Individuals with obesity experience chronic low-grade inflammation increasing their risk of cardiometabolic disease. Inflammation is driven by the combination of excess body fat and high blood sugar that often accompanies obesity. Exercise is a powerful tool to lower inflammation and lower blood sugar but many people with obesity are insufficiently active. Exercise “snacks” are an exciting new concept where ~1-2 min bursts of vigorous activity are repeated periodically throughout the day. The approach represents a practical and time-efficient way for individuals with obesity to become more active, improve their blood sugar, and lower inflammation. We will determine if people with obesity can perform exercise snacks in their daily lives and whether exercise snacks can improve inflammatory markers. Eighty people with obesity will be randomly assigned to an Exercise Snacks (3-4 daily “snacks” on 5 days/wk) or a Placebo (stretching/mobility exercises) group. Inflammation, blood sugar control, and fitness will be assessed before and after 12 weeks. We will be the first to determine if exercise snacks can help individuals with obesity overcome barriers to physical activity, reduce inflammation, and improve blood sugar.
Research Location: University of British Columbia - Okanagan Campus
Power Exercise for Stroke Recovery: A Multi-Site Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Loss of mobility is common after a stroke. Strength training helps build muscle strength but does not always improve mobility. This may be because many programs do not focus enough on building muscle power, which is how quickly muscles work. Power training is a special type of strength training, where you lift lighter weights quickly. It may be more effective than traditional strength training but more research is needed.
We are launching a multi-site pilot randomized trial between McMaster University and UBC–Okanagan. We will recruit 60 people with stroke, and assign them to one of two 10-week exercise programs: the POWER intervention or traditionally-prescribed strength training. Our outcomes are the feasibility of our methods (eg, recruitment), but also compare its effects on mobility, fatigue, mental health, and quality of life. Two people with lived experience of stroke are providing input into our methods.
This work will grow awareness on strength training for people with stroke in BC. The success of this study will also open the door for collaborations with other universities to establish the benefits of power training. We hope to then update the exercise guidelines to reach clinicians and improve stroke care.
Building Capacity for Research Partnerships: A Health Learning System Approach
People with SCI often struggle to find research that reflects their needs. One way to improve this is through research partnerships, where researchers and people with lived experience work together. However, many researchers do not have the training or support to build strong partnerships, and research institutions do not have systems in place to make engagement easier. This project will help change that by developing a long-term support system for research partnerships at ICORD. The first step is launching a training course to help researchers and trainees learn how to work meaningfully with partners. I will also work with ICORD’s Meaningful Engagement Committee to create ways for the institution to better track, support, and strengthen partnerships over time. Finally, I will connect with other SCI research institutions to see how this approach can be adapted beyond ICORD. This work will help make research partnerships more effective, ensuring SCI research is relevant, useful, and impactful for the people it is meant to serve.
Personalized nutrition for inflammatory bowel disease: Predicting dietary responses based on gut microbiome and baseline factors
Every patient with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) wonders what to eat to improve their symptoms. Many believe that diet affects disease progression and no one-size-fits-all diet exists for everyone. Our controlled trial in adults with IBD supported this idea when the symptoms of almost 50% of adults with IBD in either standard dietary therapy or the Mediterranean-style diet group were ameliorated, though to varying extents. This variability arises because each patient’s biology and lifestyle are unique. People’s gut microbiota, trillions of microbes living in intestine, is highly personalized and can mediate their physiological responses to diet. However, remaining concern is that chronic inflammation in IBD disrupts the gut microbiome, allowing harmful bacteria to thrive and beneficial ones to vanish. Diet alone or conventional probiotic treatments can’t fix this imbalance. I will investigate how patients’ specific characteristics and gut microbes influence their response to certain diets and how these synergize with a newly engineered probiotic designed to thrive in an inflamed gut. These findings will be used for a future clinical trial using our derived algorithm to prescribe personalized diets and a bioengineered probiotic.
Type 2 diabetes remission: from evidence to awareness and care
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) remission, which means that blood sugar levels return to sub-diabetes levels without taking any glucose-lowering medications, is possible for many people living with T2D through changes to diet/lifestyle. T2D remission can offer new hope to those living with diabetes and empower them to make positive lifestyle changes. Despite this potential, many individuals living with T2D and most importantly, their healthcare providers, remain unaware that remission is possible.
This research project will offer a new and complete approach to help people achieve T2D remission. Using social media, we will find and connect with individuals living with T2D, informing them about how changes in diet and lifestyle can lead to remission. They will then be referred to registered dietitians who have been specially trained in our program’s lifestyle strategies for T2D remission.
This project will greatly benefit health research, the healthcare system, and the overall well-being of individuals living with T2D. By closing a full circle of awareness, specialized healthcare training and personalized expert support, our program will empower people living with T2D to successfully reach and maintain remission.
Amplifying Urban Indigenous Voices in Health Research in British Columbia: Pathways for Culturally Safe Engagement
Urban Indigenous people in British Columbia, representing 78% of the province’s Indigenous population, are largely underserved by health research, which often lacks meaningful engagement, limits their agency, and inadequately represents their diverse Nations, cultures, and lived experiences. This five-year program aims to address these gaps by co-developing scalable, culturally responsive health research governance models that center urban Indigenous perspectives. Guided by Indigenous and Community-Based Participatory Research methodologies rooted in relational accountability, respect, and reciprocity, the program will engage urban Indigenous health leaders, community members, and health researchers through surveys, interviews, sharing circles, and workshops to co-create community-informed pathways for health research engagement. These models will inform future research policies and practices, enhancing the relevance of health research for urban Indigenous populations. Ultimately, this will advance the field by embedding Indigenous perspectives into health research, ensuring that health studies better reflect and serve urban Indigenous communities across BC.
Promoting sleep health for families in British Columbia foster and kinship care
Children in foster and kinship (i.e. cared for by a non-relative and a relative, respectively) families often experience health and developmental concerns. Sleep is essential for health and development, yet little is known about foster;kinship family sleep. The insights of the foster;kinship community are needed to develop sleep research (and a sleep resource) that is useful, meaningful, and relevant to foster;kinship families. We will bring together an Indigenous elder, foster;kinship caregivers, adults with childhood foster;kinship experiences, community organizations, healthcare professionals, and researchers to co-develop a sleep health research agenda and co-design a sleep resource blueprint to support foster;kinship family sleep health in British Columbia. We will offer foundational training to build our partners’ (e.g. foster;kinship caregivers, adults who experienced childhood foster;kinship placements, graduate trainee) capacity and will hold seven virtual team engagement sessions. This project will result in a research agenda and tailored sleep resource that are relevant to the foster;kinship community, which will lead to increased uptake of future findings and ultimately better sleep health for foster;kinship families.
Setting Direction for Advancing Digital Health Literacy Training Support to Optimize Older Adults’ Technology Use in Chronic Cardiovascular Disease Self-Care
British Columbia’s population is getting older. Many older adults are aging with chronic heart conditions. Digital tools, or programs and resources for use with different technologies, can help older adults look after themselves in living with their chronic heart condition(s), but many older adults need training and support to use them. This project will find out what older adults with chronic heart conditions need and prefer in the way of support and training. At the same time, the project will help find out what existing community digital literacy training programs for older adults currently offer, and what they think might be possible and workable for them in adding health technology support to their existing programs. The things we learn will be used to help support older adults with heart conditions to use digital technologies for self-care. Then we will put together all this information and have a meeting to discuss next steps. This project will allow us to build a strong team and gather direction for the best way forward. In particular, by talking directly with older adults with heart conditions and people who support them to use digital technologies, we can come up with ideas that are more likely to be meaningful for them.
A path to success: Convening service providers and patients to understand diabetes prevention care referral pathways and co-develop a research agenda for the interior of BC
General practitioners (GP) are essential in diabetes prevention due to the amount of time they interact with patients and the screening tests that they request and review. Once a GP identifies a patient as being at high risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) they have the ability to refer this individual to publicly available education and prevention programs. However, in rural and urban locations of the interior region of BC, GPs are failing to refer individuals identified as being at high risk of T2D to diabetes prevention initiatives in the community. This represents a major block in the pathway to improving health for those at high risk of T2D. We need to collaborate with individuals involved in the screening, diagnosis and management of prediabetes in the interior of BC to a) uncover the barriers and facilitators to referrals to diabetes prevention programs or initiatives; b) Establish how individuals at high risk of T2D can access diabetes prevention care by identifying potential pathways to care that are acceptable to individuals responsible for care; and c) Co-develop a research agenda with health care professionals to devise, trial, and ultimately test out new potential pathways of care for patients at risk of T2D.
From Social Media Advertisement to Type 2 Diabetes Remission: Harnessing Innovative Social Media Strategies to Make Remission Possible in British Columbia
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) remission, which means that blood sugar levels return to sub-diabetes levels without taking any glucose-lowering medications, is achievable for many people living with T2D through changes to diet;lifestyle. T2D remission offers new hope to those living with diabetes and empowers them to make positive lifestyle changes. Despite this potential, many individuals living with T2D remain unaware that remission is possible. Our mission is to raise awareness and provide support for people living with T2D to help make Remission Possible across British Columbia.
The “Remission Possible” team includes researchers, doctors, people living with T2D, and social media experts to help share the inspiring stories of persons with lived experience of T2D remission through Facebook advertisements. Once people view one of our advertisements, they are directed to our website, www.DiabetesRemission.ca, where they find credible information on remission and can sign up for doctor-led programs designed to support them in their remission journey. Given the popularity of social media, this strategy can directly connect thousands of people who might benefit from T2D remission and guide them to programs that can help improve their health.