Well here it is again, my annual predictions for the coming year. I looked back on my past columns containing yearly predictions and I must say that I have more accuracy than most supermarket tabloids. Of course my predictions have nothing to do with which stars are getting divorced or going to rehab but more to do with the state of health and disease in our country.

We probably will not have to worry too much about what the government will be doing for the next little while as far as changing any thing in the health care field since it is most likely the parliament or the legislature will not be sitting for 25% of the year.

Senior care will probably be more in the news this year due to the increasing number of seniors requiring care and the decreasing number of facilities and workers to manage the situation. Dementia and Alzheimer’s will be in the forefront of the news.

With the well publicized Flu outbreak or non-outbreak in the past year that alone was enough to keep most media outlets busy and so this may be the perfect news maker for this year as well. There may very well be another pandemic of some sort that will only amount to a mass vaccination and then fizzle out.

Some researchers in the past have noted that certain cancers and similar diseases that have no known cure but rather just spontaneously heal and then reappear are in fact organisms and will actually be found to be a virus or fungus and huge steps will be made in that field in the next year this however, may have a very silent night.

Locally on the health front we may see a bad batch of some street drug that will end up taking the life of some young people and as we have seen already in recent years that is not that uncommon. Unfortunately due to the party nature of the summer in Kelowna it will start to become a major problem.

I am also going to predict that because of the new cell phone and driving law the hands free devices that are used in the ears of drivers may prove a little more risky than driving with cell phones even though I do not condone that one way or the other. These devices will be used more and there will be a huge upsurge in tumors in the ears and lobes in the brain surrounding that area.

Water and water pollution will continue to be on the health forefront as well, considering we do not hear a lot about some of the major incidences of poisoning. We just may hear about some locally or at least within the province and it may cause many to waken from their slumber of complacency.

In China there will be a catastrophe that will be beyond belief in their water system. The Yellow River and other major rivers will be affected which will cause major health problems.

I could probably go on and on but will say this these are only predictions and are based already on stories that I have read about in the news or have seen.

I want to wish you all a good year and I predict in will be the best for all.