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Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Salt-Sodium / 16.04.2025

Editor's note:  Not everyone should eat a potassium-enriched diet.  Too much potassium can be toxic and cause serious side effects including cardiac arrhythmias.  Hyperkalemia, or elevated potassium levels, is a particular concern for patients with impaired kidney function or on certain medications, including some blood pressure medications and diuretics (water pills).  Do not start a higher potassium diet without the approval of your health care provider. MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anita T. Layton PhD Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Pharmacy and Biology University of Waterloo MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Why did you decide to examine a potential link between potassium intake and lowering blood pressure? Response: Our diet is so very different from our long-ago ancestors, especially in terms of sodium-to-potassium ratio. We eat so much sodium and so little potassium, that ratio is reversed in our ancestors as well as people in isolated tribes, where high blood pressure is very rare. So, let's figure out why and thus this stud MedicalResearch.com: In layman's terms, how the ratio of potassium to sodium can both negatively and positively impact the body? Response: Having more potassium in your body would encourage the kidneys to pee out more sodium (and water), which lowers blood pressure. (more…)
Author Interviews, Coffee, Ophthalmology / 04.12.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kristine Dalton PhD FAAO, FBCLA School of Optometry & Vision Science University of Waterloo Waterloo, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Dynamic visual acuity refers to the ability to detect and perceive small details in objects that are moving relative to an observer.  Dynamic visual acuity is a complex visual function, that involves a number of different aspects of vision, including detecting the target, moving the eyes appropriately to observe the target, and processing the visual information from the target in the brain to interpret what we are seeing.   What makes dynamic visual acuity so interesting to study, is that as a visual function, it appears to play an important role in a number of real-world situations, including playing sports, driving, and piloting, and it may provide us more information about how the visual system is functioning compared to the more traditional, static vision tests alone. Previous research has demonstrated that consumption of caffeine has been shown to benefit physiological, psychomotor, and cognitive performance.  More recently there has been an increased interest in studying the impacts of caffeine on the vision system, however the impact of caffeine on dynamic visual acuity has not been studied.  This study was designed to address this limitation in the literature, particularly because dynamic visual acuity appears to be such an important visual function for real-world activities.   (more…)
Author Interviews, Memory / 04.10.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Noah Forrin, PhD Postdoctoral fellow in Psychology University of Waterloo  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Everyday experience suggests that people have poor memory for information that they encounter prior to their own public performance.  For example, prior to giving a presentation at school or at work, people often struggle to remember information from a presentation that occurred before their own. n our study, we tested the hypothesis that performance anticipation reduces memory for pre-performance information.  We found that when participants anticipated a simple upcoming presentation--reading words out loud in front of someone else--their memory was diminished prior to reading those words out loud.  Memory may be reduced in this way because people are thinking about their upcoming performance or because they are anxious (i.e., performance anxiety). (more…)