The Earl Bales Community Centre is in the process of a 4.5-million-dollar expansion. The City of Toronto is redeveloping the property in order to upgrade how the building functions and benefits the community. Construction began this past June, and is expected to wrap-up by summer 2018.Earl Bales is the fourth largest park in Toronto, known for being a fully accessible alternative to other parks in the core of the city. Supporting over 50 local groups and clubs of all age groups, Earl Bales Community Centre is a hub for leisure, education and growth.The new gymnasium has been the subject of immense anticipation. With a full basketball court, two half-courts, and three badminton courts, the 50x80-foot space will provide sufficient recreational opportunities for countless residents. In addition to the exercise zones, the expansion will include two universal washrooms, a family change room and a lounge area.The design of the gymnasium allows natural light to illuminate the room by incorporating enormous windows, featuring views of the park and playground. Visitors to the new site will enjoy an upbeat and comfortable atmosphere. Councillor James Pasternak has expressed his excitement, saying that this project is a major part of “ongoing attempts to make Earl Bales one of the premier parks in the city.”In addition to the gymnasium, the building will receive upgrades to the kitchen, barrier-free doors, and a movable partition in the multi-purpose room to accommodate simultaneous events. The flooring will be upgraded, providing a seamless transition from the main hall to the multi-purpose room. Environmentally friendly features like a sustainable “cool roof” as well as energy efficient lighting will be added to the building as a part of the City’s ongoing green adjustment initiatives.The 127 acre park has always been known for its picnic pads, trails, and ski centre. This new expansion offers numerous upgrades that will make the park an outdoor hotspot for years to come within and beyond Ward 10.

Happy Fathers’ Day, Dr Jeffrey Bland, PhD! Jeffrey Bland, now in his 70’s, is not yet retired—working on it. Not really my father, not old enough for that, but I and many colleagues (medical doctors and naturopathic doctors and others) honor him as the Father of Functional Medicine. We all should.Have you noticed the last few years, frequent ads in the TTC and the papers for preventing type II Diabetes by diet? It works. If anyone you know uses that program, they are benefitting from his work, his first crusade, many decades ago. It takes a long time for big establishments to get on board. People used to think diabetes was all hereditary. Early in his career as a chemist and nutritional researcher, the Chinese government invited Jeffery Bland to speak. They praised his research but said they could not apply it because China didn’t have a diabetes problem. Well, that changed. The Chinese diet became more similar to the North American diet, and so did their diabetes numbers. They invited him back. As his reputation and authority became established, he was invited as an expert witness by the US Senate during a brief time when they studied alternative medicine.Further developments now include new ways to prevent or manage chronic diseases—circulatory problems (blood pressure), many auto-immune conditions (like arthritis), digestive issues (Crohn’s, colitis, and others). You can’t exchange your genes by diet; however, in some cases, diet can turn one gene’s activity on and off or supply a nutritional bypass. (Technically, that’s epigenetics.)Change is slow. The companies Dr. Bland has worked with have never had budgets like big corporations that push blood pressure pills—budgets for advertizing, lobbying, legal proceedings and sponsored clinical trials. If ads in alternative medicine are a bit over-enthusiastic, they get jumped on fast. Also, sad to say, many health practitioners think their education is finished when they earn their degree. How many of us fully understand that real science means real controversy?Functional medicine assumes that symptoms are signals, often signals of silent inflammation. They should call attention to functional systems that need support: the digestive system, the immune systems, the nervous system, the hormones, and so on. Soothing the symptom may be like turning off the fire alarm before you put out the flame. Or in FM terms, before you reduce causes of in-FLAM-ma-tion, a core objective of FM therapy.