Articles by author: Brock University

• Wellness Wish reunites Brock grad with grandfather

  Friday, July 06, 2018 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 6 July 2018 – R00138

  As a stream of relatives entered the house, 97-year-old Marshall Desveaux had one thing on his mind.

  “Where’s Katie?” he asked as each person entered the room.

  It had been four years since the New Waterford, N.S., resident had last seen his granddaughter, Brock University student Katie Desveaux, and the pair had a lot to catch up on.

  Katie was surprised by the Brock University Students’ Union this spring when her Wellness Wish was granted and a plane ticket to the east coast purchased in her name.

  Started in 2016, the BUSU-run Wellness Wishes initiative aims to ease the minds of students during exams by having them fill out a card with a wish before seeing them granted later in the school year.

  While Katie’s ask was bigger than most, there was nothing the 2018 Sport Management graduate from Toronto wanted more than to visit her grandfather in Nova Scotia. And it was a request BUSU simply could not ignore.

  Though the two speak on the phone often, the busyness of school and work had prevented Katie from being able to make the trip east to visit her grandfather for several years. But thanks to a gap in her schedule, and the generous granting of her Wellness Wish, she hopped on a flight bound for Halifax on June 27.

  “He was ecstatic to see me and had a huge smile on his face,” Katie said upon her return July 4. “He gave me a long hug and then we sat down right away and chatted about school and work while he ate his tea and cookies.”

  The duo made sure to make the most of their time together, taking on activities impossible through their phone chats.

  “We went for strawberry ice cream at his favourite place, The Bayside, every day after dinner,” said Katie. “He can eat whatever he wants because he’s been fit his entire life after serving in the Second World War and later working as a mailman.”

  In addition to the daily pilgrimage for frozen treats, Katie also spent time embracing her grandfather’s passion for sports.

  “We watched a ton of baseball,” she said. “He cheers for the Yankees and Blue Jays, so there were lots of games on.”

  During her grandfather’s downtime, Katie caught up with a dozen other relatives she has in Nova Scotia and took in some local scenery including the Cabot Trail and vast ocean views.

  While the pristine landscape was memorable, it was the time she spent chatting with her grandfather that she will forever cherish the most.

  “I know I want to see him as much as I can now,” she said. “I updated him on how the rest of the family is doing in Toronto and there was a lot to catch up on in my life too.”

  As she prepares to start a new job as a Brock University recruitment officer in a few weeks, Katie reflected on how the trip perfectly wrapped up the student portion of her time at Brock.

  “The trip meant the world to me because I never thought I would end up getting something like that granted,” she said. “It felt like it was meant to be. Brock has done so much for me and this was such a nice way to top my career off. Wellness Wishes is a great campaign for students and I hope it continues for years to come.”

  The Wellness Wishes initiative has granted hundreds of wishes to Brock students since 2016 and will return again next year. In addition to the Nova Scotia trip, some of the many wishes granted over during the 2017-18 school year included a new pair of Converse shoes, hoodies from the Campus Store, a pizza party at Isaac’s Bar and Grill and a yoga membership. A video showcasing this year’s recipients, including can be found online.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock research shows poor diet contributes to Alzheimer’s development

  Thursday, July 05, 2018 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 5 July 2018 – R00137

  Brock University — Communications & Public Affairs

  New research from Brock University has shown the food decisions you make today could contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease later in life.

  Brock research published recently in the journal Physiological Reports says a diet high in saturated fats and sucrose can lead to Alzheimer’s disease when paired with the normal aging process.

  Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behaviour, with symptoms worsening over time. Associated with aging, previous research has also linked the development of Alzheimer’s disease to diet-related obesity.

  Brock Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Rebecca MacPherson says her team’s latest research shows the impact that such a diet has on the “signaling pathways process” in which molecules in a cell work together to control one or more cell functions.

  “In this study we’re looking at the middle-aged group,” she says. “We’re examining how diet can alter signalling pathways in the brain at that point in time, early on before you’d see any symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.”

  The research team, which includes PhD student Kirsten Bott and master’s student Bradley Baranowski, also looked at how the high-fat, high-sucrose diet can bring about inflammation and changes to molecules in the brain, referred to as cellular stress.

  The team worked with two groups of middle-aged mice, feeding one group a high-fat, high-sugar diet and the other group, a normal diet.

  After 13 weeks, the researchers examined two areas of the mice brains: the hippocampus, responsible for long-term memory; and the prefrontal cortex, which regulates thinking, emotion and behaviour.

  The team compared the brains of the two groups of mice, as well as the middle-aged mice brains against those of the younger mice.

  The older mice brains showed more deterioration than the younger brains, suggesting that the normal aging process plays a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

  But there was a big difference between the brains of mice fed the high-fat, high-sugar diet compared to those eating a more well-balanced diet.

  “When we gave mice this high-fat, high-sugar diet, we saw exacerbated effects of aging on the different markers of inflammation, insulin signalling and cellular stress,” says Baranowski, the study’s lead author.

  He explains that the Western diet — typically low in fibre, fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains and high in red meat, dairy products and processed and artificially sweetened foods —  causes chronic, low-grade inflammation throughout the body.

  This results in the release of cytokines, small proteins that are important in cell signalling, but in this case act as markers for inflammation.

  These cytokines induced by low-grade inflammation “are able to pass the blood-brain barrier,” says Baranowski. These, in turn, activate other cells leading to more inflammation and insulin resistance in the brain.

  “The neuroinflammation and brain insulin resistance contribute to the increased activity of key enzymes responsible for producing the plaques you commonly see with Alzheimer’s disease,” he says.

  The research adds to basic understanding of the signalling pathways involved in Alzheimer’s, MacPherson says. Future work will examine what can impact these pathways.

  “People often view Alzheimer’s disease as a genetic disease when in fact, genetic mutations leading to Alzheimer’s accounts for less than five per cent of cases,” says Baranowski.

  “This study highlights that our lifestyle choices matter and can potentially be putting us at risk of developing or progressing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.”

  The team’s findings are outlined in their study, “Evaluation of neuropathological effects of a high‐fat high‐sucrose diet in middle‐aged male C57BL6/J mice,” published in the journal Physiological Reports.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

   * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

   Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases