Research Supervisor Connect
Multiple projects are available targetting diet and cardiovascular disease, with some of these projects focusing on sex differences between diet and prevention. The opporunity includes being located in a thriving reasearch environment of the Westmead Applied Research Centre, surrounded by academics from all stages of their career as well as from diverse backgrouns -including clinicians/cardiologists, dieticians, primary care and allied health researchers.
Associate Professor Sarah Zaman.
Westmead Applied Research Centre (WARC)
Masters/PHD
Much of what we know about diet and risk of cardiovascular disease comes from observational studies that fail to prove causation. As a result, much controversy surrounds the best diet to prevent cardiovascular disease, and more research is needed to better inform our clinical guidelines. Different dietary models have emerged recently, such as the low carbohydrate/high fat diet, shown to improve insulin resistance, diabetic control, cause weight loss, lower TG's and increase HDL. However, the major concern in a high fat diet is the future risk of coronary atherosclerosis. Most past clinical trials have relied upon randomization of thousands of participants in order to measure the effect of a diet on heart disease. However, with newer technologies in imaging, coronary artery plaque can now be measured non-invasively to determine dietary effects on plaque progression and regression. This project involves elucidating benefits of a different dietary interventions in a population with coronary artery disease and the effect this has on coronary atherosclerosis. This will be done through both clinical trials recruiting patients prospectively, as well as the use of large datasets to determine association of dietary intake with risk of cardiovascular disease. This project can be suitable for students from different backgrounds, including a medical, science or nutrition background. If you are interested in examining diet and heart disease prevention – with the aim of improving our clinical guidelines, this is for you.
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 2882