Sickboy

Puppy fever continues, but this time it's for Narwhal — the golden retriever who has a deformity that makes him cuter than imaginable. The gang discusses a shocking link between the devastating disease, ALS and those who work in the military. Speaking of devastating, this one goes out to all you coffee drinkers out there. Your morning brown might be leading you down a road to dementia. Finally, in...

Dr. Elena Semino is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University in England. She also is the principal investigator on the ‘Metaphor, Cancer and End of Life Project’ aka the Cancer Metaphor Menu. You see, how we talk about illness matters. Especially when it comes to using metaphors. Not only do they help contextualize the experience of illness, it also...

Stefan is a NYC based artist who saw his entire future crash before his very eyes. It all started with tendonitis in his forearm but little did he know that pain was just the beginning. Central Sensitization Syndrome is a condition of the nervous system that is associated with the development and maintenance of chronic pain. What began with pain in the arm led Stefan down a long and arduous road t...

It's puppy mania over at Sickboy HQ. Speaking of puppies, have you ever watched a dog turn food into sh*t via X-Ray? Well today is your lucky day. Other than dogs running wild and causing a ruckus, the gang dive into a few injustices in the world of health and disability. Paralympic athlete Becca Meyers gets shafted by the Olympics by some illogical COVID-19 protection protocols. Plus a woman with...

Pain researchers have a joke that when someone is asked to rate their pain from 1 to 10, the most common response is 11. Dr. Jeffrey Mogil, a neuroscientist and pain researcher interested in how genetics, social factors and sex differences affect pain, believes this joke to be based in truth. Dr. Mogil heads the Pain Genetics Lab at McGill University & is the founder and Director of NAPS, the Nort...

Reconnecting with your body after cancer is a long process. To get herself through it, April Stearns founded a magazine just for breast cancer patients and survivors like herself. Today, she joined the fellas to share different writing exercises to help feel at home in a new body after cancer.

Donut's fresh out of the oven. Jer introduces the world to his new best bud and he's too cute to handle. Cute Aggression activate. Then, you get burgers delivered to your door. And furniture. Why not your fertility meds? Finally we get very bizarre in this week's What The Hellth?! Ever heard of Vorarephilia? Well... you're about to.

Male rat brains are "normal" and the "text book standard". Female rat brains are "moody", “unpredictable", "hormonal" and can't be trusted when it comes to procuring reliable data in the study of health science. Now... does this sound like some patriarchal bullsh*t? Yeah, we thought so too. This week the guys are joined by Dr. Rebecca Shansky who has poured a lot of work into trying to change the...

Becky had what is known in the biz as a "Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour". In short she had cancer in her guts. Have you ever been in a seated twist and thought "damn.. I feel like there is something growing inside me." Well Becky did, and that thing was no baby. It was indeed a tumor and it had to go! Join the fellas as they speak with Becky about her uncertainty of the future, her daily regimen...

WE VAXXED! And Boy oh boy did the vaccine hit us hard. Especially Taylor... Turns out he isn't so untouchable after all. We mixed the dose and have a whole mRNA cocktail going on inside us. This week on the pod, the gang covers an interesting survey on the most commonly used words in poor hospital reviews. Finally for What The Hellth we dive into a devastating illness called FAP that young Lexi is...

Here in Canada, we’re winning the global race to vaccinate our population against COVID-19. But should we even be thinking about it as a race at all? Today on Sickboy Podcast, Dr. Ananya Banerjee makes the case that the pandemic won’t be over in Canada until it’s over in every country.

Dementia. Weight loss. Muscle atrophy. Dozens of people between 18 and 80 years old living in northeastern New Brunswick have an unexplained brain disease with those symptoms. Roger Ellis, a 63 year old Bathurst man is one of them. Today on Sickboy Podcast, Roger's son Steve joins the hosts to talk about their fight for some answers not only from doctors, but also from the government of New Brunsw...

It's been 69 weeks since we started the Feel Good Friday tradition! Nice. This week we dive into the mega exciting news that Trikafta has officially been approved in Canada. Now it's time for next steps! The gang also talk about the radical innovations behind DIY prosthetics including some heart-warming cuteness. Teens drink, have sex, get poor grades — all of these things they keep from their par...

Jodie Martinson is the producer of the CBC podcast Other People's Problems. This week we talk about the theraputic value in being a fly on the wall. Real people. Real problems. Real talk. Normally, therapy sessions are totally confidential — but this podcast opens the doors. Hillary McBride and her clients want to help demystify mental health. This is what people really sound like when they talk a...

Sapo and Lorena are the loving parents of little Nauê. Nauê was born with Ichthyosis follicularis, alopecia, and photophobia AKA IFAP syndrome. An extremely rare condition with a shortened life expectancy. Caring for a chronically ill child can be draining. But Sapo and Lorena have found a way of coping with the stress and connecting to their roots. Capoeira, a playful mix of martial arts and danc...

Blow up dolls deserve a real funeral. Don't dump your unused pleasure bots into the ocean ya ding dong! Recently, Phillips issued a mass recall of its sleep apnea machines because of concerns that the foam inside the devices may be carcinogenic. But is there more behind that story? We are joined by none other than the apnea pro himself Donovan The CPAP Morgan to get to the bottom of this scandal i...

While we all experience loss, going through grief can feel very lonely. Dr. Lucy Kalanithi felt that way after her husband died, leaving her with their young daughter. Instead of turning away from the pain, Dr. Kalanithi faced her grief head-on. She published his memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, which taught her that looking at hardship differently can help us find resilience. On today's episode o...

David Oliver Wudel is a extremely talented Canadian based queer artist who happens to have Cerebral Palsy. This week he gives the fellas a glimpse into the day in the life of someone who has CP. Chronic pain is the name of the game, but it wasn't always like this. We dive into the progression of David's disease and how it has slowly morphed over the years. How has it shifted David's perception on...

Did you hear about these magnetic vaccine crystals? Keep your keys and anything else that is metal far away from your face. Bobbypins included. This week the gang covers the Manitoba lottery for vaccine enthusiasts, the oldest person to beat COVID-19 (spoiler alert, she's way old), the misogyny that plagues the neuroscience research field and, finally, one of the most shocking segments of What The...

Menopause is often shrouded in shame, fear and a general lack of understanding; Dr. Jen Gunter is here to set the record straight. Dr. Gunter is a Canadian ob-gyn and fierce women's health advocate, best known for her TED Talks and for writing The Vagina Bible. This week she joins the fellas for a discussion on de-stigmatizing menopause, the gaps in knowledge on men's and women's health in the med...

This week we chat with Jakki about her years-long struggle with her health. The symptoms are weird as hell and they have piled on over quite a long time. We're talking about difficulty walking, swallowing, talking. Not to mention the hallucinations and other psychological symptoms. So what does she have? Hard to say, really. Some docs told her she has cat scratch fever. Some have said it's Lyme di...

This week we find out that blasting T Swift before cutting someone open is the sweetest thing one can do for a person. This is the health care that we need, folks. Then, dogs. Are they really man's best friend? A new study shows that they could actually hate us and be spreading a new novel coronavirus. But... they're just too damn cute for us to care. Jabs for Joints!! Some places in the U.S. are...

Turns out love is more than just a bunch of birds and bees getting it on. There is an entire science behind what happens in the human brain when we fall head over heels. Love chemicals flood the brain when we form attachment and fall in lurrrv. Not unlike how MDMA (also known as ecstasy) floods the brain with feel-good neurotransmitters. Now combine MDMA alongside couples therapy and you've got a...

Hannah has never been able to burp. No big whoop you say? Well did you know that most people produce about 1 to 3 pints of gas a day and pass it through a burp or a fart about 14 to 23 times a day. Now think about that... What if you all of a sudden didn't have the ability to release that gas through a belch? If it still isn't sinking in, let Hannah express to you how awful it can be. Bloating so...

Metal. A NS prisoner in his 70s has been declined parole to seek alternative treatment to his cancer treatment. The gang chime in with their thoughts on this very grey area and Brian proves that he doesn't have a heart. It's been a front this entire time. Lucy the accessibility evangelist made some big moves in the world of accessible washing machines. Then we cover one of the wildest What The Hel...