A two-day sentencing hearing is underway for two paramedics found guilty for failing to provide the necessaries of life to Josif Al-Hasnawi of Hamilton in 2017. The 19-year-old died in hospital after being shot outside a mosque.

A B.C. physician accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 is now under investigation for allegedly writing phoney mask and vaccine exemptions offered through a Kelowna-based website. That website, EnableAir.com, appears to be connected to another B.C. doctor.

Ontario is lifting capacity limits today at restaurants, gyms, casinos and some other locations where proof of vaccination against COVID-19 is required.

Melbourne, one of the world's most locked-down cities that emerged from its latest spate of COVID-19 restrictions heading into the weekend, will see more curbs eased later this week when the state of Victoria reaches an 80 per cent full vaccination rate, officials said on Sunday.

Worried about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, Montreal patient attendant Monique Dupriez turned to her co-worker Dr. Ingrid Marchand for advice, but the process wasn't fast or easy. Even once she'd been persuaded, it took Dupriez a month to take the leap and actually be inoculated.

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces will be deployed to Saskatchewan to help battle the province's fourth wave of COVID-19, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said.