Clinical exercise physiology
Student interests and requests for collaboration have motivated us to pursue several clinical exercise physiology projects.
First, we assisted an individual with an incurable mitochondrial disease to undertake an exercise program. The individual reversed the course of her disease by implementing a ketogenic diet, followed by an evidence-based progressive exercise program administered by Jack Zhao, at the time an Honours B.Sc. student in the lab, and an exceptional personal trainer/strength and conditioning coach.
Her profound results prompted her care team to publish a case study in the journal Mitochondrion, and her story was featured in the SFU News and since then on a segment in Magazine 26 (Nov 20, 2020) broadcast by Fairchild TV (program is in Cantonese). More information about her inspiring story can be found at her website.
Second, B.Sc. Honours student Braeden Charlton performed a study of coach knowledge of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), in which we surveyed BC Athletics coaches before and after an web-based educational module. In collaboration with BC Athletics, we developed a rack card for them to distribute (shown at right). Dr. Sara Forsyth, a Vancouver-based sport medicine physician, served as our collaborator on this project.
Third, we are collaborating with the Pediatric Cardiology group at BC Children's Hospital to investigate the association between sports participation and fitness in children with congenital heart defects. This work has been presented at the ACSM Annual Meeting and at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.
