The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 15

The Ottawa Citizen, Tuesday, January 12, 1993 B3 Citylife OPINION- Garlic, onions, old socks Some people will try anything to cure the DAVE BROWN Citizen staff oil cold. BROWN'S BEAT A By Adrienne Tanner The Edmonton Journal EDMONTON Lawyer blows his own horn for charity heir breath may be bad but they're breathing easier than most of us. When Lois-Ann challenging himself, Steve Welchner helps the less fortunate while doing a bit of self improvement. In his latest effort, the 29-year-, old lawyer played Christmas music on his saxophone on the Sparks Street Mall on December weekends. He announced he would do that a year earlier, when he didn't read music or play an instrument.

He enrolled in the Nepean School of Music and his determi- nation impressed other students, who joined during December. Welchner works for Nelligan-Power. Two other lawyers from that firm, Steve Waller and Sean McGee, joined him. Eleven people took part in the chilly quest for -donations that raised $7,500 for the Shepherds of Good Hope. Aside from the money, the good news is that peace has now returned to Manojtick.

Welchner's wife Shelley gave birth to Benjamin 11 months and the baby turned out to be a great sleeper. That meant dad couldn't practise in the house anymore. "I did my practising in the mornings, in a shed in the back yard." The shed not being soundproof, he tried to keep the noise down. "I didn't hear any complaints. The neighbors on one side moved ou.t, but never said if it was because of my practising." The loss of his house as a practice studio wasn't the only probj lem.

"I discovered saxophones everyone would use it." Cold remedies date as far back as the days of the Greek physician Hippocrates, when bloodletting was used to cure nearly everything, Waters said. Of all the cures he has heard of, the two-hat method is his favorite. "It dates back to the 1890s when people had poster beds. What you do is take to bed with you a bottle of your favorite booze. "You put a hat on the post of the bed and you drink until you see two hats." The theory, as written in one outdated pharmacology text, was that deep sleep cures a cold.

In this case, alcohol ensured a solid sleep. There are a number of reasons that colds abound in winter, Waters said. "Everyone is cooped up indoors and that means you're exposed to more people with less ventilation. "If someone's spreading a cold, you're more likely to pick it up." And while it's possible to build up an immunity to a cold virus, Waters warns it's impossible to battle them all. There are at least 200 cold-producing viruses.

"That's why when people move from one community to another, they'll have a whole run of colds. "There are different colds circulating in the new community they haven't been exposed to yet." Bartender Chantelle Belaire has been mixing up hot toddies and heating Grand Marniers in snifters for sniffling customers. "It's supposed to do a lot for you," she said skeptically. "I always take a good dose of horseradish. Alcohol's really no good for you." But it's a lot more palatable than the old sock remedies Bill Carney discovered while chatting with nurses at the Edmonton Board of Health.

The worst cold "cure" Carney discovered was coating a sock in goose grease and wearing it around the neck. Belaire advises drinking a hot toddy instead. "I don't think it really does anything for you. But it makes it a bit more bearable." Lonergan's family and friends began to cough and wheeze as they succumbed to the first nasty cold virus of winter, she fought back with garlic. Every night for a week she ate a piece of toasted french bread, topped with tomato, cheese and two or three thinly sliced cloves of raw garlic.

"I'm a born-again garlic believer," said the junior high school teacher, without a sniffle. "It must have some vitamin or something in it that helps you ward off the evil spells of the cold." After chewing garlic for two months, Lonergan swears by the hohie remedy. But her husband isn't nearly as excited. "He sometimes prefers I sleep in another bed when I do that," she said. "Your breath is very strongly garlic scented.

Overnight, it doesn't go away." John Walker eats raw onion and peanut butter sandwiches in an attempt to fend off winter colds. "I know from experience it's a really effective preventive measure for myself. And I'd sooner have onion breath than a cold." Many people either have or know of a home remedy to fight colds. Garlic, onions, cayenne pepper, vitamin tiger balm all have a following. Alberta's top cold expert discounts them all.

"If you eat enough garlic, you're probably not going to get close enough to anyone to catch a cold," said Dr. John Waters, head of communicable disease' control for the Alberta government. Unfortunately, there isn't anything that treats a cold, he said. "You can make some of the symptoms feel better, but it still takes its own time to recover. "All you've got to do is look at the number of different things.

If there was something that really worked, well, freeze up in cold weather. Onlookers seemed very under- standing of the squeaks." In a previous effort, Welchner, a non-runner, gave himself five months to prepare for the 1990 National Capital thon. He collect I Welchner Raised $7,500 Chris Mikula, Citizen Beating the bug: Folklore and pharmacology are sources for remedies It's crunch time for rising health-care costs By Nicole Baer Citizen science writer library resource, for example, wouldn't help people who never set foot in a library. Jane Fulton, a health-care policy specialist at the University of Ottawa, dismisses the Fortier committee as "not tuned in to the real world." Ideas such as flu shots have been debated for a decade and by themselves won't resolve the health-care crisis, she says. Instead, Canada should look to European countries that have developed standards defining the circumstances under which medical interventions are justified.

"Canada has no such standards and that is why we are the most expensive publicly funded health-care system in the world." Fulton also notes that the federal government has little jurisdiction in health care, especially since it has been turning over its responsibilities to the provinces while cutting the transfer payments they use to fund medical care. "There's no legitimacy in this sort of clearinghouse activity," Fulton says. "It's an embarrassment to see what they're doing." Fortier says that while the national group aims to coordinate various projects across the country, each province is free to get things going on its own. In Ontario, for example, bureaucrats and doctors met last week and discussed posting lists in emergency rooms to tell patients which ailments deserve priority attention. These "treatment protocols" would advise patients in advance about which injuries would get an X-ray and which would not.

ln Ontario, bureaucrats and doctors met last week and discussed posting lists in emergency rooms to tell patients which ailments would get priority attention. ing health care according to everybody's demand. But since governments are paying the shot, they are entitled to encourage people to rethink their demands. "We don't want to tell people not to go to the emergency room. We just have to ask why people go.

And maybe if we find that there are ways that people can get reassurance (from a medical expert) by phone, we have to find out how to set up that service." The goal is less to discourage use than to encourage appropriate use of the system, Fortier says. She notes, for example, that since annual flu shots are of proven benefit to the elderly, a more systematic effort to inoculate everyone in that age group would cost more at first, but pay off in the long run with fewer hospital admissions. Fortier says she recognizes that different educational levels, ethnic backgrounds and even whether people live in urban or rural areas determine how they use healthcare services and how they would best be reached by a public-education campaign. Referring people with a health problem to a particular Whether it's more, flu shots for the elderly or fewer emergency ward visits for the young, governments across Canada are shopping for ways to trim the $62 billion spent each year on health. "What we've been hearing from the public is, 'Quit telling us what we're doing wrong.

Tell us what we should be says Marie Fortier, co-chair of a special committee of federal, provincial and territorial officials. The 13-member committee, which met last month for the first time since it was set up in the summer, is charged with finding out how we spend our health-care dollars and telling us how we could be spending them better. Fortier, director general of health insurance for the federal Health Department, says the group is only now getting organized and hasn't developed a budget yet. And she admits the challenge is enormous. "We've never done this before in this country, so we're learning as we go along," says Fortier, a former administrator at the Outaouais regional hospital.

Each province and territory runs its own health-care system and they all differ. "You can't just send out 10 million brochures or put on one national TV ad" to educate people on cheaper ways to get healthy, she admits. Instead, the group will examine ideas and projects developed in one community to see if they can be applied in others. Invoking the economic theory of supply and demand, Fortier says governments have too long focused on supply- ed pledges and promised through this column that he would finish. He was among the last to cross the line, but kept his promise.

He raised $8,000 and earned a spect for marathoners. It was his first and last, he said at the time. Huffing and puffing through a sax, even in the cold, was easier. Paula's puzzle On Dec. 24 while doing some last minute errands, Brian Saddics made a stop at his office in the planning department at Regional Headquarters.

With him were his daughters Danielle, 9 and Paula, "4. At the time, Regional Chairman Peter Clark was going through the building, shaking hands and wishing all a Merry Christmas. He was wearing a red sweater. Clark has a white beard and the right build. One look, and Paula knew sht was looking at Santa, off duty.

SJ3e was thrilled. Her only concern was that the beard didn't seem long--enough. Clark played along. He told her the beard had been scratching his neck, so he shortened it. Problem now is that for one four-year-old, Christmas just won't go away.

Clark's face is frequently on television and each time Paula sees it, her heart goes all aflutter. Bus boggling After 15 years of driving buses of all kinds, J. Lemieux says he's convinced there's a funny book to be had, with a little co-operation. "I've driven school buses, city-buses, highway coaches and one summer, an English double-decker tour bus. I have come across so many strange and funny situations, it's mind boggling." And during those years he has sat over coffee, listening to similar stories from other drivers.

Now he regrets he didn't write them down. He wants a second chance. He says if other drivers will send him their favorite anecdotes, he'll try to put them into a book. He's at 5 Wolff Unit 3. Ottawa, K1K 1K6.

Mystery tie Dave Maclsaac is haunted by a question. Some time ago a young man walked into his office on Walkley Road and said he had a problem He had a job interview at the building naxt door and was dressed for the challenge. He thought he had a tie in his briefcase, but just discovered it wasnt there. Maclsaac was wearing a tie that would go with the job seeker's outfit and would he by any chance lend it to a total stranger? No problem. The tie was returned a short time later, but the lender didn't get a chance to ask Did he get the job? Cancelling military show could cost $250,000 17 organizations oppose planned 'peacekeeping' trade show at Congress Centre By Dave Rogers Gtizen sta wter If you bite the bullet on this issue instead of shooting bullets, you will sleep a lot better.

Marion Dewar Former mayor stead of shooting bullets, you will sleep a lot better. In the long run you will know you have saved the lives of innocent women and children." Ruth Loomer, a spokeswoman for the Ottawa Presbytery of the United Church of Canada, said the participants in the planned arms fair include weapons dealers from Sweden, Germany and Pakistan. "Canada's legitimate defence needs do not require arms exhibitions," Loomer said. "Past exhibitions such as this have attracted many countries that violate human rights. There is no guarantee that embassy personnel from countries that have horrendous human rights records could be barred from the show." Cassey said the board of directors is to meet privately Wednesday with representatives of Baxter Publishing the organizers of Peacekeeping 93.

The board is to decide Jan. 27 whether it will honor its contract to hold the show. The Ottawa Congress Centre could be forced to pay up to $250,000 if it breaks a contract to hold a military trade show in March, the chairman of its board of directors said Monday. Joe Cassey said the centre's general manager signed a deal in October to hold Peacekeeping '93 without consulting board members. Cassey said the board didn't know about the show until two weeks ago.

A coalition of peace groups and politicians told the board Monday the planned exhibition is a clever cover for ARMX, the arms trade show last held at in Ottawa in 1989. After the show at Lansdowne Park, Ottawa Council banned future arms trade exhibitions on city property. Organizers tried to move the show to Carp, but two shows were eventually postponed. Seventeen speakers including repre- Former Ottawa mayor Marion Dewar, the federal NDP candidate in Ottawa Centre, said Ottawa Council banned arms shows from city property in 1989 because the city's residents oppose them. "By promoting the arms industry, we are promoting the agents of death." Dewar said.

"Conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Horn of Africa wouldn't be possible without arms. "If you bite the bullet on this issue in sentatives from the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, Canadian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Ploughshares Ottawa and several church groups told the Congress Centre board the show has nothing to do with peacekeeping. The speakers said many of the 300 arms dealers invited to the show don't produce peacekeeping equipment and aren't Canadian companies. 4-.