2008 Press Releases
Elderly to benefit from Research Project 'ELDERMET'
10.09.2008
ELDERMET is a landmark project based at University College Cork (UCC), Cork area hospitals and Teagasc, Fermoy. It aims to provide answers to questions surrounding the role of gut bacteria in health.
10.09.2008
ELDERMET is a landmark project based at University College Cork (UCC), Cork area hospitals and Teagasc, Fermoy. It aims to provide answers to questions surrounding the role of gut bacteria in health.
The ELDERMET project (funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and the Health Research Board as part of the Food for Health Research Initiative, 2007) is investigating the association between gut bacteria, food and health in the elderly in Ireland.
Modern molecular techniques have allowed scientists to show that the pattern of bacteria (the microbiota) in the gut varies from person to person. Changes in the microbiota can lead to changes in health (e.g. inflammatory diseases) or even obesity. It has also become clear that the microbiota is tightly liked to diet - where the food you eat probably controls the kind of bacteria you carry - but relatively little is known about how diet and lifestyle influence, and are influenced by, the bacteria in the gut. What is known is that diet influences health indirectly as well as directly, but if the wrong microbiota is present, there may be health issues that cannot be resolved.
A new team in Cork is tackling this issue, using elderly subjects as their focus. As in other western countries, improvements in health-care and life-expectancy mean that elderly citizens now constitute a significantly increased proportion of the Irish population. This has implications for provision of community health-care facilities for this expanded demographic group.
Once the connection between diet, lifestyle, gut bacteria and health has been investigated by ELDERMET, the knowledge gained will not only influence the foods eaten by older people, but will also promote health by shaping the design of new foods and food ingredients produced specifically for the older age-group. Further practical outcomes such as improved quality of life and new diagnostics for illness and disease highlight the significance and potential impact of ELDERMET. These outcomes will maintain the Irish food industry at the forefront of scientific excellence for understanding diet-health interactions.
For ELDERMET to be successful, we need you! We are recruiting people who will help to answer these important scientific questions and aid in the establishment of dietary strategies for the elderly Irish population. If you or someone you know is over 65 years and would like more information, or would like to be part of ELDERMET, please contact: Dr Siobhán Cusack at: 021 4901754 (s.cusack@ucc.ie) or visit website at: http://eldermet.ucc.ie/
829MMcS
Modern molecular techniques have allowed scientists to show that the pattern of bacteria (the microbiota) in the gut varies from person to person. Changes in the microbiota can lead to changes in health (e.g. inflammatory diseases) or even obesity. It has also become clear that the microbiota is tightly liked to diet - where the food you eat probably controls the kind of bacteria you carry - but relatively little is known about how diet and lifestyle influence, and are influenced by, the bacteria in the gut. What is known is that diet influences health indirectly as well as directly, but if the wrong microbiota is present, there may be health issues that cannot be resolved.
A new team in Cork is tackling this issue, using elderly subjects as their focus. As in other western countries, improvements in health-care and life-expectancy mean that elderly citizens now constitute a significantly increased proportion of the Irish population. This has implications for provision of community health-care facilities for this expanded demographic group.
Once the connection between diet, lifestyle, gut bacteria and health has been investigated by ELDERMET, the knowledge gained will not only influence the foods eaten by older people, but will also promote health by shaping the design of new foods and food ingredients produced specifically for the older age-group. Further practical outcomes such as improved quality of life and new diagnostics for illness and disease highlight the significance and potential impact of ELDERMET. These outcomes will maintain the Irish food industry at the forefront of scientific excellence for understanding diet-health interactions.
For ELDERMET to be successful, we need you! We are recruiting people who will help to answer these important scientific questions and aid in the establishment of dietary strategies for the elderly Irish population. If you or someone you know is over 65 years and would like more information, or would like to be part of ELDERMET, please contact: Dr Siobhán Cusack at: 021 4901754 (s.cusack@ucc.ie) or visit website at: http://eldermet.ucc.ie/
829MMcS