Carol Stream, Illinois

Creatine Supplementation At Simulated Altitude

Military personnel often encounter harsh environments such as high altitudes and hypoxic conditions, leading to significant constraints on their exercise capacity and performance. At sea-level creatine supplementation increases exercise performance; however no experimental studies have examined the effect of creatine supplementation at simulated altitude. The overall objective of this study is to investigate the effects of creatine supplementation on exercise performance, via a repeated sprints test (Wingate Test) after a 2-day supplementation period, compared to a placebo group.

A Weight Maintenance Program Promoting Fat Loss in Pregnancy in Women With Obesity

One hundred pregnant women with obesity who are otherwise healthy will be studied from early pregnancy until approximately 2 weeks postpartum. Major assessments will occur at baseline (13-16 weeks gestation), 27-29 weeks gestation, 35-37 weeks gestation, and approximately 2 weeks postpartum. Safety assessments will be collected every 4 weeks after enrollment. Participants will be randomized within site (approximately 50 individuals at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and approximately 50 individuals at California Polytechnic University) and obesity to either: Provider Directed Group or Weight Maintenance Group.

Adherence to Different Exercise Interventions

Regular exercise, in the form of walking 150 minutes per week, is widely regarded as having many health and fitness benefits. Despite these well-known benefits, adherence to exercise interventions is extremely low. When sedentary adults start an exercise training program only 50% adhere to the program and meet the national recommendations of 150 minutes per week. A possible explanation of the low adherence is that most adults only walk for exercise, and that providing a variety of exercise may increase adherence. Preliminary observational data show that a variety of exercise may increase weekly exercise expenditure compared to other interventions. The overall objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility, adherence, and acceptability of different exercise interventions including 1) walk intervention, 2) variety intervention, and 3) progressive intervention (see below for description).

Early Intervention to Promote Cardiovascular Health of Mothers and Children