Pulse Biomarker Discovery
Body WeightDietary pulses, including beans, chickpeas, and lentils, are high in soluble fiber with potential benefits to human health: Pulses are moderate energy density foods, low in fat and high in dietary protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. Moderate pulse consumption is associated with improvements in glycemic control and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Measuring pulse consumption in humans is difficult, due to limitations in current methods for dietary assessment which are largely based on dietary recalls that are subject to reporting bias. Robust tools for pulse intake assessment are needed, and biomarkers of dietary pulse intake are one approach to solve this problem. The goal of this human feeding study is evaluate the presence of biomarkers of dietary pulses in human subjects.
Use of Partial Body Weight Support Play Environment to Encourage Mobility and Exploration in Infants...
Down SyndromeTrisomy 21To explore the effects of Partial Body Weight Support (PBWS) within an enriched play environment for infants with Down Syndrome (DS), who are not yet walking, to better understand how PWBS may impact their mobility; exploration; and overall activity level. Hypothesis1 A: Infants will demonstrate increased movement counts on an ActiGraph during intervention compared to a control phase. Hypothesis 1B: Infants will demonstrate a higher frequency of exploratory behaviors during the intervention as compared to a control phase. Hypothesis 2: Infants will demonstrate an increased rate of improvement in Gross Motor Function Measure scores after the intervention compared to a control phase. Hypothesis 3: Infants will demonstrate higher parent-reported mastery motivation on the Dimensions of Mastery Questionnaire after the intervention compared to a control phase.
Effects of Adding L-BAIBA or L-BAIBA + Grains of Paradise to Exercising Adult Overweight and Obese...
ObeseWeight Loss2 moreThe goal of this intervention study is to examine changes in body composition, weight loss, and cardio-metabolic risk factors after adding supplementation of L-Beta aminoisobutyric acid (L-BAIBA) and Grains of Paradise to exercise in overweight and obese men and women. Participants will supplement for 8 weeks and complete a 8 week exercise protocol.
The Effect of Epitomee Capsule on Body Weight in Patients With Overweight and Obesity
Overweight and ObesityThe effect of Epitomee Capsule on body weight in patients with overweight and obesity with and without Prediabetes
Project Activate: Mindfulness and Acceptance Based Behavioral Treatment for Weight Loss
ObesityWeight LossMindfulness and Acceptance based Behavioral Therapies (MABTs) are among the most promising behavioral approaches for obesity, with two recent large trials showing that they achieve better initial weight loss and/or better weight loss maintenance than does gold standard BT. However, results vary, potentially due to inconsistencies in how MABT components are utilized and emphasized. Optimizing MABTs using a typical approach, i.e., successive randomized controlled trials of various MABT packages, is slow and difficult. Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) has been developed as a better method of optimizing treatment. Consistent with Phase I of MOST, we derived three MABT components from the theoretical literature. Evaluation of MABT components through a factorial design (MOST Phase II) will allow us to determine the independent and interacting efficacies of each MABT component, in addition to the identification of subsets of individuals most or least responsive to each component. Whereas mediational analyses have been inconclusive, the use of a factorial design will allow for a critical test of the main and interaction effects of individual MABT treatment components. The current study will use a full factorial design to identify the independent and combined effects of three core MABT components (Awareness, Acceptance, and Values Clarity) as additions to remotely delivered weight loss counseling. Moderators of treatment outcome (disinhibited eating, food cue susceptibility, emotional eating, delay discounting, and inhibitory control), and mediator/process variables implicated in MABTs (mindful eating, acceptance of food cues, mindfulness, body responsiveness, autonomous motivation, values clarity, hunger/satiety perceptions, and motivation and pleasure resulting from social functioning) will be assessed as well.
Noom Health for Weight Management
Weight LossObesityThe goals of the study are to use the Noom mobile app to help individuals with weight loss and weight loss maintenance. This project will test the comparative efficacy of Noom Health vs. Noom Digital Health for weight loss, quality of life, psychosocial functioning, and self-reported health status. It is expected that use of Noom Health will show post-intervention success relative to Noom Digital Health as well as long-term success with weight loss maintenance. Data is expected to show that participants who are older, have less support, have more health conditions, and with more psychosocial problems will benefit more from Noom Health. It is also expected that confidence in the ability to lose weight will produce more successful results in Noom Health vs. Noom Digital Health.
Body Weight Supported Training Study
Spinal Cord DiseasesSuccessful ambulation at home and in the community is the main goal of gait training after incomplete spinal cord injury. Many different treatment approaches have been recommended to achieve this goal. One established intervention to achieve that in a clinical setting is body weight supported (BWS) treadmill training. However, recent studies have suggested that the most optimal gait training should be conducted overground with appropriate support conditions to enable a physiological gait pattern. The training has to be challenging and patients must participate as active as possible. In addition becoming a functional walker in real world involves a variety of walking skills like walking on uneven surfaces, walking up and down slopes, climbing stairs and avoid obstacles. It has been shown in humans as well as in animals that greater improvements are achieved in walking function if the training is task specific. Thus a constrained task like BWS treadmill training may not be the optimal training intervention to become a functional community walker. Even greater improvements can be expected if patients feel safe during the overground walking and train at their individual limits. With FLOAT there is now the possibility to conduct a task specific BWS overground gait training in a safe environment. The robotic device allows patients to perform different walking tasks like walking overground, avoiding obstacles, walking on uneven and sloped surfaces, climbing stairs, walking in narrow spaces. A virtual reality setup was integrated into the system that even can simulate specific walking tasks like target oriented walking or walking in crowded environment. Based on the promising results seen in preclinical and clinical research, the investigators assume that unrestricted transparent BWS overground training that allows task specific training of real world walking tasks will induce greater improvements than conventional BWS treadmill training. The investigators will compare the effect of an intensive 4 weeks unrestricted BWS overground gait training to 4 weeks of intensive BWS treadmill training. Not only functional outcome like walking speed or capacity will be assessed but also detailed kinematics that will help to identify the mechanisms of the underlying improvements in walking function.
The Effects of Long-term Consumption of Full-fat Dairy Products on Satiety, Body Weight and Glycemic...
Overweight or ObesityBody WeightThe proposed study looks at the effect of long-term diet modification with or without full-fat dairy products or restrictive eating on body weight, body composition and cardiometabolic markers in healthy overweight/obese men and women.
Role of Peanuts in Healthy Weight Gain in Athletic Individuals
Weight GainMany athletes and military personnel desire weight gain primarily as lean mass to improve performance and effectiveness in military/sport endeavors. While much is known about the energy restriction required to reduce body weight, very little is understood about energy and macronutrients needed to promote healthy gains in body weight and lean mass. Typically, athletes are encouraged to increase calorie intake by ~500 kcal/day with an emphasis on adequate protein and carbohydrate, and judicious inclusion of healthy fat-containing calorically-dense foods, including peanuts and peanut butter. This study proposes to evaluate the effect of a 10-week diet and exercise regimen designed to promote healthy weight gain. This will include increasing energy intake by 500 additional kcal/day (above weight maintenance diet) through daily provision of either peanut-based whole foods/snacks (peanut group) or a similar, high-carbohydrate, peanut-free snack (control group) along with a supervised strength training regimen. Results will serve as an important first step in helping understand the gaps in knowledge related to healthy weight gain, designing better weight gain meal plans, not only in athletes and military personnel, but also in clinical populations where promotion of weight gain is advocated.
Psychobiological Processes in Social Evaluation
StigmaSocial4 moreHigher-weight individuals face pervasive weight-related stigma and discrimination in their daily lives. There is conceptual and empirical evidence to suggest that weight stigma contributes to worse physical and psychological health outcomes, mediated by the deleterious psychobiological responses to psychosocial stress. Activating self-soothing emotional states (such as self-compassion) may protect against this psychobiological cascade, conferring resilience to negative social evaluation (such as weight stigma). This proof-of-concept study aims to establish the feasibility of an experimental protocol testing whether an acute self-compassion intervention can attenuate the psychobiological stress response to induced weight-based social-evaluative threat. Participants will be randomized into either self-compassion intervention or rest control groups. A standard body composition assessment will be used to induce weight stigma among young women who self-identify as "higher-weight." Stress-sensitive biomarkers (i.e., salivary cortisol and heart-rate variability) along with psychological indices of self-conscious emotions will be used to quantify the psychobiological stress response. This novel pilot study will contribute to efforts to understand the psychobiological processes by which self-compassion facilitates adaptive responding to acute stress, and will help inform future tests of interventions focused on mitigating the harmful health effects of social stigma.