Mind your pain: A single-arm feasibility study to assess a smartphone-based interoceptive attention training for patients with chronic low back pain.

Objective: People commonly cope with chronic low back pain (cLBP) by ignoring and distraction. Can mindful interoceptive exposure to the pain sensation itself and its phenomenological components be an alternative approach?

Methods: Single-arm feasibility study in patients with cLBP using a 2-minute attention exercise guided by a smartphone app several times per day over 8 weeks. We assessed feasibility, pre/post pain, function, and psychological parameters using mixed methods: standard questionnaires, ecological momentary assessment, and exit interviews that included micro-phenomenology technique and subsequent reflexive thematic qualitative analysis.

Protocol for a randomized controlled trial comparing a very low-carbohydrate diet or moderate-carbohydrate plate-method diet for type 2 diabetes: the LEGEND (Lifestyle Education about Nutrition for Diabetes) trial.

Background: Optimal carbohydrate intake is an important and controversial area in the nutritional management of type 2 diabetes. Some evidence indicates that reducing overall carbohydrate intake with a low- or very low-carbohydrate eating plan can improve glycemic control compared to following eating plans that involve greater carbohydrate intake. However, critical knowledge gaps currently prevent clear recommendations about carbohydrate intake levels.

Focus on the Breath: Brain Decoding Reveals Internal States of Attention During Meditation.

Meditation practices are often used to cultivate interoception or internally-oriented attention to bodily sensations, which may improve health cognitive and emotional regulation of bodily signals. However, it remains unclear how meditation impacts internal attention (IA) states due to lack of measurement tools that can objectively assess mental states during meditation practice itself, and produce time estimates of internal focus at individual or group levels. To address these measurement gaps, we tested the feasibility of applying multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to single-subject fMRI data to: (1) learn and recognize internal attentional states relevant for meditation during a directed IA task; and (2) decode or estimate the presence of those IA states during an independent meditation session.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Mindfulness-Based Weight Loss Intervention on Cardiovascular Reactivity to Social-Evaluative Threat Among Adults with Obesity.

Objective: Mindfulness-based interventions have been found to reduce psychological and physiological stress reactivity. In obesity, however, stress reactivity is complex, with studies showing both exaggerated and blunted physiological responses to stressors. A nuanced view of stress reactivity is the "challenge and threat" framework, which defines adaptive and maladaptive patterns of psychophysiological stress reactivity.

Correction to: Lipid findings from the Diabetes Education to Lower Insulin, Sugars, and Hunger (DELISH) Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s12986-019-0383-2.].

Lipid findings from the Diabetes Education to Lower Insulin, Sugars, and Hunger (DELISH) Study.

Background: A carbohydrate-restricted (CR) diet can improve glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There are concerns, however, that the high dietary fat content of CR diets can increase low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), thus increasing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Quantifying CVD risk associated with changes in LDL-C in the context of CR diets is complicated by the fact that LDL-C reflects heterogeneous lipids.

Twelve-month outcomes of a randomized trial of a moderate-carbohydrate versus very low-carbohydrate diet in overweight adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes.

Dietary treatment is important in management of type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, but uncertainty exists about the optimal diet. We randomized adults (n = 34) with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) > 6.0% and elevated body weight (BMI > 25) to a very low-carbohydrate ketogenic (LCK) diet (n = 16) or a moderate-carbohydrate, calorie-restricted, low-fat (MCCR) diet (n = 18).

An Online Intervention Comparing a Very Low-Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations Versus a Plate Method Diet in Overweight Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a prevalent, chronic disease for which diet is an integral aspect of treatment. In our previous trial, we found that recommendations to follow a very low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet and to change lifestyle factors (physical activity, sleep, positive affect, mindfulness) helped overweight people with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes improve glycemic control and lose weight. This was an in-person intervention, which could be a barrier for people without the time, flexibility, transportation, social support, and/or financial resources to attend.

Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of a Novel RDoC-Based Treatment Program for Adolescent Depression: "Training for Awareness Resilience and Action" (TARA)-A Pilot Study.

Background: The novel group treatment program Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action (TARA) was developed to target specific mechanisms based on neuroscience findings in adolescent depression and framed within the National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria. TARA contains training of autonomic and emotional self-regulation, interoceptive awareness, relational skills, and value-based committed action.

Methods: We performed a single-arm trial to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of TARA in reducing depression and anxiety levels and assessed whether the specific targeted domains of function reflected the hypothesized symptom change.

Effects of a mindfulness-based weight loss intervention in adults with obesity: A randomized clinical trial.

Objective: To determine whether adding mindfulness-based eating and stress management practices to a diet-exercise program improves weight loss and metabolic syndrome components.

Methods: In this study 194 adults with obesity were randomized to a 5.5-month program with or without mindfulness training and identical diet-exercise guidelines.

Training in ChiRunning to reduce blood pressure: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Background: People with prehypertension (120-130/80-90 mmHg) are at increased risk of progressing to hypertension. Recommendations for prehypertension include engaging in regular physical activity. We aimed to assess feasibility and acceptability and collect preliminary outcome data on ChiRunning for people with elevated blood pressure.

Effects of Form-Focused Training on Running Biomechanics: A Pilot Randomized Trial in Untrained Individuals.

Objective: To investigate the changes in running biomechanics after training in form-focused running using ChiRunning versus not-form focused training and self-directed training in untrained individuals.

Design: Pilot study-randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Research institution with tertiary care medical center.

A randomized pilot trial of a moderate carbohydrate diet compared to a very low carbohydrate diet in overweight or obese individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes.

We compared the effects of two diets on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and other health-related outcomes in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes (HbA1c>6%). We randomized participants to either a medium carbohydrate, low fat, calorie-restricted, carbohydrate counting diet (MCCR) consistent with guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (n = 18) or a very low carbohydrate, high fat, non calorie-restricted diet whose goal was to induce nutritional ketosis (LCK, n = 16). We excluded participants receiving insulin; 74% were taking oral diabetes medications.