Healthy Lifestyle Research Centre
In a bid to combat the epidemic of diabetes and its most serious complication, heart disease, Baker IDI with support from the Commonwealth Government has created The Healthy Lifestyle Research Centre to examine how genetic and environmental factors interact to regulate body weight and body composition in humans as a basis for development of lifestyle interventions.
Located on level 4 of the Alfred Centre, the Healthy Lifestyle Research Centre's research program provides the foundation for the ongoing development and refinement of evidenced-based, sustainable, physical activity and nutrition intervention strategies for people in the wider community living with or at risk of the complications of obesity, particularly its metabolic and cardiovascular consequences. This includes development and testing of novel intervention delivery strategies via families, communities and the workplace for dissemination nationally.
Research takes a ‘whole of day approach' to understand and improve an individual's health. This information is used to individualise nutrition and physical activity interventions for maintaining health or regaining health for patients with obesity-related disease. The development of sound preventative and management strategies informed and evaluated by research are critical to reduce the development of new cases of obesity and diabetes, and to reduce death and disability, especially from cardiovascular disease now and in the future.
Physical Activity Research
There is substantial evidence that physical activity contributes to the primary and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases and is associated with a reduced risk of premature death. Regular physical activity plays an important role in obesity preventative efforts via its substantial influence on energy expenditure.
Improving physical activity, particularly in older adults who are inactive may have significant health benefits. Indeed programs developed at Baker IDI such as the Lift for Life strength training program have demonstrated the benefits of exercise programs as both a preventative measure and as an alternative to common drug therapies.
Our state of the art research gymnasium is specifically designed to accommodate overweight and obese individuals and serves as the basis for development of further prevention and intervention programs for individuals who are healthy, at risk of disease, or who have a metabolic disease. Furthering our commitment and service to patient care, our dedicated research gymnasium is also attractive to patients and physicians who are involved with our specialist diabetes clinics.
Nutrition Research
Diet and nutrition are important factors in the promotion and maintenance of good health throughout the entire life course. Their role as determinants of chronic non-communicable diseases is well established and consequently they occupy a prominent position in prevention activities.
The burden of chronic diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide. Almost half of the total chronic disease deaths are attributable to cardiovascular diseases. Obesity and diabetes are also showing worrying trends, not only because they already affect a large proportion of the population, but also because they have started to appear in younger age-groups.
Globally, great changes have swept the entire world since the second half of the twentieth century, inducing major modifications in diet. Traditional, largely plant-based diets have been swiftly replaced by high-fat, energy-dense diets with a substantial content of animal-based foods.
Lifestyle modification is the cornerstone of treating and preventing diseases of obesity. The nutrition program will examine and endeavour to optimize diets for people with obesity, cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and type two diabetes, with the recognition that individual choice will be the key to facilitating major environmental changes in the population landscape of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Clinical Physiology Research
The roles of both energy intake and expenditure in determining body fat gain throughout life are examined in human physiological studies. Hormonal and cellular investigations are also conducted to identify the underlying metabolic causes of individual differences in body composition and energy regulation. Using the research platforms of epidemiology, physiology, cell biology and behavioural research, impacts of physical activity and nutrition are investigated to address knowledge gaps and contribute to the translation of this research into new drugs, devices and treatment options for patients, and to translation of the research into public health policy and public health practices.
The Healthy Lifestyle Research Centre caters for a variety of human physiological studies including calorimetric measurements of energy expenditure, aerobic and strength capacity, body composition analyses, muscle and fat biopsies, glucose clamps and metabolic tracer assessments, blood, tissue and urine specimen processing.
We hope in the coming years Baker IDI's, Healthy Lifestyle Research Centre interventions will deliver sustainable lifestyle changes to individuals and influence positive health policy changes for our population. Obesity intervention strategies endorsed by Baker IDI will be made available across Australia.
