Hunger Awareness Week

This week is Hunger Awareness Week in Canada, and so I am providing a bit of background of it and asking again for people to support their local food banks.

In March 2016, 863,492 people received food from a food bank in Canada. This is 1.3% higher than the same period in 2015, and 28% higher than in 2008.  Of the more than 800,000 people 36%are children and youth, this was 28% higher than 2008. 8 of 10 provinces saw an increase

Too many Canadians do not have enough income to pay for rent, bills, clothing for growing children, transportation, medication – and food. Food is unfortunately one of the most flexible household expenses, and it is often nutrition that suffers when money is tight

Food banks come to the aid of a diverse range of people who do not have enough income to cover food. More than one-third of individuals helped are children and youth, and more than 40% of households receiving food are families with children. Single people living alone – who face a very high risk of living in poverty – have grown as a proportion of households helped.

A large number of households accessing food banks are on some form of government assistance, including pension, disability-related income supports, and welfare – a stark indication of the very low level of support provided by these programs. On the other side of the coin, nearly one in six households helped are working, yet still need a food bank to make ends meet

The Hunger Count study has been performed annually since 1999, when 718,292 people were helped by a still-growing network in March of that year. Exactly ten years later, near the peak of the 2008-2009 recession, 794,738 Canadians were assisted by a more mature, organized, and diverse network. Now, seven years since the end of the economic downturn, food bank use continues its elevated post recession plateau. Today, 188,000 more people need help each month than in 2008.

Hunger Awareness Week is a growing movement to raise awareness about the solvable problem of hunger in Canada. Food banks across the country host events during Hunger Awareness Week to tell the story of the work they do and the stories of the hungry Canadians who use food banks.

Since the first annual Hunger Count report, other national food bank networks have sprung up to join those in North America. These networks exist in Australia, New Zealand, 24 countries in Europe, and across South America. Each of them exists for one overarching reason: to help our most vulnerable citizens make it through the hard times caused by a lack of well-paying jobs and inadequate government supports.

Who uses a food bank?

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians who live in cities, towns and villages, in the country and in your neighbourhood use food banks because they do not have enough money to feed themselves or their families. Children. Seniors. People with disabilities. People who have jobs and still can’t make ends meet. As you can see from the chart below the biggest percentage of Canadians who use the food bank are parents with children.

AGE In years	0 - 2	3 - 5	6 - 11	12 - 17	18 - 30	31 - 44
% of Canadian Population	3.2%	3.2%	6.4%	6.5%	17.7%	18.8%
% of people helped by food Banks	5.8%	6.9%	12.4%	10.4%	17.0%	19.4%

In Canada, the percentage of those between the ages of 45-65 and 65+ are less than those helped by the food bank. The 45-64 year are 28% of the Canadian population while only 22.7 percent are helped by foodbanks. Those who are 65+ are 16.1 percent of the population yet only 5.3% are helped by food banks

Hunger in Canada exists because deep and persistent poverty continues in the country. For more than a decade, diverse and inter-related factors have sustained this situation: a labour market that fails to provide enough jobs with stable, livable wages; a rise in precarious and non-standard employment; a fraying income security system that does not provide sufficient financial support for those in need; a lack of affordable, social housing; and accessible and affordable child care. People living in poverty cannot afford sufficient, nutritious food. Many turn to food banks to help them meet this most basic need.

Hunger in Canada can be alleviated. Everyone can play a part in reducing hunger. You can volunteer at the local food bank, donate food and funds, approach local representatives, join local Hunger Awareness Week activities and events, spread the word at various milieus (work place, faith groups, schools, etc

Hilda's Yard

Metro Theater is one of the many amateur theater companies in the Lower Mainland of BC and it is, in my opinion, a hidden gem. This is the 55th season of Metro Theater and they have an outstanding lineup of plays for this year.

The first play of the season is one that my wife and I went to on Saturday night. The play was called Hilda's Yard. Set in 1956, it follows the Fluck family through one extraordinary day during which their son loses his job and moves back home, their daughter leaves her husband and moves back home and Sam Fluck, thinking that he and his wife Hilda are empty nesters now and can start to live their OWN lives, buys their first television set.

The generation gap between the parents and the children is large and what may seem like far out ideas to the parents are reasonable to the new generation. The contrast between generations and the difficulties in seeing a situation in someone else’s shoes, especially when your values are set in stone is a major theme in the play.

Hilda’s Yard is chock-full of Foster’s well-known humour, even as it delves into the depths of the serious issues of Gary’s post-traumatic stress disorder and Janey’s spousal abuse. The contradictions inherent in the quirky characters lead to many fine comedic moments.

In the end, despite the challenges of the day, ties of love, family, and friendship prevail and we come to understand a uniquely Canadian look at family dynamics, which really don't really change much over the years.

The play was fun to watch, the actor who plays Hilda fills the stage with her presence and I had no problem believing that she ruled the household. She could be very intimidating to her family and to her guests, one invited to dinner by her son and one not invited by her son. The uninvited guest is a small-time bookie who is trying to collect a debt from Hilda's son.

The actor who plays the father did a good job of convincing us that he was a nice guy, who was celebrating his new found "freedom" from his kids. However, in a scene with his daughter he showed the dark side of male attitudes in the 50's. He did in the final scene redeem himself and again showed that he was really a nice man.

I enjoyed the production and if you are in the Vancouver Area I really recommend that you go see it. Metro prices are very low and I understand that this play was on Groupon so the ticket price is even lower. However, be warned the number of tickets left on Groupon is limited. Without a discount, a ticket will only set you back $25.00 or if you are a senior tickets are only $22.00. One of the best deals in town.

Why are scientists redefining Alzheimer's disease?

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, thought to be caused by buildup of proteins in the brain. But there is increasing evidence that different biological processes are at the heart of the disease, providing scientists with a different approach to possible therapies.

In a plenary session delivered at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2017, held in London, United Kingdom, Julie Williams, Ph.D. - a professor in the Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University in the U.K. - challenged the traditional views of Alzheimer's disease by saying that "immunity is playing a significant role" in the disease.

Alzheimer's disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, affecting more than 5 million adults in the country.

The traditional view is that proteins accumulate in the brains of patients, leading to neuronal death. The culprits are the amyloid beta peptide and the tau protein.

How are scientists challenging the traditional view that abnormal protein buildup in the brain is to blame for the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer's disease?

Joint efforts to identify new genetic variants

Until 2009, only four genes were known to be associated with Alzheimer's disease. Mutations in three of these - APP, presenilin 1, and presenilin 2 - cause the inherited form of Alzheimer's. This typically develops early in life, between the ages of 30 and 50. It is also known as early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Less than 1 percent of Alzheimer's disease patients have this inherited form of the condition, in which an overproduction or abnormal folding of amyloid beta in the brain can be observed.

The majority of patients have the sporadic form of Alzheimer's. Despite the fact that mutations in the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) were known to be involved in susceptibility and earlier age of onset, only a subset of patients have the variant associated with the disease.

Predicting an individual's risk of developing the disease with accuracy is, therefore, a challenge. For many years, there was a serious lack of progress in research looking to establish the underlying causes of susceptibility.

Today, we know that sporadic Alzheimer's disease has a large genetic component, with its heritability being in the range of 58 to 79 percent. This means that other genetic variants must be involved.

Identifying individuals at risk

In a study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging in 2017, Prof. William's team used their knowledge of susceptibility genes to test how accurately they could predict an individual's risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Using data from 17,000 Alzheimer's patients and 37,000 controls, and looking at 87,583 mutations, they were able to identify the condition with an accuracy of 74.5 percent.

Prof. Williams explained that they were "now able to predict quite a lot of the risk of AD [Alzheimer's disease] and it's better than looking at APOE."

So might the amyloid buildup seen in Alzheimer's patients be less of a problem with excess production and more to do with other processes?

Prof. Williams challenged the audience to imagine a scenario wherein there was no historic knowledge of the genes implicated in amyloid processing being involved in Alzheimer's disease. "Alzheimer's disease is more of an autoinflammatory disease, than anything else," Prof. Williams said.

"What we are seeing with immunity is happening quite early in the disease and maybe a primary event that is happening alongside amyloid [accumulation]," she added. "What we need to do is to understand mechanisms."

The team's latest discovery was published this week in Nature Genetics, and it supports this theory.

This study, performed by the IGAP group, identified two new genetic variants that confer Alzheimer's disease risk. The genes - phospholipase C gamma and B-3-domain-containing transcription factor ABI3 - are highly expressed in microglial cells in the brain, which are part of the immune system.

Prof. Williams told the audience that scientists around the world are now studying genetic models to better understand how the immune system is involved in the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer's.

What is really important is how researchers are putting this new knowledge and redefinition of the condition to use.

The above are excerpts taken from a story published in MNT Weekly story By Yella Hewings-Martin, PhD, Published Thursday 20 July 2017. It is an important and for the full story please go here

Walking your dog is good for you

A new study has shown that walking a dog on a regular basis, boosts levels of physical activity in older people, especially during the winter.

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study used data from the EPIC Norfolk cohort study, which is tracking the health and well-being of thousands of residents of the English county of Norfolk.

The researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at the University of Cambridge found that owning or walking a dog was one of the most effective ways to beat the usual decline in later-life activity, even combatting the effects of bad weather.

Dog owners were sedentary for 30 minutes less per day, on average. More than 3000 older-adults participating in the study were asked if they owned a dog and if they walked one. They also wore an accelerometer, a small electronic device that constantly measured their physical activity level over a seven-day period.

As bad weather and short days are known to be one of the biggest barriers to staying active outdoors, the researchers linked this data to the weather conditions experienced and sunrise and sunset times on each day of the study.

Lead author of the paper, Dr Yu-Tzu Wu, said "We know that physical activity levels decline as we age, but we're less sure about the most effective things we can do to help people maintain their activity as they get older.

"We found that dog walkers were much more physically active and spent less time sitting overall. We expected this, but when we looked at how the amount of physical activity participants undertook each day varied by weather conditions, we were really surprised at the size of the differences between those who walked dogs and the rest of the study participants."

The team found that on shorter days and those that were colder and wetter, all participants tended to be less physically active and spent more time sitting. Yet dog walkers were much less impacted by these poor conditions.

Project lead Prof Andy Jones said: "We were amazed to find that dog walkers were on average more physically active and spent less time sitting on the coldest, wettest, and darkest days than non-dog owners were on long, sunny, and warm summer days. The size of the difference we observed between these groups was much larger than we typically find for interventions such as group physical activity sessions that are often used to help people remain active."

The researchers caution against recommending everyone owns a dog, as not everyone is able to look after a pet, but they suggest these findings point to new directions for programmes to support activity.

Prof Jones said: "Physical activity interventions typically try and support people to be active by focussing on the benefits to themselves, but dog walking is also driven by the needs of the animal. Being driven by something other than our own needs might be a really potent motivator and we need to find ways of tapping into it when designing exercise interventions in the future."

Article: Dog ownership supports the maintenance of physical activity during poor weather in older English adults: cross-sectional results from the EPIC Norfolk cohort, Yu-Tzu Wu, Robert Luben, Andy Jones, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, doi: 10.1136/jech-2017-208987, published online 24 July 2017.