1000 Hours Outside in Wasaga Beach Ontario Canada

1000 hours outside

Did you know the average child in America spends roughly 1,200 hours/year in front of some sort of screen/media device? There's gobs of research showing how free play and time spent outside has an extremely positive impact on children; their emotions, education and physical well-being. Conversely, more and more research is coming to light regarding the negative affects of too much screen time for our kids. Our goal is to encourage and empower families to attempt to at 'least' come close to matching that with time spent outside in a nature. Read along for inspiration and practical tips on how you can help combat this ever-increasing risk to the next generation.

This is our guy MAX.

He has definitely spent thousands of hours 

outside on the shores of Georgian Bay.

Patti xo

COPYRIGHT 2007-2022 Patti Friday b.1959. All photographs, works of art and words are original content, unless specified otherwise. All rights reserved. Patti Friday: Reporting from inside 'The Art Dept.' at the international 'Embassy of Ideas' I am an Artist who carries a paintbrush, camera and notebook. Instagram: @pattifriday

World Diabetes Day November 14th

World Diabetes Day 2017

The theme of World Diabetes Day 2017 is Women and diabetes - our right to a healthy future.

The campaign will promote the importance of affordable and equitable access for all women at risk for or living with diabetes to the essential diabetes medicines and technologies, self-management education and information they require to achieve optimal diabetes outcomes and strengthen their capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes.

IDF will release campaign materials from May through to September to help the diabetes and wider WDD stakeholder community to prepare for World Diabetes Day on 14 November.

Key messages

All women with diabetes require affordable and equitable access to care and education to better manage their diabetes and improve their health outcomes.

Supporting facts

• There are currently over 199 million women living with diabetes. This total is projected to increase to 313 million by 2040.
• Two out of every five women with diabetes are of reproductive age, accounting for over 60 million women worldwide.
• Diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death in women globally, causing 2.1 million deaths per year.
• Women with type 2 diabetes are almost 10 times more likely to have coronary heart disease than women without the condition.
• Women with type 1 diabetes have an increased risk of early miscarriage or having a baby with malformations.

What needs to be done

• Health systems must pay adequate attention to the specific needs and priorities of women. 
• All women with diabetes should have access to the essential diabetes medicines and technologies, self-management education and information they need to achieve optimal diabetes outcomes. 
• All women with diabetes should have access to pre-conception planning services to reduce risk during pregnancy. 
• All women and girls should have access to physical activity to improve their health outcomes. 

Pregnant women require improved access to screening, care and education to achieve positive health outcomes for mother and child.

Supporting facts

• 1 in 7 births is affected by gestational diabetes.
• IDF estimates that 20.9 million or 16.2% of live births to women in 2015 had some form of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy. Approximately half of women with a history of GDM go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five to ten years after delivery.
• Half of all cases of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy occur in women under the age of 30.
• The vast majority of cases of hyperglycaemia in pregnancy were in low- and middle-income countries, where access to maternal care is often limited.

What needs to be done

• Type 2 diabetes prevention strategies must focus on maternal health and nutrition and other health behaviours before and during pregnancy, as well as infant and early childhood nutrition.
• Antenatal care visits during pregnancy must be optimised for health promotion in young women and early detection of diabetes and GDM.
• Screening for diabetes and GDM should be integrated into other maternal health interventions and services at primary healthcare level to ensure early detection, better care for women and reduced maternal mortality.
• Healthcare workers should be trained in the identification, treatment, management and follow up of diabetes during pregnancy.

Women and girls are key agents in the adoption of healthy lifestyles to improve the health and wellbeing of future generations.

Supporting facts

• Up to 70% of cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented through the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.
• 70% of premature deaths among adults are largely due to behavior initiated during adolescence.
• Women, as mothers, have a huge influence over the long-term health status of their children.
• Research has shown that when mothers are granted greater control over resources, they allocate more to food, children’s health and nutrition, and education.
• Women are the gatekeepers of household nutrition and lifestyle habits and therefore have the potential to drive prevention from the household and beyond.

What needs to be done

• Women and girls should be empowered with easy and equitable access to knowledge and resources to strengthen their capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes in their families and better safeguard their own health.
• Promoting opportunities for physical exercise in adolescent girls, particularly in developing countries, must be a priority for diabetes prevention.

Patti Friday: Canadian Photographer | Reporting from inside 'The Art Dept.' at the international 'Embassy of Ideas'

Diabetes Canada Disability Tax Credit

Diabetes Canada and several leading health organizations unite to demand fair and equitable access to disability tax credit for people with diabetes

CRA practices deny people with diabetes much needed tax relief and over-burden health care providers 

Diabetes Canada is concerned with recent changes in practice at the Canada Revenue Agency that has seen rates of allowances for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) for people with diabetes plummet where more than 80 per cent of the applications being received are now being denied, whereas a year ago 80 per cent were being approved.

The DTC is a non-refundable tax credit used to reduce income tax and a person with a severe and prolonged impairment in physical or mental functions may claim the disability amount once eligible. One of the eligibility criteria is that a person must dedicate 14 hours per week for life-sustaining therapy. People with type 1 diabetes spend more than that managing their diabetes and many people who have applied for the DTC have had their claims denied.

“The complexity, effort and time required to self-manage diabetes is significant, involving as many as 600 steps every day, with the insulin injection process alone involving 40 steps,” says Russell Williams, vice-president of Government Relations and Public Policy at Diabetes Canada. Despite physicians having duly certified, in accordance with the Income Tax Act, that their patients require more than 14 hours a week for their insulin therapy, applicants are now being denied on the basis that “the type of therapy indicated does not meet the 14 hour per week criteria.” These denials are in contradiction of the certifications provided by licensed medical practitioners and do not appear to be based on evidence.

Diabetes Canada invited other key health organizations to issue an open letter to Minister Lebouthillier to address this issue.  JDRF, the Canadian Society for Endocrinology and Metabolism, the Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses’ Association and BC Diabetes are supporting Diabetes Canada’s request to Canada Revenue Agency to accept the certifications of medical professionals regarding their patient’s individual circumstances and commit to working with these organizations to ensure access to the DTC for Canadians living with diabetes who rightfully qualify.

“We’ve been hearing from many people across Canada and this is troubling as the costs of managing this challenging and expensive disease are significant and increasing,” says Williams. “Diabetes Canada is investigating this issue and encouraging CRA to engage in open and transparent stakeholder consultations and communications on the matter.”

If you are impacted by this issue, please consider sending a letter to your MP to request support. Find your MP here. 

Diabetes Canada has also developed a template for concerned individuals to personalize and share with their MP. Click here to download.

About Diabetes Canada

Diabetes Canada is the registered national charitable organization that is making the invisible epidemic of diabetes visible and urgent. Diabetes Canada partners with Canadians to End Diabetes through:

• Educational programs and support services;
• Resources for health-care professionals on best practices to care for people with diabetes;
• Advocacy to governments, schools and workplaces; and
• Funding world-leading Canadian research to improve treatments and find a cure.

For more information, visit diabetes.ca or call 1-800-BANTING (226-8464).

For more information or to book an interview:

Sherry Calder

Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications

Diabetes Canada

T: 902-453-3529

C: 902-210-1799

sherry.calder@diabetes.ca

Patti Friday: Canadian Photographer | Reporting from inside 'The Art Dept.' at the international 'Embassy of Ideas'

Peddy Friday

A 'pedestrian lifestyle' is romantic. Wouldn't you agree?  Here is Copenhagen's 10 points for making their world more 'pedestrian'.

COPENHAGEN'S 10-STEP PROGRAM

1. Convert streets into pedestrian thoroughfares.

The city turned its traditional main street, Strøget, into a pedestrian thoroughfare in 1962. In succeeding decades they gradually added more pedestrian-only streets, linking them to pedestrian-priority streets, where walkers and cyclists have right-of-way but cars are allowed at low speeds. (See this River Walk in Texas or this incredible place in Toronto - The Distillery District.)

2. Reduce traffic and parking gradually.

To keep traffic volume stable, the city reduced the number of cars in the city center by eliminating parking spaces at a rate of 2-3 percent per year. Between 1986 and 1996 the city eliminated about 600 spaces.

3. Turn parking lots into public squares.

The act of creating pedestrian streets freed up parking lots, enabling the city to transform them into public squares. (Sparks Street Mall Ottawa, Canada)

4. Keep scale dense and low.

Low-slung, densely spaced buildings allow breezes to pass over them, making the city center milder and less windy than the rest of Copenhagen.

5. Honor the human scale.

The city's modest scale and street grid make walking a pleasant experience; its historic buildings, with their stoops, awnings, and doorways, provide people with impromptu places to stand and sit.

6. Populate the core.

More than 6,800 residents now live in the city center. They've eliminated their dependence on cars, and at night their lighted windows give visiting pedestrians a feeling of safety.

7. Encourage student living.

Students who commute to school on bicycles don't add to traffic congestion; on the contrary, their active presence, day and night, animates the city.

8. Adapt the cityscape to changing seasons.

Outdoor cafés, public squares, and street performers attract thousands in the summer; skating rinks, heated benches, and gaslit heaters on street corners make winters in the city center enjoyable.

9. Promote cycling as a major mode of transportation.

The city established new bike lanes and extended existing ones. They placed bike crossings--using space freed up by the elimination of parking--near intersections. Currently 34 percent of Copenhageners who work in the city bicycle to their jobs.

10. Make bicycles available.

People can borrow city bikes for about $2.50; when finished, they simply leave them at any one of the 110 bike stands located around the city center and their money is refunded.

"Peddy Friday" is a new series of posts about a 'Pedestrian Lifestyle' by Patti Friday.

I Love and Support Paula Deen

Foodie Snobs! Arrogant uneducated naysayers! Lobsters!  Y'all need to leave Paula Deen alone!  Don't blame her for the Diabetes epidemic!


My life is filled with loved ones with Diabetes! I have lived it. (although I personally do not have it) I am utterly shocked that people are turning on her. (just because she got an endorsement deal from a pharma giant...who flipping cares? - good for her...let her do her magic and she will do really great things for people with Diabetes everywhere!) Free enterprise allows those who want to make these deals...do them. Get over it people! I support and love Paula Deen.

Photo: Chia Chong


Destiny handed her Diabetes for a reason...to make a difference...perhaps. That would be the silver lining right?


Paula Deen news.
Paula images


Paula's Pinterest!


If you agree with me please share this post link or image! 


(Her son has a new show re-creating lighter Mama meals. Check it out here.)

United Nations World Diabetes Day

Every 10 seconds a person dies of diabetes related causes. Within the same 10 seconds, 2 new people develop the disease. Each year this adds up to more than 3 million deaths and 7 million new cases around the world. Diabetes is a global epidemic with devastating human, social and economic impact. Let this day, November 14th be a day that the whole world stands together to increase awareness and a passionate determination to work together to stop this silent killer.

Photo is of my Daughter who has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since she was a toddler. (She is 23 now.)