Participate
Our goal is to improve the overall physical condition and quality of life for older adults.
If you are interested in research on nutrition, we invite you to participate in one of our projects. Compensation is provided for all studies in accordance with time and effort.
For more information or to find out if you qualify, call our office or send us an email.
Available Studies
Invitation to patients with chronic heart failure
Our goal for studying patients with congestive heart failure is to understand the physiological reason and potential differences in metabolism, gut and muscle function, cognition, and well-being in patients both with and without CHF.
We are looking for individuals age 45-85 with stable congestive heart failure with an ejection fraction of <45%, and a NYHA class II-IV.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Invitation to adults 85+ to help understand metabolism and daily function in aging
One of our research goals is to answer questions such as, “How does aging affect metabolism of older adults?” and “What is the mechanism behind those age-related changes in metabolism?”. By addressing these questions, we are trying to help develop prospective intervention to prevent frailty and sarcopenia, both of which we commonly experience as we age.
In recent years, doctors and scientists have tried to prevent and cure frailty and muscle loss through lifestyle modifications, such as exercising and eating a high-protein diet. However, we need to understand the physiological mechanisms behind these.
Many studies have suggested that there’s an association between disrupted amino acid metabolism, frailty, and poor daily functioning. For example, older adults with low muscle mass and frailty have higher levels of citrulline, taurine, and asparagine, which indicates that those who are frail have problems with synthesizing proteins and removing toxic ammonia from the body. Moreover, older adults have shown increased glutamine production and myofibrillar protein breakdown, as well as decreased arginine synthesis when compared to younger adults.
Invite to healthy older adults to understand the metabolic response to different nutritional drinks
We previously studied a small group of healthy young and older adults (aged 23-65) and reported the differences in metabolism between the groups of several amino acids [1], their cognition and well being in a post-absorptive state. Studies on the effect of aging on metabolism might serve as potential therapeutic targets.
Our lab developed a pulse method combining multiple stable isotopes to study multiple metabolic pathways in the same individual simultaneously [2-4]. By measuring whole-body metabolism in a large group of older adults, we may be able to unravel age-related deterioration in protein turnover (synthesis and breakdown) that contributes to impaired functional capacity.
Metabolic profiles could explain differences in aging process pathways with special interest in metabolism of amino acids as they have been associated with aging-related disorders [5]. The general aim of this study is to develop a method that allows the application of the pulse method within individuals in prandial/non-fasted states.
Invitation for patients with established diagnosis of Type II Diabetes
We are interested in establishing methods to use photo-based food diaries and CGMs to help patients engage counterfactual thinking strategies to improve food choices among pre-diabetes participants.
We will monitor any changes in:
- Eating attitudes and behaviors
- Behavioral intentions to improve healthy eating behavior
- Motivation to improve eating behavior
- Increased self-efficacy for healthy eating
- Number of glucose excursions and time-in-range at different time intervals