*** Free Laboratory-Based Fitness Assessment ***

[pablodomene]

..........

 

[lancaster]

a couple of questions.

do we get to keep our data?
does our data stay secret to everyone else?
how long does it take?
1 visit or multiple?
are foods/drinks provided?
are there showers etc?

 

[pablodomene]

Yes you can keep the comprehensive report that contains all of your data from the fitness assessment and the tests.

Yes all data is kept confidential. Participants won't be able to access anyone else's results - only their own.

Testing can be done over a 3 or 4 week period, depending on availability of the participant.

We require participants to attend 5 sessions on the university campus, each lasting about 1.5 hours.

Unfortunately food won't be provided (other than drinking water in the laboratory).

And yes there are showers and changing room facilities.

Any other questions, please let me know.

Cheers,
Pablo Domene, BA

School of Human Sciences
St Mary's University College
Waldegrave Road
Strawberry Hill
Twickenham
TW1 4SX

Email: 090627@live.smuc.ac.uk
Mobile: 07551 321637

 

[JayKosta]

Is there any indication that ingestion of large amounts of dietary nitrate or beetroot juice can cause physiological problems - e.g. involving kidney or liver?
I am aware that use of beetroot juice can result in discoloration of urine and stool.

How is this concern addressed in your 'informed consent' agreement?

And YES, this does look like an interesting area of study -
ref: http://jap.physiology.org/content/107/4/1144.long

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

 

[pablodomene]

Jay...great question.

The published literature in peer-reviewed scientific journals to date has indicated no adverse effects from dietary nitrate ingestion (other than purple stools and urine when consuming it in vegetable juice form from beets) in the amounts we, and other university research teams, are administering.

The highest food sources of nitrate are in spinach and beets. Although, nitrate is essentially all over the place - in your drinking water, in bottled water, in the soil your vegetables grew in, as a preserving agent in processed meats and fish, in fertilisers and pesticides used in the agricultural industry, etc etc. You pretty much can't get away from it even if you tried.

Under controlled conditions dietary nitrate does have some physiological effects that may be positive for general health and/or exercise performance.

Cheers,
Pablo Domene, BA

School of Human Sciences
St Mary's University College
Waldegrave Road
Strawberry Hill
Twickenham
TW1 4SX

Email: 090627@live.smuc.ac.uk
Mobile: 07551 321637

 

[Estonia77]

Healthy volunteers are needed for a cycling exercise research study. A comprehensive fitness report containing the results of a lactate profile and VO2max test (including heart rate ranges, corresponding power outputs, and percentages of VO2max) will be given free of charge to all volunteers.

Researchers at St Mary's University College in Twickenham want to determine if dietary nitrate (THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT IN BEETROOT JUICE) will affect the physiological responses to submaximal cycling exercise and improve 20km cycling time trial performance. Volunteers should be between 20–50 years old, not taking blood pressure medication, and regularly cycling at least 2 hours per week.

Pablo Domene, BA
Email: 090627@live.smuc.ac.uk
Mobile: 07551 321637

This project has been approved by the St Mary’s University College Ethics Sub-Committee as postgraduate research study R_HS_0211/02 (14/12/10).

So you possess the accreditation of a Bachelor of Arts degree and you are involved in the diagnostics of scientific study? How did you ever obtain approval from the Ethics Sub-Committee?

 

[Estonia77]

Hmm ...

So you possess the accreditation of a Bachelor of Arts degree and are involved in the diagnostics of scientific study? How did you ever obtain approval from the Ethics Sub-Committe?

 

[pablodomene]

A few people have asked if they participate...whether they'll find out if they are a 'responder' or a 'non-responder' to nitrate supplementation.

Yes...all participants will be given feedback on exactly how much of a difference the supplement made...for them individually (some people may respond better than others to this type of potential performance enhancer).

Regards,
Pablo Domene, BA

School of Human Sciences
St Mary's University College
Waldegrave Road
Strawberry Hill
Twickenham
TW1 4SX

Email: 090627@live.smuc.ac.uk
Mobile: 07551 321637

 

[lancaster]

is it "blinded" to subjects,
or double blind

 

[pablodomene]

For this study we are using a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design.

Regards,
Pablo Domene, BA

School of Human Sciences
St Mary's University College
Waldegrave Road
Strawberry Hill
Twickenham
TW1 4SX

Email: 090627@live.smuc.ac.uk
Mobile: 07551 321637

 

[Alex Simmons/RST]

For this study we are using a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design.

Regards,
Pablo Domene, BA

School of Human Sciences
St Mary's University College
Waldegrave Road
Strawberry Hill
Twickenham
TW1 4SX

Email: 090627@live.smuc.ac.uk
Mobile: 07551 321637

Hope it goes well.

Be nice if it were performed only on trained cyclists, rather than those who ride 2 hrs/week.

 

[FrankDay]

Hope it goes well.

Be nice if it were performed only on trained cyclists, rather than those who ride 2 hrs/week.

Those who ride only 2 hrs a week are trained when compared to those riding zero hours a week. They just aren't as well trained as those riding 20 hours a week.

I presume they will take what they can get and then, once the results are in, it will be up to the reader to determine if the results apply to them. It is not clear to me that we would expect a better trained cyclist to respond to such an intervention differently than a lesser trained one but others may differ.

 

[Martin318is]

With professional riders it can get a little difficult to see changes in performance when someone is already so well advanced.

One idea is that with a lesser trained group of riders it will be more 'obvious' in the results whether dietry nitrate has an impact upon performance but that it would be a lot less clear what impact that would be. There would be a lot of volatility in the two groups but there would hopefully be a more clear difference in mean performance.

ie, it would potentially help to answer the question of whether its worth doing but a further study using trained athletes would be required to begin defining what the confidence range based performance improvement might be.