School of Public Health news
- School of Public Health student receives grant
- School of Public Health professor part of international documentary on human emotions
School of Public Health student receives grant
Bonny Burns-Whitmore, MPH, RD, a DrPH student in the department of nutrition
at the School of Public Health, received $100,000 in grants for a research project.
One grant of $25,000 a year for two years is from the American Egg Board. The
other is a matching grant from the Agriculture Research Imitative through the
College of Agriculture, Cal Poly Pomona for $25,000 a year for two years.
The study is titled, "Effects of Feeding Regular Eggs, Omega-3 Eggs, and
Walnuts on Serum Lipids, Membrane Incorporation of Essential Fats, Thromboxane,
and Serum Lutein Levels, in Free-living Lacto-ovo Vegetarians."
"Since many people including vegetarians do not consume fish," states
Ms.
Burns-Whitmore, principle investigator for the study, "an alternate source
of the essential fats is necessary."
According to Ms. Burns-Whitmore, in order to establish docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
enriched eggs as a good source of DHA, it is important to establish its effects
on important health outcomes including blood lipids and thrombosis. Therefore,
the study will first look at those outcomes by comparing the effect of regular
eggs to DHA eggs.
The objectives of the study are: determine any changes of blood lipids (HDL,
LDL, VLDL, total cholesterol, and triacylglycerides) from animal sources and
plants sources in the subjects on the different diets; determine the different
incorporation of essential fats from animal and plant sources; determine the
levels of thromboxanes in the serum after each diet; and determine whether the
lutein serum levels increase with egg feeding.
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School of Public Health professor part of international documentary on human emotions
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| Lee S. Berk, DrPH, MPH, is filmed by the Australian Broadcasting Company crew as they interview him on the health benefits of positive emotions and laughter. |
On June 24, four people took a serious look at the proverbial biblical
wisdom, "a
merry heart does good like a medicine" and its associated mirthful laughter
at Loma Linda University's School of Public Health.
With the intention of showing others the important health benefits derived from
a "merry heart," Lee S. Berk, DrPH, MPH, associate professor of health
promotion and education, School of Public Health, and adjunct associate research
professor of pathology and human anatomy, School of Medicine, interviewed with
a film crew from the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) in one of the molecular
science labs on campus.
Dr. Berk began his study of mirthful laughter and positive emotions as a natural
progression following his initial research with exercise immunology in sports
medicine 20 years ago. The science field of mind body medicine is known as psychoneuroimmunology
or neuroimmunology and is now recognized as one of the scientific basis for integrative
medicine.
Dr. Berk is working with ABC and the Canadian Broadcasting Company on their international
documentary series on the science of emotions.
The documentary, "Human Emotions," includes four one-hour long episodes
on anger, fear, love, and happiness. Dr. Berk's interview is part of the
science of happiness episode.
The interview focused on mirthful laughter's role in happiness and the
specific types of benefits it has for the human body. Dr. Berk noted how even
though progress has been made in studying the neuroimmunology of the beneficial
effects of positive lifestyles related to "a merry heart," researchers
are still in the "horse and buggy era" concerning other lifestyle
behaviors that integrate nutrition, music, exercise, religion, and health.
There are some definite pluses that mirthful laughter provides, as it helps decrease
certain stress hormones and increases natural killer cell activity. Therefore,
it simultaneously makes people "feel good" while improving functioning
of the immune system. These benefits not only come from the actual event or activity
of mirthful laughter according to Dr. Berk, but also from the anticipation/expectation
of "looking forward" to a positive event. Dr. Berk has
presented this concept and the related data at the last two annual scientific
meetings of the Society for Neurosciences in San Diego (2001) and Orlando (2002).
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