Not so good at this, eh?

I wrote this on Aug. 19, and I’ve been debating if I should post this or not… I would rather discuss health than politics but I think this is probably important. I will be turning off comments on this post, I dealt with political backlash enough during my Undergrad years (aka the Bush years) in Canada. Without further ado… Continue reading »

Gives me hope

A couple days ago my friend Kim introduced me to a website called ‘Gives me hope“. It was a refreshing change to read real peoples’ positive stories.  So, because I’m very, very sleepy (it has been a long week), I’m going to share two articles that GMH.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6721590.ece

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090806/ap_on_re_us/us_clinton_hiv_drugs

There are inarguably many other challenges (social, medical, and logistical to name a few) to controlling the transmission and treatment of HIV/AIDS worldwide but that gives me hope that for an increased number of people it will no longer be a death sentence.

Small changes, big benefits?

I’ve been a little delayed in posting and this will be a short one. I’m back home visiting my parents.

I’m a news junkie so I will leave you with something I read on Yahoo today. This caught my eye because the last time I went grocery shopping back home I walked through the mall and noticed that there is an ongoing campaign to promote breastfeeding. I think this is a great thing! Not only does it help with building an infant’s immune system but there is statistical data suggesting it may play a part in preventing diabetes and obesity later in life and may help with allergies. Its also good for the mother, helps with bonding, has health benefits and on a side note its a semi-effective birth control method and may help with weight loss

But wow… breastfeeding could save 1.3 million lives! What a staggering number for what seems like such a simple action.

Getting to the point

When I first got the idea in my head that I wanted to have a blog, it was because I wanted a forum to babble about issues that interest me. My academic background, as you can see from my profile, is Health. Community Health to be precise. In my undergrad studies I took courses in Health Promotion, History of Medicine/Disease and Development of Healthy Communities. On Monday I turned in the capstone project to the last course of a Certificate in Field Epidemiology (excellent program if you are so inclined: look here). So from now on I am going to try to blog once every day or two about some issue or news article that I am passionate about. Please be forewarned, I have lots of interests, I believe that health is more than simply biological and hereditary and that social, political and environmental issues (a.k.a. social determinants of health) have an important place in the discussion surrounding health (and improving it!).

That all being said… today I read an article about a study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.  This study looked at the results of other studies (side note: this type of study is called a meta analysis) over the past 50 years which examined the difference in nutritional content between organic and commercially produced foods. Well, the results suggest there is no significant difference! Does this mean that we are wasting money buying organic? Well, perhaps not. This study does not address the issue of pesticides, whose effects on human health in the long term are not fully understood.

If you are concerned about pesticides, and want to get the most “bang for your buck” with organic fruits and veggies, the Environmental Working Group has a list of the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15″. Have a look.

Oh and… don’t use tanning beds.

Vacay in Montreal!

So… almost 6 years ago I moved from the US to Canada to go to school. Because I have lived here for so long I hold great affection for Canada, ironically I don’t often spend Canada Day in the country. Canada Day falls on the 1st and Independence day is the 4th, so I often have a long weekend to go home and visit my friends and parents. This year my best friend and I went to Montreal We had quite the sightseeing and gastronomic experience

For a quick summary… we flew in on June 30 and got in just in time to drop off our bags (we stayed on Amherst Street, fairly close to UQAM) and to see Stevie Wonder perform at Jazz Fest. The rest of the week we saw all of the sights; Mont Royal and the neighborhood around it, Little Italy and Jean Talon Market, Old Montreal, Jean Drapeau Park, the Olympic Village, fireworks at Le Ronde and shopping on St. Catherine street. And the food… oh… the food… bagels, poutine, beavertails (its a dessert not part of an animal), creton, pizza, montreal smoked meat sandwiches… Yum! It was probably good that we were walking around so much!

I’m still working on editing/sorting my pictures, so they will come in a future post.

Adventures in Driving

Well, I’m back in St. C after going back to my hometown. My Mom’s birthday is coming up so I went home to visit. I had a lovely time there and also saw some very good friends (and a friend’s absolutely adorable 9 month old baby girl).

On the way back, to keep myself entertained, I started cataloging the things I had seen while driving.

A few of the more memorable things are:

• approximately 60 miles of construction
• 1 angry turkey in a field
• white tailed deer in a pen
• roadkill
• license plates from: Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Georgia, New York and a terrible BMW driver from New Jersey
• an empty GM plant
• speeders pulled over by police (in one case, 3 within approximately 100m)
• fields, trees, lakes and rivers
• rain
• 2 sunsets
• a couple vineyards

And as an aside, on this trip I also experienced the irony of John Mellencamp’s “Authority Song” playing while going through customs.

Lia’s Socks

Before going to Florida (Video from that trip here: Clearwater Marine Aquarium) I knitted a pair of socks for my Tante Freerkje and started on a second pair for my cousin, Lia.

Here is my finished product and the pattern (after the cut):

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Niagara Folk Arts Festival

This post is coming a bit after the fact but last weekend B and I went to two Open Houses of the Niagara Folk Arts Festival. We had the most excellent Ukrainian food at St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

B and I had perogies, kolbassa, cabbage rolls and (in his case) sauerkraut.

Then we moved on to the Club the Netherlands open house. My mom was born in Friesland, so I knew I couldn’t miss this one I was also able to fulfill a lifelong dream I never knew that I had… I got to stand in a giant wooden shoe!

When we got there a polka band (called Tomato Soup) was playing.

And how could we leave without having croquetten and olie bollen? Yum

This is for you Mom:

Clearwater Marine Aquarium

I just got back from a short vacation to Florida last Sunday. B and I had the pleasure of going to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. To anyone in or visiting the Clearwater area… I highly recommend the Eco Combo package! It was a great way to spend the day, both informative and fun!

The dolphin in the video below, Winter, lost her entire tail as well as two vertebrae a result of the serious injuries that she had sustained trapped in a crab trap at 3 months of age. She made a full recovery and is learning how to wear a prosthetic tail. She is also very chatty and in many of my videos you can hear her chirping in the background. For more information about Winter please visit her website.

More videos after the cut.

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Hello world!

Welcome to my blog. Please bear with me over the next little bit while I get used to updating this regularly.

Thanks for visiting!