Browsing by Author "Csizmadi, Ilona"

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    Association between glycemic load and cognitive function in community-dwelling older adults: results from the Brain in Motion study
    (2017) Garber, Anna; Poulin, Marc; Friedenreich, Christine; Csizmadi, Ilona; Longman, Richard S.; Sajobi, Tolulope; Shearer, Jane
    Background: Impaired glucose tolerance is a risk factor for non-age-related cognitive decline and is also associated with measures of physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). A low glycemic load (GL) diet can aid in the management of blood glucose levels, but little is known about its effect on cognition with poor glucoregulation. Objective: The aim of this thesis was to assess the relation between GL and cognitive function by glucoregulation, and possible mediatory effects by CRF and PA, in older adults. Design: A cross-sectional analysis of 194 cognitively healthy adults aged ≥55 years (mean=65.7, SD=6.1) was conducted. GL was assessed using a quantitative food frequency questionnaire, and glucoregulation was characterized on the HOMA-IR index. Subjects also completed a cognitive assessment, CRF testing, a validated self-reported PA questionnaire, and a blood draw. Multiple linear regression models adjusted for significant covariates were used to evaluate the relation between GL and cognition, and mediation analysis was used to assess potential mediatory effects by CRF and PA. Results: GL was inversely associated with global cognition (β=-0.014; 95% CI -0.024, -0.0036) and figural memory (β =-0.035; 95% CI -0.052, -0.018) in subjects with poor glucoregulation. Neither CRF nor PA mediated these relations. In subjects with good glucoregulation, no association was found between GL and cognitive function (p>0.05). Conclusions: A low GL diet is associated with better cognitive function in older adults with poor glucoregulation. This study provides supportive evidence for the role of GL in maintaining better cognitive function during the aging process.
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    Associations between the Neighbourhood Food Environment, Neighbourhood Socioeconomic Status and Diet Quality in Canadian Adults
    (2016-02-05) McInerney, Maria; McCormack, Gavin; Csizmadi, Ilona; Friedenreich, Christine
    High quality diet is integral for maintaining health and preventing chronic diseases. Diet quality has many determinants that interact across the intra-individual, inter-individual, physical environment, and policy levels of influence. This thesis presents a novel method to create Canada’s Food Guide serving equivalents in the Canadian Diet History Questionnaire II nutrient database for the purpose of deriving the Canadian Healthy Eating Index (C-HEI). The C-HEI was used as a measure of diet quality in an analytical study investigating the potential independent and joint effects of the neighbourhood food environment and neighbourhood socioeconomic status on diet quality of adults living in Calgary, Alberta. The density of all neighbourhood food destinations, but not neighbourhood socioeconomic status independently or jointly with neighbourhood food destination density, plays a small role in diet quality of Calgary adults. With additional research, these findings may help inform population level interventions aimed at improving diet quality for all Canadians.
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    Hours spent and energy expended in physical activity domains: Results from The Tomorrow Project cohort in Alberta, Canada
    (BioMed Central, 2011-10-10) Csizmadi, Ilona; Lo Siou, Geraldine; Friedenreich, Christine M.; Owen, Neville; Robson, Paula J.
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    Interactions between Neighbourhood Urban Form and Socioeconomic Status and Their Associations with Anthropometric Measurements in Canadian Adults
    (2017-09-05) McCormack, Gavin R.; Friedenreich, Christine; McLaren, Lindsay; Potestio, Melissa; Sandalack, Beverly; Csizmadi, Ilona
    Neighbourhood-level socioeconomic composition and built context are correlates of weight-related behaviours. We investigated the relations between objective measures of neighbourhood design and socioeconomic status (SES) and their interaction, in relation to self-reported waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index (BMI) in a sample of Canadian adults ( from 12 Calgary neighbourhoods). WC and BMI were higher among residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, independent of neighbourhood design (grid, warped grid, and curvilinear street patterns) and individual-level characteristics (sex, age, education, income, dog ownership, marital status, number of dependents, motor vehicle access, smoking, sleep, mental health, physical health, and past attempts to modify bodyweight). The association between neighbourhood-level SES and WC was modified by neighbourhood design; WC was higher in disadvantaged-curvilinear neighbourhoods and lower in advantaged-grid neighbourhoods. Policies making less obesogenic neighbourhoods affordable to low socioeconomic households and that improve the supportiveness for behaviours leading to healthy weight in low socioeconomic neighbourhoods are necessary.
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    The Effects of Diet, Body Composition and Exercise on The Serum Metabolome in Health and Disease
    (2017) Palmnäs, Marie; Vogel, Hans; Bathe, Oliver; Shearer, Jane; Csizmadi, Ilona
    The serum metabolite profile reflects a great variety of factors including age, gender, diet, exercise, gut microbial metabolism and the presence of disease. Importantly, changes in the serum metabolome may appear prior to the clinical manifestation of disease, provide insight into underlying biological mechanisms and be predictive of disease progression and/or amelioration. Using an animal model and human participants, the serum metabolome of obesity was studied in relations to diet and physical activity. In brief, obese rats consuming coffee had a favorable body composition, lower liver triglycerides and decreased serum concentrations of branched-chain amino acids, which are thought to cause diabetes when present at higher concentrations, compared to controls. In contrast, aspartame consuming rats showed impairments in glucoregulation. Our findings suggested that this might have been a result of aspartame causing an increase in the proportion of gut bacteria that produce propionate, a metabolite known to stimulate hepatic gluconeogenesis. In human subjects, obesity and metabolic syndrome risk factors were associated with lower concentrations of the sphingolipid precursors serine and glycine. Higher activity energy expenditure and physical activity levels showed the opposite association. Physical activity may thus improve on insulin sensitivity by reducing de novo synthesis of sphingolipids and their subsequent accumulation in insulin-sensitive tissues. Exercise also associated with improvements in body weight, lean mass, physical performance and symptom severity, following cancer treatment in head and neck cancer patients. However, none of these factors correlated with their 2-year survival. Instead, the baseline serum metabolite profile differentiated between survivors and nonsurvivors, despite matching for patient characteristics. Thus, serum metabolites show potential as prognostic biomarkers for head and neck cancer patients. Lastly, we found that combining three metabolomics approaches resulted in the most comprehensive coverage of metabolite classes and the most complete description of the phenotype, for women with ovarian cancer. This Chapter also highlighted the need to address the influence of common risk factors on the serum metabolome. Taken together, the work presented in this thesis has provided further insight into the serum metabolite profile of metabolic disease and cancer in the context of diet and physical activity.