Lifestyle Interventions and Metabolism; a Translational Perspective
Volledige vakbeschrijving
In this course, the central theme is the role of lifestyle changes in both health and disease. Lifestyle factors modulating human metabolism on a micro(cellular) and macroscale (organ) will be studied via a translational approach. This course will focus primarily on the more conventional strategies to promote health by exploring the underlying mechanisms and how these interventions may prevent various non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. For this, effects of diet and physical activity on gene expression/cellular pathways, organ function and interorgan crosstalk will be studied in depth. However, the impact of lifestyle interventions may differ between individuals (e.g. responders vs. non-responders) indicating that successful lifestyle interventions may require a more personalized approach. Besides the more conventional strategies, the relevance of weight loss, specific (nutritional) compounds, exercise, sedentary behavior, sleep and stress management in affecting metabolism will be topic of study. Furthermore, core principles of potential interactions between lifestyle factors and drugs will be applied and students will critically evaluate the dietary and physical activity guidelines as defined by the Dutch Health council. The lectures/group meetings and journal club will be planned in the first seven weeks of the course. Throughout the course and in the last week, students will work in small groups on the Academic project. The setup for the academic project intends to promote a largely independent and self-directed form of education that ultimately results in a written report and an oral presentation. The objective of the academic project is that students select a preventable, age-related disease and study possible short term interventions to treat or prevent the disease in humans. Subsequently, students will need to formulate a focused research question to study (i) the most promising lifestyle intervention and (ii) relevant outcome parameters to assess potential treatment effects.
Doelstellingen van dit vak
Course objectives 1. To explain the effects of diet and physical activity: - on cellular pathways involved in health and disease - on (mal)adaptive gene expression involved in health and disease - on (disturbed) organ function involved in health and disease - on (disturbed) interorgan crosstalk involved in health and disease 2. To appreciate the bi-directional routes of how nutritional support can amplify the health and performance benefits of exercise 3. To explain the role of genetics in personalized approaches to prevent disease (responders vs. non-responders) 4. To recall differential effects of different forms of lifestyle interventions on metabolism involved in health and disease 5. To apply the core principles of interactions between lifestyle factors (diet and physical activity) and drugs 6. To argue the dietary and physical activity guidelines as defined by the Dutch health council 7. Critically evaluate recent manuscripts discussing lifestyle interventions in health and disease, also focusing on ethics, integrity and statistics