2009 Calendar |
Walter Herzog Canmore Nordic Centre
Dr. Walter Herzog calls the area around the Canmore Nordic Centre his playground in the mountains. "When I came to Canada from Switzerland, I was immediately attracted to this area. Kananaskis is the ideal place for my most favourite of all outdoor activities: cross-country skiing." It's also the one sport that Dr. Herzog says is not hard on his knees. Coincidentally, this assertion relates to his main professional interest, the biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system; specifically, skeletal muscle function. He is one of three leaders of the new 35-member AHFMR interdisciplinary team studying osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common kind of arthritis. It is caused by the breakdown of cartilage, the elastic material that protects joints. The AHFMR team is looking at several different aspects of osteoarthritis: causes, risks, treatment, and prevention. "To me, one of the most exciting aspects of this research is how we might be able to prevent osteoarthritis in future generations," says Dr. Herzog. "With a better understanding of how the condition develops, we could potentially avoid the situation we are in today, where one half of people over 60 years of age have osteoarthritis. AHFMR Scientist Dr. Cy Frank, from the University of Calgary, and AHFMR Health Senior Scholar Dr. Shoo Lee, from the University of Alberta, are the other two co-leaders of the interdisciplinary team. |
