Riley Oldford was once the only kid in Yellowknife, NWT, who played hockey sitting down. But after encouraging friends to give the growing sport a try, he has inspired the formation of Yellowknife's first sledge hockey team.
Plus: Weight-watching for your dog; the year's top scientific retractions; and lauding a life-saving Canadian invention.
The health unit at CBC News picks its top health stories for 2017: the opioid crisis, legalization of marijuana, a ban on artificial trans fats, a year of assisted dying and CRISPR.
In what her mother calls a "Christmas miracle," a Nova Scotia woman who suffered a catastrophic brain injury in a 1996 car accident communicated one-on-one with her mother for the first time in 21 years.
An Inuk activist from Labrador is back in hospital with pancreatitis after doctors told her she would not need a liver transplant amid questions about her eligibility under an Ontario transplant program's alcohol-use policy.
Health Canada says it has requested testing data from Claire's Stores Inc. following reports that asbestos has been found in certain cosmetic products sold by the international retailer of youth-oriented jewelry and accessories.
Julie Payette has issued a decidedly informal request to Canadians in her first New Year's message as governor general — "stay active."
Federal health officials have expanded a list of recalled sandwiches produced in Edmonton, due to Listeria contamination.
The Yukon government has stopped putting cancer-warning labels on alcohol products, after protest from national liquor brand owners.
A plan by a private Winnipeg clinic to offer for-profit echocardiograms could be in jeopardy, with Health Canada saying it plans to "raise the issue" with the province.
With 10 per cent of residents in Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, infected with active or latent tuberculosis, the government of Nunavut is looking for new ways to combat the disease
The World Health Organization is set to add gaming disorder to its International Classification of Diseases in 2018.
An experimental blood test accurately identifies people who do, or don't have celiac disease, even if they are following gluten-free diets, researchers say.
People struggling with social anxiety can use tools ranging from taking small steps out of their comfort zone at a party to joining an improv class.
Two Hawaii men who grew up as best friends recently learned that they're actually brothers. They revealed the surprise to family and friends over the holidays.
Girls who go through puberty early could be more likely to experience depression and behaviour problems that last into their 20s compared to peers who start menstruation later, a U.S. study suggests.
The holidays can be a time of joy and celebration, but they can also be the opposite for those living with depression and anxiety.
It's not completely commonplace yet, but there is a growing push from some establishments to offer more interesting and complex alcohol-free drink options.
Autism Nova Scotia has set up a group of Dungeons and Dragons games to help people with autism practise their social skills.
RCMP Cpl. Shane Burridge says he can't wait to finally get his kidney transplant, so that he can get back to work.
Environment Canada issued a slew of extreme cold warnings across the country today. Atlantic Canada is being spared from the plummeting temperatures, but much of Newfoundland and Labrador is subject to blizzard warnings.
Albertans are seriously injured by slipping and falling on ice at three times the rate of people in Ontario, according to years' worth of hospitalization data from across the country.
If there's a DNA test kit on your gift wish list, what will you really be getting? And holidays can be hard on your dog's health.
Are poinsettias really poisonous? Are snowflakes really pure as the driven snow? Does feasting really put on the pounds? Sure as sugarplums, myths and misconceptions pop up every holiday season. Here's what science says about some of them:
A CBC News analysis of every toy recall in Canada over the past decade has identified the most-common safety hazards as small parts that break off or are easily swallowed and contaminants such as lead, phthalates or bacteria. The good news, however, is that inspections have improved in recent years, and problem toys are now recalled faster.
Apotex says company founder Barry Sherman, who was found dead with his wife last week in their Toronto home, hadn't been involved in day-to-day operations since he stepped down as CEO five years ago.
With demand for organs outstripping supply, and potentially long wait times for transplants, doctors want more Canadians to consider becoming living organ donors.
Although high heels have drawn concern in recent years about gender discrimination and health risks for women, the footwear style actually originated with men.
The federal government says there are now as many as 40 cases of E. coli infections linked to contaminated romaine lettuce — one of them fatal.
The six-month sobriety rule is just one of many conditions that patients needing liver transplants must meet to be considered for a transplant, according to guidelines set by Trillium Gift of Life Network, the agency that co-ordinates organ donations in Ontario.
Deaths from opioid overdoses continue to skyrocket in both Canada and the U.S. and new information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the drug crisis has reduced American life expectancy for two years in a row.
The drugs confiscated from Before & After Beauty Lab in Richmond “may pose serious risks to health,” according to Health Canada.
From her hospital bed in Toronto transplant unit, Indigenous rights advocate Delilah Saunders says she's both 'grateful and outraged' by her experiences since being denied a liver transplant for having a history of alcohol use.
In an age when humans in industrialized countries have good access to birth control and are seldom eaten by predators, is natural selection still directing our evolution? Probably more than you might think, a new study suggests.
Patients often have no idea how expensive their prescriptions are going to be when they walk up to the pharmacy counter, partly because their doctors may not know either, according to a commentary published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Health Canada has long been vigilant about pesticide levels in the foods Canadians consume. But more manufacturers, many offshore, have been treating non-food products — toys, sofas, clothing, paint — with antimicrobial pesticides to ward off fungus. An internal memo says the agency needs to do more to screen out such products.
Fentanyl, a drug so toxic that there is often "no second chance," is fuelling overdose deaths in a "national public health crisis," Canada's top doctor says.
More older Canadians, including senior citizens, are using marijuana as fewer youth are consuming cannabis, according to a new research study released by Statistics Canada today.
It is unreasonable to expect viewers to know that the empirical data that guides the documentary is flawed. After all, they come to the documentary to learn about a reality with which they are not necessarily well acquainted.
Supporting transgender people, including their right to dignity, support and medical intervention, isn't at odds with taking a scientifically guided approach to determining the best outcomes for children. That's the view the documentary puts forward, and it's one that should be heard.
Firefighter Mark Stephenson says he can't drive through Fort McMurray without being brought back to May 2016.
Health leaders say they are alarmed about a report that officials at the nation's top public health agency are being told not to use certain words or phrases in official budget documents, including 'fetus,' 'transgender' and 'science-based.'
Also in this edition: How media literacy can help combat conspiracy theories; lifestyle vs. drugs in Type 2 diabetes prevention; and plants can actually be sedated.
The federal government has released proposed new rules for tracking those who request medical assistance in dying and those approved to receive it, in an effort to foster public trust in the new regime.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has confirmed that one person has died from E. coli infection but says privacy laws prevent it from saying where.
The agreement, which still has to be approved by a U.S. district court in Montana, would see Canada Drugs and two subsidiaries plead guilty, pay a $5 million US fine and forfeit $29 million US.
Two people have been found dead in the Toronto home of Barry Sherman, founder of Canadian pharmaceutical giant Apotex.
Supporters of a Labrador Inuk woman denied access to a liver transplant waitlist because of alcohol abuse rallied at Confederation Building in St. John's Friday.
A federal judge in Philadelphia has ordered the Trump administration not to enforce new rules that could significantly reduce women's access to free birth control.
A volatile scientific debate is quietly simmering, with echos of the controversy over genetically modified organisms. The Gates Foundation and the U.S. military are among the groups funding gene drives, a powerful new genetic technology.
Two Saskatchewan organizations say they are left in the dark about why their federal funding was cut for AIDS and HIV outreach work.
