91��ɫ’s Department of Dance is spearheading an innovative health initiative that sends students into the community to lead weekly dance activity classes for older adults at partner institutions in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

The program, supported by the Government of Ontario’s Healthy Communities Fund, focuses on the positive and preventative effects that dance can have for seniors. Drawing on the specialized training the student instructors bring to the project, injury prevention and health promotion are at the core of the program. It features carefully designed movement exercises that build strength, encourage flexibility and full range of motion, proper alignment and coordination, and cardiovascular conditioning.

“The benefits of dance and music for physical and mental health cannot be overestimated,” says Department of Dance���ʰ��Ǵڱ�����ǰ� Mary Jane Warner (right), the project manager. “Blending fitness and recreation through dance with the opportunity for creative expression is powerful motivation. Fitness strategies like this can help seniors stay active, in their homes and out of hospital beds.”

According to the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care, the number of seniors in Ontario is expected to double in the next 16 years. In 2009, 18 local hospitals reported that community services such as recreational and exercise classes, along with facilities for the elderly, are hugely insufficient to meet their referral and discharge needs.

91��ɫ’s Dance Department launched the project last fall with one-hour weekly dance classes held in the community. Over the course of eight to 10 weeks, more than 190 seniors at 10 facilities across the GTA took part. Three additional locations and five more classes were added last month to accommodate the growing demand from enthusiastic participants.

Current community partners include North 91��ɫ’s Bernard Betel Centre, Black Creek Community Health Centre, Downsview Services to Seniors, Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women at two locations in North 91��ɫ and one in Woodbridge, North 91��ɫ Seniors Centre, Toronto Heliconian Club, St. Clair West Service for Seniors, three Unison Health and Community Services in North 91��ɫ, and Vaughan Community Health Centre. Feedback from the seniors and student-teachers – as well as the institutions hosting the sessions – is overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s incredibly satisfying when you hear how much these classes mean to the participants. You really feel like you’re making a difference in people’s lives,” says project coordinator and research associate April Nakaima. “One woman, a diabetic, was congratulated by her doctor for the drop in her blood sugar; she credited the class for this good outcome. Several other women credited the class with helping them lose inches from their waistlines. Another participant says she found the dance class more beneficial in combating her depression than other programs. Getting responses like this after just eight weeks has been both astounding and deeply gratifying.”

Nakaima, a former research coordinator at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, serves as adviser and guest lecturer to the program. She brings extensive expertise and experience to the project, having previously developed a highly successful dance program for older adults living in government-assisted housing.

The participants are incredibly diverse, and so the project delivery must be too, Nakaima says. “One of the most fascinating aspects is accommodating such a wide range of fitness, mobility, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Some classes are done with people mostly seated. A couple of groups need translators. We even take music requests from the participants.”

Rhea Bowman, one of 16 student teachers, leads seniors in a dance class

Sixteen student teachers from 91��ɫ’s Dance Department are taking part in the program, earning course credit for their third-year pedagogy class. With a range of teaching experience under their belts and a targeted orientation program, they bring a solid foundation to their training to lead the dance activity classes. The pedagogy classes prepare them to teach in dance studio settings, recreation and community centres, and the public school system. The course covers teaching participants of all ages and abilities, with a strong emphasis on creative movement as a form appropriate for everyone, including the elderly. There are also courses in kinesiology, conditioning, somatics and injury prevention that prepare the students to work safely with participants.

Some students are planning to teach dance in community settings or within the school system. Others bring a particular interest in dance therapy or rehabilitation, looking to serve clients with special needs, such as the elderly or people recovering from illness or injury.

‘The experience has been amazing,” says fourth-year dance major Rhea Bowman, who is teaching her second group of predominately Spanish-speaking participants at the Black Creek Community Health Centre. “We dance to Spanish, soca and calypso music, and some of the ladies have taught me more intricate Spanish dance steps. They are teaching me Spanish words too!

“I feel very passionate about fitness for older adults after seeing how beneficial this dance class is for them,” says Bowman. “I would love to continue to do this work after the year is done.”

Bowman’s classmate, Candace Calarco, who is teaching at the Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women located near 91��ɫ’s Keele campus, is equally enthusiastic. “So far, this placement has been a totally positive and exciting experience,” she says. “Working with seniors has really expanded my knowledge about movement and the human body, and how to teach a group with a wide range of physical abilities.”

The student teachers come together each week to share their experiences and strategies on solving the challenges they encounter in the course of their teaching. Input is also invited from the participating seniors and community partners. This ongoing feedback loop strengthens the experience for everyone involved.

“The student teachers from 91��ɫ’s Dance Department are professional, knowledgeable instructors who address the physical exercise needs of our clients while taking their medical conditions into consideration,” says Rukhsana Naheed Cheema, the seniors coordinator at the Elspeth Heyworth satellite location in Vaughan’s Blue Willow Activity Centre. “The pleasant personalities of these skilled instructors add to the seniors’ love for the program. It has not only improved their health, but their mood and spirits as well. They hope it can go on forever.”

Plans are in the works to create a dedicated course to keep the program running in the future.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Last week, 91��ɫ the Sherman Health Science Research Centre, a facility for research in brain and vision, biomechanics, virtual reality and robotics. Planning for the facility, which was completed in December 2009, started in 2007.

The $11.5-million centre, which was converted from an old hockey arena, was named after Honey Sherman, a 91��ɫ Foundation board member, and her husband, Barry Sherman, president and CEO of the  pharmaceutical company Apotex Inc., who donated $5 million to the project. “Everybody who gives donations has to pick and choose as to where the need is greatest,” Barry Sherman said.

“It’s 91��ɫ, an important Canadian university for teaching and research…We tend to concentrate our gifts towards health care. It’s good for the scientists, the public and the eventual patients who will benefit. It’s a gift to the City of Toronto.”

Sherman sees the facility’s potential for interdisciplinary research as an asset to the University. “It’s very impressive, and it makes a lot of sense. [These fields] are interrelated. To make significant progress in any area you need people of various [fields],” he said, adding that he was particularly impressed with the neuroimaging lab.

“To try to understand the workings of the brain, you need that equipment,” he said. “It’ll be very useful in developing that understanding when it comes to brain impairment and issues like dementia.”

Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ’s vice-president, research & innovation, said the facility will provide an ideal work environment for both staff and graduate students. “We didn’t have these kinds of facilities for them yet, so they were doing great work, but you’re doing work in a lab that’s in the basement of a building. There’s potential for interference when you’re collecting data. It slows down your work and you’re always adjusting equipment,” Shapson said. “Now you have state-of-the-art labs…[The students and researchers] will be able to do better quality work more quickly.”

Some of this research includes studying loss of vision in the elderly, developing a robot-guided wheelchair and building robots that can function underwater.

Shapson hopes the facility will help the University forge connections with local hospitals. “I think we had four presidents of regional hospitals at [the official opening]. That’s wonderful. They’re looking at this facility as something that could help them,” he said.

With the new facilities and 91��ɫ’s existing , which is internationally renowned, Shapson sees the potential to attract new researchers and students, as well as to apply existing research to the health care sector. “I think [this centre] is going to drive new ideas, innovations and treatments. At the end of the day, the hope is to deliver better health outcomes to Canadians,” he said.

The Sherman Centre includes space for 13 laboratories and accommodates over 150 researchers, graduate students, research associates and staff.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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It may not be the fountain of youth, but researchers at 91��ɫ have discovered that regular exercise can effectively turn back the clock for aging skeletal muscle.

The study,��“Molecular basis for an attenuated mitochondrial adaptive plasticity in aged skeletal muscle,” was recently published in the journal . The results indicate that the elderly are able to rebuild muscle mass,��and while they will not achieve the abs of a 20-year-old, they can reverse significant damage and loss of muscle function caused by inactivity and old age.

The research team led by Professor David Hood, Canada Research Chair in Cell Physiology and a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, carried out the study as part of an ongoing series of investigations into the benefits of exercise (see YFile,��May 11, 2007 & March 2, 2009). This most recent study demonstrates that even in the elderly (individuals of 70 or 80 human years of age), regular exercise has the effect of rejuvenating muscle health, and these benefits are demonstrated by reduced fatigue and enhanced cellular function. The study adds weight to a growing body of findings by Hood and his research team that exercise plays a key role in achieving long-term health, even into advanced age.

Right: David Hood

“We found that muscle does adapt, but it takes a longer time for that adaptation to take place,” says Hood. “It is not a question anymore that regular exercise offers little benefit for elderly individuals because their muscles won’t adapt. That is not the case. The muscles of older individuals do adapt, they just don’t adapt as robustly or as quickly as younger individuals.”

Hood says the study showed that elderly muscle will continue to improve in its responsiveness as long as the exercise continues. "It may take more time but the benefits are definitely there," he says.

"To prove this, we used a well-established animal model of aging, the Fisher Brown Norway rat at young and very old ages. To avoid any differences in exercise behaviour between ages, we used a chronic stimulation model of muscle contraction in which the muscles of one leg were made to contract for three hours a day for seven consecutive days. This represents a standardized high exercise workload which can be imposed on one leg of both the young and old animals while the opposite leg remains at rest," explains Hood.

At the end of the seven-day period, the adaptability of the muscle with respect to its ability to withstand fatigue was assessed. Specifically, Hood's research team looked at key components of muscle cell health, including the production of mitochondria and proteins which are known regulators of mitochondrial synthesis. "While the older muscle fatigued more rapidly than the young muscle, this fatigue was reduced by the exercise and the muscle was 'rescued', allowing it to perform similarly to that of the young muscle," says Hood. In the younger muscle, regular exercise increased the mitochondrial content to a greater degree than in the old muscle, but old muscle did experience an increase and there was reduced apoptosis (cell death) in the old muscle.

Hood says the findings mean that exercise carries huge benefits for all ages, and muscle, no matter what its age, can adapt regardless of how old a person is. “People should be encouraged to exercise continually throughout their life,” says Hood. “Don't expect that as you get older, the adaptations will happen as quickly, but an ongoing lifestyle choice to exercise is very important.”

The benefits, says Hood, are many for the elderly include and include stronger muscles, greater resistance to injury and bone breakage, and enhanced metabolism. “Regular exercise means being less tired doing normal daily activities, improved metabolism which helps you break down fat making you more sensitive to insulin, which is important in preventing pre-diabetic conditions. Better metabolism improves whole body function and wellness.”

Muscle Health Research Centre

Hood's lab is part of 91��ɫ's new Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC),��which is the first of its kind in Canada. The centre will celebrate its official opening on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 10:30am.

“This centre is unique in that we’re zeroing in on skeletal muscle and its relationship to health, with a strong focus on what exercise can do,” says Hood,��who will serve as the centre's director. “We’re looking for new discoveries on how exercise can benefit Canadians through adaptations in the metabolism and structure of muscle.”

The MHRC conducts collaborative research with scientists from the School of Kinesiology & Health Science and the Department of Biology.

“Like all research centres at 91��ɫ, the MHRC has an interdisciplinary mandate – that is, enabling researchers from different departments and disciplines to work together towards a common goal,” says Hood.

Scientists from the MHRC are investigating topics such as muscle metabolism, muscle development and muscle adaptations to exercise, metabolic disease and cancer. Professor Tara Haas and colleagues in the MHRC recently identified a cell-signalling process that stimulates blood vessel growth and may help individuals with diabetes to exercise and thereby improve their health (see YFile, Nov. 17, 2009).

“As a leading research institution, we’re concerned with bringing the work of our scientists to bear on the real world and improving the health and well-being of Canadians,” says Harvey Skinner, dean of 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health. The centre will serve as an innovative hub for the life sciences within 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, generating new knowledge and disseminating research findings to the public and the health system.

The opening ceremony will feature guest speakers, including Olympic figure skater Barbara Underhill; Philip Gardiner, director of the Health, Leisure & Human Performance Research Institute at the University of Manitoba; and Jane Aubin, scientific director of the .

The opening will take place Jan. 20, from 10:30am to 1pm, in the Execultive Learning Centre located in X106 Seymour Schulich Building on 91��ɫ's Keele campus. For more information, contact Kathy Thomas at thomask@yorku.ca. To learn more about muscle health research at 91��ɫ, visit the MHRC Web site or contact Hood at dhood@yorku.ca.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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