Getting your SEX drive into gear

There’s not much David Garcia won’t do for sex with his wife, Ramona. He’ll talk dirty. He’ll flirt like he’s trying to pick her up. He’ll even agree to appear on YouTube sporting nothing more than a skinny black boy thong, a furry hunting hat and one hell of an embarrassed grin. One of three Canadian couples taking part in an online ‘intimacy’ experiment dreamt up by Johnson and Johnson brand KY, David, 33, and Ramona, 30, were chosen out of 150 couples from across the country who auditioned for the reality series, which tracks their sexual successes and failures on regular segments of the KY Intimacy Experiment. The thong? Part of the first episode that saw the Garcias skimpy shopping for each other. “Initially I said ‘no way, I’m not that type of animal’,” the Toronto small business owner says of the camera crew’s insistence he strut his stuff. “In the end, I didn’t do a full moon. But to be honest, the experience worked. We got out of our rut.” At sexual rut at 33? Join the crowd. Ever since humans first banged rocks together, the story’s been the same: No matter how committed and attracted you may be, things like kids, work, stress and responsibility literally seize the engine of your sex drive.

Posted in Health on 02/18/2010 - 0 Comments

Playing with the (adult) toy box

Shelley Taylor lifts a bean-shaped object off the shelf and holds it neatly in her palm. It’s shiny, black and has pretty floral decals across the top. Cute, I think. “This is one of our most popular items,” she says, handing over the smooth little ‘Nea’ in the back of Venus Envy, her adult toy store in downtown Ottawa. “It doesn’t even look like a sex toy.” She’s right. It really just looks like a shiny black bean—something Jack might have planted in the hopes of a beanstalk. On a shelf beside it, the ‘Mia’ vaguely resembles a slim case for reading glasses. “It’s rechargeable on the USB port for your computer,” points out Taylor. “Very popular with business women.” Turns out, sex toys are no longer the intimidating, rubbery and veiny things they used to be. In fact, some are so inoffensively and--it must be said--obscurely shaped that you really do have to read the instruction manual before using. Take the Laya Spot, for example. The description says ‘multi-speed clitoral stimulator’, but it looks like it would do a great job on my sore hip flexor and IT band. Same deal with the fashionable Gigi, a g-spot vibe that could double as a sort of battery-operated pestle. Then there’s Ottawa’s own award-winning couples toy, the We-Vibe and new We-Vibe II—complete with seven vibration settings, including the cha-cha—which was developed by Bruce and Melody Murison and will be featured at the Superbowl’s VIP gifting room on February 4 and 5. Superbowl? That’s not the only mainstream appearance the new generation of personal pleasure tools is making. A few shelves over at Venus Envy sits the glossy ‘Rabbit’—the clitoral and g-spot vibe made famous by a lonely and libidinous Charlotte York in Sex and the City.

Posted in Health on 02/18/2010 - 0 Comments

Canada's Trainer to the Stars

When Toronto's fitness and diet guru Harley Pasternak informed clients in 2004 he'd be out of town on business, he thought he'd back within five weeks.

Out of town? Try Hollywood. He was called there at the behest of actress Halle Berry, who had heard of the magic he'd done helping actors slim down for film roles, including Jim Caviezel (Passion of Chris) and Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil). Pasternak's job was to help Berry squeeze her frame into the skin tight Cat Woman suit. It was just going to take five weeks, he figured. Really.

Before long, however, word leaked out about the brainy-and-brawny Canadian trainer who rapidly transformed Berry into a superhero-worthy body by using short workouts that suited filming schedules and five meals a day that could be fixed quickly and were small enough to fit into a mini-bar fridge. The Hollywood machine kicked into gear. He appeared on Oprah. Orlando Bloom called. So did Jessica Simpson. Brendan Fraser wanted in, as did Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Robert Pattinson, Hilary Duff, and Miley Cyrus.

Six years later, Pasternak, 35, does get back to his house in Toronto, but only to visit friends and family.

"Next thing I knew, I had the largest celebrity client list in the history of the business. I mean, there's no agent with a roster of celebrity clients like I have," he says proudly.

"It's the strangest thing, because it wasn't contrived," he marvels, then paraphrases his favourite passage from

Posted in Health on 02/01/2010 - 0 Comments

Liz' Promise

When Liz Manley-Theobold’s mother died from ovarian cancer last July, the Olympic silver medalist made a vow to take better care of herself. On Thursday, the perennially bubbly 44-year-old is going to do just that. A little more than a year after her mother passed away, she is getting her first ovarian ultrasound, to check for the disease. “I’m a little scared, but I need to know,” says Manley-Theobold, who is nevertheless upbeat and says she’d like to have a child this year with husband Brent. “I have no other symptoms, but because Mum had ovarian cancer, I am at risk. I’m the perfect demographic for it. Like a lot of women, I’m scared to know, but if there’s a possibility I could detect it, I’d want to.” It’s a message Manley-Theobold is taking to the streets as well, as Ovarian Cancer Canada’s spokesperson for the seventh annual Winners Walk of Hope, which will take place in 14 cities across the country on September 13 as part of Ovarian Cancer Month. “This is our single largest fundraising even for us,” says Karen CinqMars, Ovarian Canada Canada’s national director of marketing and communications. “This fundraising drive is critical for us.” But for Manley-Theobold’s, who will appear at Winners Merivale this Thursday and in Orleans on Saturday, August 22, it’s much more personal than that.

Posted in Wellness on 08/21/2009 - 0 Comments

Sun smart sunscreens

For Dr Beatrice Wang, summer is one hell of a frustrating season.

Every day, the Montreal dermatologist watches sun worshippers shed clothes like a chrysalis in spring and slowly bake themselves to a crisp nut brown.

And every day, at McGill University’s Melanoma Clinic where she is director, she sees patients looking for help with skin cancer, sun damage, premature wrinkles and uneven pigmentation.

“You just can’t beat it into the public mind that a tan is a sign of sun damage,” she says with a sigh. “Or that it’s a sign your DNA has been affected, and that your skin is reacting to protect you by getting thicker and browner. We think of it as healthy looking, but ironically, a tan means wrinkling, brown spots, leathery skin and dilated blood vessels. The net outcome is you look a lot older than you really are.”

But fear not--the sunscreen industry has just the thing for you. Once a thick, gloppy mess that attracted sand, lint and bugs to your skin, sunscreens have evolved into multitasking super-cosmeceuticals that do more than just protect you from harmful UVA and UVB rays.

Posted in Aging on 08/21/2009 - 0 Comments

Screen quest

For Dr. Beatrice Wang, summer is a frustrating season. Every day, the Montreal dermatologist watches sun worshippers shed clothes like a chrysalis in spring and slowly bake themselves to a crisp nut brown.

And every day, at McGill University's Melanoma Clinic where she is director, she sees patients looking for help with skin cancer, sun damage, premature wrinkles and uneven pigmentation.

"You just can't beat it into the public mind that a tan is a sign of sun damage," Wang sighs. "Or that it's a sign your DNA has been affected, and that your skin is reacting to protect you by getting thicker and browner. We think of it as healthy-looking, but, ironically, a tan means wrinkling, brown spots, leathery skin and dilated blood vessels. The net outcome is you look a lot older than you really are."

But fear not: The sunscreen industry has just the thing for you. Once a thick, gloppy mess that attracted sand, lint and bugs to your skin, sunscreens have evolved into multitasking super-cosmetics that do more than just protect you from harmful UVA and UVB sunrays.

Got fine lines? There's a sunscreen for that. Need a little moisturizer? There's something for that, too. Don't like the texture of sunscreen? Working on it.

There are sunscreens with anti-aging formulas, sunscreens with antioxidants, sunscreens with moisturizers -- and moisturizers with sunscreen. There are high-end cosmetics like Lancôme's Bienfail Multi-Vital SPF 30 foundation ($58) and Lise Watier Sun Smart SPF 30 ($38), and lower-end lotions, like Boots' No. 7 Soft and Sheer tinted moisturizer with SPF 15 ($17). There are sunscreens with self-tanners (Neutrogena's "colour boosting" SPF 30, $16.99), powdered sunscreens (Pür Minerals' SPF 15 Pressed Powder 4-in-1, $30) and even an SPF 60 lotion from Aveeno ($15.99) with "rejuvenating shiitake mushroom extract."

Before long, predicts Wang, multi-functional sunscreens will not just prevent but also undo sun damage by reducing skin inflammation and repairing DNA affected by solar radiation.

Posted in Beauty on 06/30/2009 - 0 Comments

Do you need your A, B, Cs? The Great Vitamin Debate

Joe Schwarcz is known for his blunt, take-no-prisoners style when he gets fired up, and today is no different. For the past 25 minutes, the erudite director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society and outspoken star of the Dr. Joe Show on Toronto's CFRB radio has been on a roll, taking shots at pseudo-science, the gullible public, "vitamin advertisers who shove things down our throat" and the biggest kahuna of them all, the $23.7-billion dietary supplements industry. So it's just a matter of time before he mentions Nick Nolte. "Look at him!" Schwarcz directs, and sure enough, an image of the aging actor's ravaged face comes to mind. These days, Nolte eschews hard living for a thousands-of-dollars-a-week vitamin habit in an effort to turn back the clock. "See how sick he looks?" Schwarcz says, his voice rising in exasperation. "He takes 60 supplements a day!" It's an extreme example -- few of us live Nolte's life, much less endure his medical bills -- but it does beg the question: If 60 pills a day doesn't make a visible difference to someone's visage, what chance does a single multivitamin have?

Posted in Health on 03/31/2009 - 0 Comments

Keeping them young at heart

For her 20th birthday last year, Larissa Taylor knew exactly what she wanted. You could say she had her heart set on it.

After four months of lying in a hospital bed at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute after a virus caused congestive heart failure, the Ottawa woman had convinced herself that by her next birthday, she would have a new heart.

Sometimes dreams do come true. On the eve of her birthday - ``just after the Simpsons started on TV,'' she recalls - doctors announced they'd found a donor. Just after midnight, she was rolled into surgery.

``I kept insisting that I would get a heart before I was 20. It depressed me to know that this was my new reality - that I couldn't go to school, go to parties and spend time with my family. When the surgeon said he had a heart for me, I looked at everyone who'd doubted me and thought, 'Told you so!' ''

Posted in Health on 02/17/2009 - 0 Comments

No Doctor In The House

In the end, it was neither Government programs, an online search nor dumb luck that landed Carisa Morison one of the hottest commodities in Ottawa: a family doctor. Rather, having exhausted those options, the 29-year-old did it old school and networked with a half a dozen friends. Eventually, one of them called in a favour with a GP friend, who agreed to take on the pregnant Morison and her young family as patients. “I felt like I’d won the lottery,” says Morison, who recently moved to Barrhaven from Hamilton. “Unfortunately, she’s 25 minutes away and that’s not convenient, especially at rush hour. But I don’t mind, because I have a doctor I really like. I just don’t understand why I had to work so hard to find one.” She’s not alone. According to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), one in five Ontarians—including those with chronic and acute conditions--are without a family physician. In the meantime, doctors face a crunch themselves.

Posted in Health on 02/10/2009 - 0 Comments

Heeding Deadly Whispers (Ovarian Cancer)

For three years, Carol Sprott's cancer hid itself behind the kinds of symptoms ladies don't mention in polite company. Plagued since 2001 by a virtual Pepto-Bismol commercial of problems such as gas, indigestion, constipation and bloating, the Ottawa woman did what thousands of Canadian women do every day: she ignored them. It was a decision that has nearly proven fatal.

Posted in Cancer on 02/06/2009 - 0 Comments