• Question: How could your work make a difference? : )

    Asked by Harleyhammer7 to Andy, Duane, Giovanna, Katie, Theresia on 7 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Theresia Mina

      Theresia Mina answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi Harleyhammer7,

      Excellent question for all of us here! In my case, my work will help the NHS and other health organisations to seriously consider monitoring women’s mood when they are pregnant. My work could start other works to test whether intervention in beneficial .. and also to find out more what’s going to happen in the long run with/ without intervention. The scientists and/or policy maker definitely got lot of homework to do..

    • Photo: Duane Mellor

      Duane Mellor answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi Harleyhammer7
      I would like to focus less on the health measures used in my research and look at the influence it has on food behaviour. The area I am moving into is also looking more at the effect of views of weight and food on health. So, based on my chocolate work and these new areas I hope to help people to both enjoy the food they eat and be healthy without feeling pressured or forced to be a certain shape/weight or having guilty thoughts about what they eat.

    • Photo: Katie Pickering

      Katie Pickering answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi Harleyhammer 7

      You ask very good questions!

      I am hoping that my work will provide a cost effective way of increasing physical acitivty levels of those most at need and to reduce the incidence of lifestyle related diseases such as cardiovascular/coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancers, reduce blood pressure, obesity, strokes, improve mental health and encourage people to be healthier in general. This is extrememly important as it will help reduce the costs to the NHS of treating these conditions if we can reduce how many people suffer from them. This is even more important at this time when the NHS funding cuts are affecting the service that can be provided so we need to help them save as much money as possible. People will also lead healtheir lives and it will also help inform the government recommendations for delivering physical activity interventions through technology.

    • Photo: Andrew Philp

      Andrew Philp answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Our work is based on trying to understand how diet and exercise alter skeletal muscle health and function. By understanding the genes and proteins that respond in healthy individuals, or similar pathways that don’t respond in unhealthy/disease individuals, we hope to develop more efficient ways to maintain skeletal muscle health, whether it be through different types of exercise or different types of nutrition + exercise. Alternatively, we also hope to use this information to help us to discovery nutrition or pharmaceutical approaches that might activate similar signals to exercise/diet. We know that if we can keep muscle healthy and strong then it has huge protective effects against numerous chronic diseases, so that hopefully people can stay healthier across lifespan.

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