Staying #Up2Date 🚨

1: Click, Stretch, Relief — Online Tai Chi Improves Knee Pain and Function
An RCT of adults with osteoarthritis tested whether an online tai chi program could help ease knee pain and improve function. Compared with participants doing standard OA exercises, those following the virtual tai chi program reported significantly less pain and better function after 12 weeks. The takeaway: a free, effective, and easy-to-prescribe exercise option for patients with osteoarthritis.

2: Loss of Smell Linked to Heart Disease Risk in Older Adults
In a cohort study of 5,000 older adults, a 12-item smell test helped flag future coronary heart disease (CHD) risk. Compared with participants with good olfaction, those with poorer smell scored higher risk ratios for CHD over the next 4 years (RR 2.06, 95% CI 1.04–4.53 at year 2; RR 2.02, 95% CI 1.27–3.29 at year 4). The link faded with longer follow-up (RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.78–1.44 at year 8), but it’s another reason to take smell loss seriously in older patients.

3: Noninvasive Nerve Stimulation Eases Tremor in Daily Life
A randomized controlled trial of 125 adults with essential tremor found that transcutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation (TPNS) improved upper-limb tremor and daily task performance after 90 days. The results support TPNS as a promising noninvasive treatment option for essential tremor.

Final Call 🔥 $250 Luuna Scrubs Gift Card

🎉 Grand Prize Week: Last Call to Page a Friend!

Congrats to Dr. Jonah Latsky, a family physician in Calgary, winner of last week’s $100 Herschel Gift Card! 👏

It’s the final week of our Page-A-Friend Giveaway, and we’re ending on a high note:

🏆 Grand Prize:
💳 $250 GC from our friends at Luuna Scrubs, an awesome fashion forward brand founded by Canadian nurses.
⭐️ Plus — the opportunity to be featured as our first-ever Postcall Clinician of the Month in our November issue!

Here’s how to play:

• You’re already entered just by being a subscriber.

• Want better odds? Page a friend (or three)! Refer verified clinician colleagues and get 5 extra entries per referral.

• Share our Instagram giveaway post and tag @readpostcall.ca for 2 extra entries.

• Share Postcall with your clinician colleagues using your personal referral link below for bonus entries toward this week’s prize draw:

• Unique referral code https://postcall.ca/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

Hard Impact 🧠 

A new study tackles the genetic link between sport-related brain injuries and Alzheimer’s

What happened: Researchers compared the brains of football players and people with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) to those of Alzheimer’s patients and found striking similarities.

Why it matters: CTE, which typically develops after repeated blows to the head, causes symptoms like memory loss, poor impulse control, anxiety, and depression. Most often linked to contact sports like football and hockey, the progressive neurological disease has also been found in injured soldiers and domestic abuse victims.

Almost a hundred years after it was first spotted in boxers and nicknamed “punch-drunk syndrome,” researchers are still trying to understand why CTE takes hold in some brains but not others, and how it connects to conditions like Alzheimer’s. The new findings add another piece to a puzzle that remains far from solved.

But: Scientists hope this research changes that. Since there’s no blood test or scan that can yet detect CTE, surgeons must examine thin, post-mortem brain slices for high levels of tau — a protein that helps stabilize brain cells but can also damage them when clumped together. Elevated tau levels are also seen in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Using cutting-edge sequencing tools, researchers analyzed the prefrontal cortex and found that people with CTE showed genomic damage similar to those who had Alzheimer’s — so severe it could be compared to hundreds of years of aging.

Those who had repeated brain trauma but no CTE diagnosis didn’t show the same kind of damage. One co-author said he hopes the breakthrough will eventually lead to new treatments, and maybe some that could help both CTE and Alzheimer's patients.

It’ll take time, so for now, experts are urging parents to think twice before suiting up their kids for football. A 2020 study found that the risk of CTE doubles for every 2.6 years spent playing the sport. By the time a football player goes pro, they might already be at the point of no return. The NFL has made some rule and equipment changes — like fouling players for using their helmets as battering rams — bringing head injuries down to their lowest level since 2015. 

Bottom line: The more scientists learn about CTE, the clearer it becomes that prevention is the best cure. Unlocking its genetic ties to Alzheimer’s could one day lead to therapies, but for now, limiting repeated head impacts remains the best defence.

Hot Off The Press

1: 🏛️ The newly-unveiled 2025 federal budget brings big investment, big deficits, and a pivot away from US dependence. It includes a $51 billion infrastructure fund for housing, transit, and health care, alongside major investments in clean energy and green manufacturing. Deficits will remain high — projected between $70 billion and $100 billion — as Ottawa prioritizes innovation and economic independence over fiscal restraint.

2: 💸 Also in the budget, Ottawa is taking aim at bank fees. Framed as “lowering costs and protecting consumers,” the Liberals plan to review what banks charge for e-transfers and ATM use, with an update coming next year. The move is part of a bigger affordability push that also highlights middle-class tax cuts, scrapping the consumer carbon tax, and automatically sending federal benefits to eligible Canadians.

3: ❤️‍🩹 A new report has mapped out how Indigenous survivors of coerced or forced sterilization can pursue future pregnancies, from IVF and surrogacy to tubal reversal. It also underscores the steep costs, limited access, and a lack of culturally safe care that still stand in the way, even as a Healing Support Fund now offers up to $30K for IVF and $10K for therapy. Advocates say equitable fertility care is part of reconciliation — not to mention long overdue.

4: 👾 Because we heard you’re not sick of weekly AI stories: it’s been a big week for OpenAI, squashing rumours it stopped giving health advice, promising safer crisis responses, and sealing a $38 billion deal with Amazon. But new reporting shows suicidal prompts can still slip through, even as more Canadians turn to AI for mental-health support. With 1 in 10 already using it (and national safety guidance not due until 2026/2027), experts warn that chatbots may learn fast, but they’re no match for human-centred lifelines like 9-8-8.

5: 💎 Remember last month’s Louvre heist? Not exactly Ocean’s Eleven. French authorities have charged 4 people — 3 men and 1 woman — over last month’s €88 million jewel theft that stunned the world. Turns out, they weren’t international masterminds. Prosecutors say they’re locals with “no significant association with organized crime.” Allegedly, they used a stolen truck and furniture lift to pull off the 7-minute raid, then sped away on scooters. The suspects are in custody. So far, the jewels are not.

Notable Numbers 🔢

6-7: Dictionary.com’s word of the year. Teens are loving it, teachers are losing it. The viral slang, born from TikTok chaos and NBA memes, can mean “so-so,” “maybe,” or, sometimes… nothing at all. Peak internet absurdity, now officially in the dictionary.

60%: the drop in long-term heart failure risk for people who got stem-cell therapy within a week of their first heart attack. Years later, their hearts were stronger — early infusions seem to help the heart heal itself. A rare win for regenerative medicine that might actually stick.

9: the number of early-warning signs that can predict lingering symptoms after a mild head injury. Factors like being female, a history of migraines, and anxiety could help doctors spot who needs closer follow-up after a concussion.

4.45%: the new average prime rate for Canadian borrowers, following the latest central‑bank rate cut.

Postcall Picks ✅

📺 Watch: a practical, in-depth video from Diabetes Canada for clinicians on addressing stigma around diabetes — especially now that it’s Diabetes Awareness Month.

🍲 Make: sausage & mushroom tortellini soup; hearty, cheesy, and a perfect way to warm a cold November day.

👂 Listen: to this emergency physician’s deep dive into vaccines and misinformation. Dr. Drew Remignanti explains what life looked like before immunization and why evidence-based guidance saves lives.

📘Read: WIRED’s guide to locking down your iPhone and actually using Apple’s built-in security features (many of which, apparently, are turned off by default).

😂Laugh: (if you can) when every “order” comes with a side of billing codes:

Relax

First clue: Smear that doesn't belong on a bagel, for short

Need a rematch? We’ve got you covered. Check out our Crossword Archive to find every puzzle we’ve ever made, all in one place.

Think you crushed it? Challenge your physician friends to beat your time.

Meme of the Week

Don't worry, francophone Postcallers, no translation needed:

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