Most of the nutrition-related research now under way is problem-oriented. Several projects could result in control of significant health care costs, dampening the rate of increase in overall health care expenditures.
Based on animal research at the medical school showing that atherosclerosis can be reversed, several investigators are evaluating diets that have the potential of slowing, halting or reversing atherosclerosis. Another investigator made headlines nationally when he reported to the American Heart Association that some people have a common genetic variant of a standard protein in the blood that appears to protect them from excess dietary cholesterol.
Losing weight and controlling sodium intake may allow some elderly high blood pressure patients to stop using blood pressure drugs. A study called the Trial Of Nonpharmacologic Intervention in the Elderly (TONE) showed that either weight loss or control of dietary salt were "fairly effective substitutes for medication for up to half the participants."
Another team is participating in an effort to delay, through diet, initiation of costly kidney dialysis in patients with advanced kidney disease.
A fourth project is examining the effect of reduced fat intake on the risk of several types of cancer and heart disease in women, who usually have been excluded from dietary studies.
Nutritional studies are a key element of the General Clinical Research Center Ten of the 37 are nutrition-related under the umbrella of the Nutrition Center.