💥The 2023 National Wait Time Index is Here! This year, the national average wait time at walk-in clinics hit 68 minutes—a startling 31-minute increase from last year. 2/5 #HealthcareAccess #CanadaHealth #Medimap

The health effects of loneliness are physical and measurable. Here is what the research really shows and what actually helps. View article

Your heart takes off, your hands go numb, and you are sure something is wrong. What a heart racing for no reason means and when to get it checked.

Is a sauna for heart health worth it? 😯 See what a 20-year Finnish study found, and how to use a sauna safely through the winter.

A Canadian study of nearly 9,000 brain scans links ultra-processed foods to silent damage. See what it found and what to change on a grocery budget.

Up to 1 in 4 Canadians has a fatty liver. Almost none of them know it. That’s because it doesn’t hurt. There’s no pain, no obvious warning sign, nothing that sends you to a doctor. Most people find out by accident, from a blood test or an ultrasound for something completely unrelated. Here’s what’s happening while you feel fine. Fat builds up inside your liver cells. In many people it stays at that stage for life. In others, the fat starts to irritate the liver, causing inflammation. Years of inflammation leave scar tissue behind. And heavy scarring eventually changes how the liver works. The important part is where you catch it. In the early stages, losing even some weight, moving more and cutting back on sugar can shrink the fat and let the liver recover. Once scarring sets in, it’s much harder to undo. You’re more likely to have it if you live with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure or carry extra weight around your middle. If any of those sound familiar, ask your doctor about checking your liver at your next appointment. It’s one of the few serious conditions you can often reverse, as long as you catch it early. 👇

Is memory loss with age normal? Learn the patterns doctors use to tell everyday forgetfulness from warning signs, and what a memory check involves.

Below, we break down the most common health problems doctors see in Canadians. Learn the key symptoms to watch for and the latest stats and guidance for each.

Still exhausted after eight hours in bed? Learn why you are tired after a full night of sleep, the signs most people miss, and when to go and get assessed.

On Nov 1, most of Canada falls back an hour. B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and the NWT won't. This is their first winter on permanent daylight time, and sleep researchers have something to say about it. An analysis in the CMA Journal concludes the health evidence favours permanent standard time. The reason, your body clock is set mainly by morning light. Keeping summer time all year means sunrise comes an hour later. More people waking, commuting and getting kids to school in the dark. Your alarm goes off while your brain still thinks it's the middle of the night. Researchers call that mismatch social jet lag. When it becomes chronic, it's linked to higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and some mood disorders. Teenagers are the group researchers worry about most. One study of students near a time zone line in Florida found an extra hour of morning sunlight before school was tied to better math and reading scores. Full breakdown, including which provinces are changing: medimap.ca/news/permanent-da…

Most people take their blood pressure wrong and never realize. Your coffee, posture, even just talking can throw off the number. Here's what's really going on. 👇

Dial 811, and a registered nurse assesses your symptoms for free, 24/7. No appointment, no waiting room, and in most provinces, no health card. Learn what the call covers 👇

Are microplastics harmful? Here's what the evidence really shows about plastic in the body, plus the easy swaps that cut your exposure.

Your health card in another province covers emergency doctor and hospital care, but has some real gaps. See exactly what travels with you before you pack.

Nearly half of dementia cases trace to 14 dementia risk factors you can change. See what to act on in your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond.

The Ebola outbreak in Congo has passed 8,000 confirmed cases. Close to half of them have died. Here's what's different this time, and what it means for people in Canada. As of Sept 26, the Congo health ministry reported 8,067 confirmed cases and 3,901 deaths across seven of the country's 26 provinces. The reason it's spreading faster than past outbreaks is the strain. This one is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola with no approved vaccine or treatment anywhere in the world. The vaccines and drugs that ended previous outbreaks were built for a different species, Zaire, and they aren't approved for this one. For scale: 19 weeks into the 2014 to 2016 West Africa outbreak, the deadliest on record, there were 3,781 cases. Nineteen weeks into this one, there were 7,840. The system fighting it is under real strain. The WHO says Congo is running out of health workers. 50 have died since the outbreak was declared in May, and some have gone on strike over missing pay. The picture isn't all bad. Cases fell 26% in Ituri province and 15% in Haut-Uele over three weeks in September. But they rose 73% in North Kivu, which is where the staff shortage is worst. What it means for Canada: the direct risk here is low. Ebola doesn't spread through the air like the flu. It spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is sick or has died from it, which is why caregivers and health workers carry most of the risk. If you're travelling to Central Africa: Check the official travel advisory when you book, and again the week before you leave. Book a travel health appointment early. Some vaccines take weeks to work. If you get a fever within three weeks of coming home, call a clinic before you go in, and mention your travel first. Full breakdown: medimap.ca/news/congo-outbre…

From now until about March, the sun in most of Canada is too low for your skin to make vitamin D. Doesn't matter how long you're outside. Here's who actually needs a supplement, how much, and when taking more stops helping.

B.C. has more people attached to a family doctor than ever before. It also has 1.2 million people still waiting for one. Both are true. The province's attachment rate is now 77.8%, up from 74.2% in June 2024. More than 225,000 people were newly attached in 2025 alone, the most since tracking began. So why is the waitlist still so long? Because the population keeps growing and doctors keep retiring. A percentage can go up while the actual number of people without a doctor stays huge. Where you live makes a big difference. On the North Shore, doctors currently have room for about 20,000 new patients. In the North, the Interior and on Vancouver Island, where more doctors are reaching retirement age, it's much harder. Recruiting a new physician into B.C. can take up to a year, so today's wait reflects decisions made last year. This isn't just a B.C. problem either. Nearly six million Canadians had no family doctor as of late 2025. If you're one of them, here's what actually helps: Register on the Health Connect Registry. It's the only list the province uses when a practice has space. It takes ten minutes, and a lot of people waiting still haven't signed up. Keep your contact info up to date so you don't miss the call. Use your pharmacist. In B.C. they can renew many prescriptions and treat a range of minor ailments. Walk-in and virtual care. Infections, renewals, and routine concerns don't need a family doctor. Keep your own records. Test results, prescriptions, dates. Without a regular doctor, nobody else is tracking it for you. And don't let screenings slip. Going years without a doctor means nobody is reminding you what you're due for.

Adults lose 3 to 8 percent of muscle per decade after age 30. Here's how to reverse muscle loss with two sessions a week and enough protein.

The real signs of OCD are usually invisible. Here are the obsessions, rituals and mental habits people miss, and what treatment actually works.

Nobody ever explains who actually decides what in Canadian healthcare.