Muscles do more than most would imagine.
Jogging, climbing stairs and even sitting requires muscles to work, but most of the time, unless they hurt from over exertion, people don’t give them much thought. Muscles, however, can play a vital role in the health of other bodily systems, and York’s Muscle Health Awareness Day has several 
speakers ready to shed light on some of these complex processes.
David Hood
Muscle Health Awareness Day, by the Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC) in York’s Faculty of Health, will take place May 17 from 9am to 4pm, Life Sciences Building Lobby and Room 103, Keele 
campus. Admission is: faculty members $20, students $15, MHRC faculty members $15 and MHRC students $10, which includes a light breakfast, buffet lunch and coffee breaks.
Jeffrey Horowitz
Kinesiology Professor Jeffrey Horowitz of the University of Michigan will talk about the effects of exercise and diet on muscle lipid metabolism and insulin resistance. In other words, Horowitz will discuss how defects in fat metabolism can lead to Type 2 diabetes and how exercise can help alleviate this metabolic problem.
Also on the topic of the metabolism of fat, Professor of human health and nutritional sciences Lawrence Spriet of the University of Guelph will talk about how this is important for muscle and 
whole-body metabolic health. In particular, he will look at how this takes place in the mitochondria of muscle cells.
Lawrence Spriet
“Muscle Health Awareness Day is important because it brings the ‘muscle research’ community together from Southern Ontario, Michigan and New York State to discuss, network and interact,” says York Professor and Canada Research Chair in Cell Physiology David Hood, director of the Muscle Health Research Centre. “Topics include exercise, muscle adaptation, disease, development and therapy.”
Professor of cellular and molecular medicine Bernard Jasmin of the University of Ottawa will explore designing novel therapeutics for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, from basic science discoveries to 
pre-clinical and clinical studies.
Jayne Kalmar
Wilfrid Laurier University kinesiology Professor Jayne Kalmar will share her work on how nerves control muscular movement in humans and its relevance for health and disease, while kinesiology Professor Tschakovsky of Queen’s University will look at blood flow and oxygen delivery to skeletal muscles during exercise and individual differences.
How are new blood vessels formed when blood flow is restricted? That’s 
what Professor Geoff Pickering of the Robarts Research Institute at Western University will discuss in his talk, “Stabilizing Angiogenesis in Ischemic Muscle”.
Geoff Pickering
For more information and a complete lineup of speakers, visit the Muscle Health Research Centre website.