After being in bed or having an injury like a broken leg, adults can take a long time to get back to their previous level of physical performance.
To help solve this problem, Douglas Paddon-Jones, PhD, FACSM has been awarded $2,009,742 from the National Institute on Aging for his project, "Sex-specific determinants of early-phase recovery from skeletal muscle disuse."
The goal of the project is to map changes in key metabolic and molecular transducers of skeletal muscle disuse and rehabilitation in middle-aged men and women, while tracking clinically relevant morphologic, body composition and muscle function outcomes. The four-year project will run from August 2019 to March 2023.
The project addresses the major problems with current rehabilitation strategies. These include the inability to identify which patients are most at risk for decline during inactivity. Also, exercise as a prescription is now mostly done with a generic, one-size-fits-all approach, which does not optimize the benefit for all patients. Finally, we do not know the effect of exercise on those who have been immobile and how it is different from the effect on those who exercise regularly.
Other UTMB researchers involved in the project include Emily Arentson-Lantz, PhD, Research Scientist in the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism, Coordinator; and the following Co-Investigators: Steve Fisher, PhD, DPT, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy; and licensed physical therapist with advanced training in geriatrics, rehabilitation outcomes and physical activity in clinical environments; Elizabeth Lyons, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism with expertise in conducting physical activity interventions involving technology such as activity monitors and accelerometers; Blake Rasmussen, PhD, Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Metabolism and Director of the Skeletal Muscle Biology and Metabolism Laboratory; Heidi Spratt, PhD, Associate Professor of biostatistics in the UTMB Departments of Preventive Medicine and Community Health and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Elena Volpi, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the UTMB Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC); and Adam Wacher, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Read More: Press Release