Nov 05/10 - Pt 3: Soviet Afghan War Veteran

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Soviet Afghan War Veteran

The end of Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan is creeping ever closer. Canadians of all stripes continue to debate the wisdom of the mission and the sacrifices being made by Canadian soldiers.

Nikolai Lanine has an interesting perspective on that debate. He's a Canadian ... a public health nurse who lives in Victoria. But he was born and raised in the former USSR. And in 1987, he was drafted into the Soviet Army and sent to Afghanistan. He spent 16 months fighting there.

CBC Radio Producer, Steve Wadhams spent some time with Nikolai Lanine. He joined Piya in our Toronto studio to tell us more.

You can hear more about Nikolai Lanin this afternoon on Living Out Loud. That's at 1 o'clock on CBC Radio One -- 1:30 in Newfoundland and parts of Labrador.

Last Word - Anti-Aging

We wanted to end the program this week with something we're working on for Monday's program. Eight years ago, the U.S. National Institutes of Health stopped a major study on hormone replacement therapy after determining that the long-term use of estrogen and progestin significantly increased the risk of breast cancer, heart disease and blood clots.

But today, there is a growing industry selling hormones as a secret weapon against aging. Some women are using bio-identical hormones as a way to mitigate the side-effects of menopause. And some men are using human growth hormone as a way of maintaining a leaner physique later in life. But at this point, we don't know much about the consequences.

We'll examine this new anti-aging fixation on Monday. So we closed the program this morning with a woman who has taken these efforts about as far as anyone. Suzanne Somers is an actor, writer and activist. She explained her daily anti-aging regimen to Oprah Winfrey. And she got the last word this morning.