MARQUETTE, Mich.—The 2010-11 Your Health public lecture series will kick off with a presentation titled “How Heart Attacks and Strokes Occur.” It is scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, in Northern Michigan University’s Reynolds Recital Hall. The public is invited free of charge.

            Dr. George Abela, chief of the cardiology division in Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, will be the featured speaker. He led a team that discovered cholesterol crystals can disrupt plaque in a patient’s cardiovascular system, leading to dangerous clots that can cause heart attacks or strokes. 

            Abela holds a doctor of medicine degree from the American University of Beirut and a master’s of business administration from Michigan State University. In 2009, his name appeared in both the “Best Doctors in America” and the “Leading Physicians of the World, International Association of Cardiologists.”

Your Health is designed to provide qualified, general health information to area residents through a collaborative effort between MSU’s College of Human Medicine, NMU, Marquette General Hospital and the U.P. Health Education Corp.