Fourth-year nutrition students Ruth Crowle and Kasia Wojtowicz wanted to know what effect a tumor and chemotherapy had on the content of fatty acids in adipose (fatty) tissue, and how consuming fish oil during chemotherapy would affect the tissue.
They made it the subject of their capstone research, the problem-solving investigative project that's a requirement of their degree.
Their research and that of 25 other capstone projects was shared during a poster display by the NUTR 401 class in the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy in March.
Little is known about the effect of fish oil on adipose tissue, said Crowle, but what is known is that loss of adipose tissue occurs before loss of lean body mass. That's important to cancer patients as changes in adipose tissue could warn of something more dire.
"Loss of lean body mass and adipose tissue is related to survival rates," she said.
Their research, using female rats who were fed fish oil inside their chow, found that chemotherapy depleted the fatty acids EPA and DHA in adipose tissue, but that fish oil mitigated the loss significantly.
For their capstone project, Kalin Herbach and Alina Rudnik studied children aged 2 to 18 attending a pediatric obesity centre. They wanted insight into the demographic, cardio-metabolic and psychological characteristics of the children and their families.
One unexpected discovery was that 67 per cent of the children did not have mental health issues, but of those that did, the percentage was higher than normal for their age group. For instance, a normal percentage of ADHD is nine per cent, while in their population it was 12 per cent.
"This suggests there are many factors contributing to childhood obesity," said Rudnik. "So we need to address all those factors and target treatment to every single child."
Other intriguing findings included Catherine Weleschuk's inquiry into whether women in Alberta are following the World Health Organization's recommendation that infants receive exclusive breastfeeding for up to six months. She found out they aren't, with most discontinuing after three months.
In response to interviews with health care and service providers supporting pre- and postnatal women facing adverse conditions ranging from teen pregnancy to family violence, Larissa Ens and Erika Rodning found workers do far more than offer nutritional advice. Dietitians are often sounding boards for isolated mothers and refer them to a host of other agencies.
"It's really important to recognize that healthy eating and health may not be top of the agenda for a mother who has just lost her house," said Rodning.
While their capstone research ends with this study, their research team is hoping to design, implement, and evaluate interventions based on the perspectives of health care and service providers explored by the two students.
They made it the subject of their capstone research, the problem-solving investigative project that's a requirement of their degree.
Their research and that of 25 other capstone projects was shared during a poster display by the NUTR 401 class in the Edmonton Clinic Health Academy in March.
Little is known about the effect of fish oil on adipose tissue, said Crowle, but what is known is that loss of adipose tissue occurs before loss of lean body mass. That's important to cancer patients as changes in adipose tissue could warn of something more dire.
"Loss of lean body mass and adipose tissue is related to survival rates," she said.
Their research, using female rats who were fed fish oil inside their chow, found that chemotherapy depleted the fatty acids EPA and DHA in adipose tissue, but that fish oil mitigated the loss significantly.
For their capstone project, Kalin Herbach and Alina Rudnik studied children aged 2 to 18 attending a pediatric obesity centre. They wanted insight into the demographic, cardio-metabolic and psychological characteristics of the children and their families.
One unexpected discovery was that 67 per cent of the children did not have mental health issues, but of those that did, the percentage was higher than normal for their age group. For instance, a normal percentage of ADHD is nine per cent, while in their population it was 12 per cent.
"This suggests there are many factors contributing to childhood obesity," said Rudnik. "So we need to address all those factors and target treatment to every single child."
Other intriguing findings included Catherine Weleschuk's inquiry into whether women in Alberta are following the World Health Organization's recommendation that infants receive exclusive breastfeeding for up to six months. She found out they aren't, with most discontinuing after three months.
In response to interviews with health care and service providers supporting pre- and postnatal women facing adverse conditions ranging from teen pregnancy to family violence, Larissa Ens and Erika Rodning found workers do far more than offer nutritional advice. Dietitians are often sounding boards for isolated mothers and refer them to a host of other agencies.
"It's really important to recognize that healthy eating and health may not be top of the agenda for a mother who has just lost her house," said Rodning.
While their capstone research ends with this study, their research team is hoping to design, implement, and evaluate interventions based on the perspectives of health care and service providers explored by the two students.