Fact Sheet - Harper Government supports research on exercise for people with spinal cord injuries
[ Press Release 2012-10 ]Project title: "Improving cardiovascular health for Canadians living with spinal cord injury: Effects of exercise and targeted education" (CIHR Team Grant: Chronic Disease Risk and Intervention Strategies).
Lead investigator: Dr. Andrei Krassioukov, professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, UBC Faculty of Medicine; spinal cord physician, GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre; principal investigator, ICORD spinal cord injury research program at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and University of British Columbia.
Institution: ICORD at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and University of British Columbia.
CIHR funding: $1,924,138 over five years, through CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health.
Description:
Annually, over 1,000 Canadians sustain a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) and unwittingly join more than 41,000 Canadians living with this chronic and debilitating injury.
Recent data reveal that people with SCI are developing chronic diseases at younger ages and at greater rates than the able-bodied population. This alarming trend appears to be caused by inactivity-related illnesses, particularly cardiovascular (CV) disease, which is the main cause of death and disease in people with SCI.
Exercise training has the potential to improve strength, performance, and well-being among people with SCI. However, we have little information on the CV effects of training in people with SCI. People with SCI respond differently to exercise. There are also important differences in CV disease between men and women: we do not yet know if this is true for people with SCI, or if men and women with SCI will need to approach exercise differently to improve CV health. This is information that we urgently need to develop exercise programs that will be effective in improving CV health for Canadians living with SCI.
The ultimate goal of this research is to improve CV health for people with chronic SCI through optimized exercise and targeted education. This project gathers a diverse team of 13 prestigious scientists working at 6 Canadian universities. They will use both rodent models of SCI and training in people with SCI to examine the effects of exercise on CV risk. They will also determine whether educating health care providers on specific CV problems associated with SCI will help to reduce the financial burden of care, and improve treatment, of people with SCI.
By providing important information on exercise training, and targeted education to clinicians, this project will reduce chronic disease and improve CV health for Canadians living with chronic SCI.
About the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR):
CIHR is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 14,100 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
About the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH):
ICRH supports research into the causes, mechanisms, prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, support systems, and palliation for a wide range of conditions associated with the heart, lung, brain (stroke), blood, blood vessels, critical care, and sleep.
About ICORD (International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries):
ICORD is a world leading health research centre focused on spinal cord injury. From the lab-based cellular level of understanding injury to rehabilitation and recovery, our researchers are dedicated to the development and translation of more effective strategies to promote prevention, functional recovery, and improved quality of life after spinal cord injury. Located at Vancouver General Hospital in the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, ICORD is supported by UBC Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute.
About the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute:
A world leader in translational health research, this is the research body of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. VCH Research Institute includes BC's largest academic and teaching health sciences centres: Vancouver General Hospital, UBC Hospital, and GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre. The Institute is academically affiliated with UBC Faculty of Medicine and is one of Canada's top funded research centres, with $83.1 million in research funding for 2010/2011. In addition to major partnerships with national clinical trials, research networks, and industry, VCHRI co-hosts two national Centres of Excellence for Commercialization Research (CERC) and one National Centre of Excellence, and has 13 Canada Research Chairs and one Canada Excellence Research Chair.
About the University of British Columbia (UBC):
UBC is one of North America's largest public research and teaching institutions, and one of only two Canadian institutions consistently ranked among the world's 40 best universities. Surrounded by the beauty of the Canadian West, it is a place that inspires bold, new ways of thinking that have helped make it a national leader in areas as diverse as community service learning, sustainability and research commercialization. UBC offers more than 55,000 students a range of innovative programs and attracts $550 million per year in research funding from government, non-profit organizations and industry through 7,000 grants.