Importance of public-private partnerships for nutrition support research: An ASPEN Position Paper.

Parenteral and enteral nutrition support are key components of care for various medical and physiological conditions in infants, children, and adults. Nutrition support practices have advanced over time, driven by the goals of safe and sufficient delivery of needed nutrients and improved patient outcomes. These advances have been, and continue to be, dependent on research and development studies.

Changes in mood and health-related quality of life in Look AHEAD 6 years after termination of the lifestyle intervention.

Objective: The Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) study previously reported that intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) reduced incident depressive symptoms and improved health-related quality of life (HRQOL) over nearly 10 years of intervention compared with a control group (the diabetes support and education group [DSE]) in participants with type 2 diabetes and overweight or obesity. The present study compared incident depressive symptoms and changes in HRQOL in these groups for an additional 6 years following termination of the ILI in September 2012.

Methods: A total of 1,945 ILI participants and 1,900 DSE participants completed at least one of four planned postintervention assessments at which weight, mood (via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9), antidepressant medication use, and HRQOL (via the Medical Outcomes Scale, Short Form-36) were measured.

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Examination of Insulin Sensitivity and Secretion across Puberty among Non-Hispanic Black and White Children.

Background: Few studies using criterion measures of insulin sensitivity (SI) and insulin secretory capacity (ISC) have been conducted across puberty to adulthood. We examined how SI and ISC change from pre-puberty through adulthood.

Methods: Hyperglycemic clamp studies were performed in a convenience sample of non-Hispanic Black (NHB) and White children evaluated at age 6 to 12 years and at approximately 5-year intervals into adulthood (maximum age 27 years).

Within-Trial Cost-Effectiveness of a Structured Lifestyle Intervention in Adults With Overweight/Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: Results From the Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) Study.

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness (CE) of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) compared with standard diabetes support and education (DSE) in adults with overweight/obesity and type 2 diabetes, as implemented in the Action for Health in Diabetes study.

Research Design And Methods: Data were from 4,827 participants during their first 9 years of study participation from 2001 to 2012. Information on Health Utilities Index Mark 2 (HUI-2) and HUI-3, Short-Form 6D (SF-6D), and Feeling Thermometer (FT), cost of delivering the interventions, and health expenditures was collected during the study.

Strengthening national nutrition research: rationale and options for a new coordinated federal research effort and authority.

Background: The US faces remarkable food and nutrition challenges. A new federal effort to strengthen and coordinate nutrition research could rapidly generate the evidence base needed to address these multiple national challenges. However, the relevant characteristics of such an effort have been uncertain.

History of Cardiovascular Disease, Intensive Lifestyle Intervention, and Cardiovascular Outcomes in the Look AHEAD Trial.

Objective: To examine the effects of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) on cardiovascular disease (CVD), the Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) trial randomized 5,145 participants with type 2 diabetes and overweight/obesity to a ILI or diabetes support and education. Although the primary outcome did not differ between the groups, there was suggestive evidence of heterogeneity for prespecified baseline CVD history subgroups (interaction P = 0.063).

Optimization of Electrospray Ionization Source Parameters for Lipidomics To Reduce Misannotation of In-Source Fragments as Precursor Ions.

Lipidomics requires the accurate annotation of lipids in complex samples to enable determination of their biological relevance. We demonstrate that unintentional in-source fragmentation (ISF, common in lipidomics) generates ions that have identical masses to other lipids. Lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC), for example, generate in-source fragments with the same mass as free fatty acids and lysophosphatidylethanolamines (LPE).

Physical Function Following a Long-Term Lifestyle Intervention Among Middle Aged and Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: The Look AHEAD Study.

Background: Lifestyle interventions have been shown to improve physical function over the short term; however, whether these benefits are sustainable is unknown. The long-term effects of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) on physical function were assessed using a randomized post-test design in the Look AHEAD trial.

Methods: Overweight and obese (body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2) middle-aged and older adults (aged 45-76 years at enrollment) with type 2 diabetes enrolled in Look AHEAD, a trial evaluating an ILI designed to achieve weight loss through caloric restriction and increased physical activity compared to diabetes support and education (DSE), underwent standardized assessments of performance-based physical function including a 4- and 400-m walk, lower extremity physical performance (expanded Short Physical Performance Battery, SPPBexp), and grip strength approximately 11 years postrandomization and 1.

Evaluating Weight Status and Sex as Moderators of the Association of Serum Leptin with Bone Mineral Density in Children and Adolescents .

Background/aims: Animal studies suggest that leptin may adversely affect bone mineral density (BMD). Clinical studies have yielded conflicting results. We therefore investigated associations between leptin and bone parameters in children.

Omics for Understanding the Gut-Liver-Microbiome Axis and Precision Medicine.

Human metabolic disease opens a new view to understanding the contribution of the intestinal microbiome to drug metabolism and drug-induced toxicity in gut-liver function. The gut microbiome, a key determinant of intestinal inflammation, also plays a direct role in chronic inflammation and liver disease. Gut bacterial communities directly metabolize certain drugs, reducing their bioavailability and influencing individual variation in drug response.

Association of the magnitude of weight loss and changes in physical fitness with long-term cardiovascular disease outcomes in overweight or obese people with type 2 diabetes: a post-hoc analysis of the Look AHEAD randomised clinical trial.

Background: Findings from the Look AHEAD trial showed no significant reductions in the primary outcome of cardiovascular disease incidence in adults with type 2 diabetes randomly assigned to an intensive lifestyle intervention for weight loss compared with those randomly assigned to diabetes support and education (control). We examined whether the incidence of cardiovascular disease in Look AHEAD varied by changes in weight or fitness.

Methods: Look AHEAD was a randomised clinical trial done at 16 clinical sites in the USA, recruiting patients from Aug 22, 2001, to April 30, 2004.

A longitudinal study of serum insulin and insulin resistance as predictors of weight and body fat gain in African American and Caucasian children.

Background: The influence of insulin and insulin resistance (IR) on children's weight and fat gain is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate insulin and IR as predictors of weight and body fat gain in children at high risk for adult obesity. We hypothesized that baseline IR would be positively associated with follow-up body mass index (BMI) and fat mass.

Associations between adiposity and indicators of thyroid status in children and adolescents.

Background: In adults, obesity is associated with abnormalities of thyroid function; there are fewer studies in paediatric cohorts.

Objectives: To examine associations of weight and adiposity with indices of thyroid function and thyroid-related metabolic factors in children.

Design/methods: A sample of 1203 children without obesity (body mass index [BMI] < 95th percentile; N = 631) and with obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile; N = 572), age 5-18 years, had height and weight measured (to calculate BMI-Z score for age and sex) and had blood collected in the morning for thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4) and leptin.

Metabolic characteristics of youth with loss of control eating.

Purpose: Preliminary data in adults suggest that binge eating is associated with greater prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) components. However, there are limited data in youth, and little is known of the role of binge episode size in these relationships.

Methods: We examined the relationship between loss of control eating and metabolic characteristics in a convenience sample of 329 treatment-seeking and non-treatment-seeking adolescent boys and girls.

Progress and challenges in developing metabolic footprints from diet in human gut microbial cometabolism.

Homo sapiens harbor trillions of microbes, whose microbial metagenome (collective genome of a microbial community) using omic validation interrogation tools is estimated to be at least 100-fold that of human cells, which comprise 23,000 genes. This article highlights some of the current progress and open questions in nutrition-related areas of microbiome research. It also underscores the metabolic capabilities of microbial fermentation on nutritional substrates that require further mechanistic understanding and systems biology approaches of studying functional interactions between diet composition, gut microbiota, and host metabolism.

Changes in body composition over 8 years in a randomized trial of a lifestyle intervention: the look AHEAD study.

Objective: To determine the effects of an intensive lifestyle intervention versus a comparison group on body composition in obese or overweight persons with type 2 diabetes at baseline and at 1, 4, and 8 years.

Methods: Body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in a subset of 1019 Look AHEAD study volunteers randomized to intervention or comparison groups. The intervention was designed to achieve and maintain ≥7% weight loss through increased physical activity and reduced caloric intake.

Impact of an intensive lifestyle intervention on use and cost of medical services among overweight and obese adults with type 2 diabetes: the action for health in diabetes.

Objective: To assess the relative impact of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) on use and costs of health care within the Look AHEAD trial.

Research Design And Methods: A total of 5,121 overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to an ILI that promoted weight loss or to a comparison condition of diabetes support and education (DSE). Use and costs of health-care services were recorded across an average of 10 years.

Report of an EU-US symposium on understanding nutrition-related consumer behavior: strategies to promote a lifetime of healthy food choices.

This report summarizes an EU-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research symposium on healthy food choices and nutrition-related purchasing behaviors. This meeting was unique in its transdisciplinary approach to obesity and in bringing together scientists from academia, government, and industry. Discussion relevant to funders and researchers centered on (1) increased use of public-private partnerships, (2) the complexity of food behaviors and obesity risk and multilevel aspects that must be considered, and (3) the importance of transatlantic cooperation and collaboration that could accelerate advances in this field.

Impact of intensive lifestyle intervention on depression and health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetes: the Look AHEAD Trial.

Objective: We examined the effects of an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI), compared with a diabetes support and education (DSE) control intervention, on long-term changes in depression symptoms, antidepressant medication (ADM) use, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in overweight/obese individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: Look AHEAD was a multisite randomized controlled trial of 5,145 overweight/obese participants assigned to ILI (designed to produce weight loss) or DSE and followed for a median of 9.6 years.

Mushrooms and Health Summit proceedings.

The Mushroom Council convened the Mushrooms and Health Summit in Washington, DC, on 9-10 September 2013. The proceedings are synthesized in this article. Although mushrooms have long been regarded as health-promoting foods, research specific to their role in a healthful diet and in health promotion has advanced in the past decade.

Outbreak of campylobacteriosis associated with a long-distance obstacle adventure race--Nevada, October 2012.

On October 12, 2012, the Nellis Air Force Base Public Health Flight (Nellis Public Health), near Las Vegas, Nevada, was notified by the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Medical Center (MOFMC) emergency department (ED) of three active-duty military patients who went to the ED during October 10-12 with fever, vomiting, and hemorrhagic diarrhea. Initial interviews by clinical staff members indicated that all three patients had participated October 6-7 in a long-distance obstacle adventure race on a cattle ranch in Beatty, Nevada, in which competitors frequently fell face first into mud or had their heads submerged in surface water. An investigation by Nellis Public Health, coordinated with local and state health officials, identified 22 cases (18 probable and four confirmed) of Campylobacter coli infection among active-duty service members and civilians.