The effectiveness of combined heat therapy and polyphenol supplementation on markers of cardiometabolic health

Research Group:

Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences

Proposed supervisory team:

Dr Ash Willmott

Prof Justin Roberts

Theme:

Integrative Strategies for Functional Health & Performance

Summary of the research project:

The term, 'cardiometabolic disease' describes a range of conditions, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes (T2DM). These conditions share similar risk factors, such high blood pressure and, overweight and obesity. With CVD being the leading cause of non-communicable death globally and, an estimated ~30% of humans worldwide either overweight or obese, alternate interventions are desperately required aside of, or in combination with those which have been traditionally focussed upon (e.g. increasing physical activity, improving diet quality). Despite advocating and implementing exercise interventions to prevent and/or treat risk factors associated with cardiometabolic disease, there remains many challenges for the public, including low adherence, time constraint, accessibility, cost and confidence. As such, researchers are investigating alternative interventions that overcome these limitations in hope of providing more tools and strategies to reduce this serious health concern and economic burden worldwide.

Heat therapy strategies and nutritional supplementation of plant-based polyphenols demonstrate promising efficacy in improving markers of cardiometabolic health (e.g. reducing blood pressure and inflammation). However, current methods of heat therapy are restricted to specialist and expensive facilities/equipment that are difficult to access for the public and have only been studied in isolation. Portable sauna pods however offer a simple, accessible and inexpensive alternative for heat therapy (Willmott et al., 2023), but require further investigation into their efficacy following long-term use. Plant-based polyphenol supplementation (via olive-derived fruit water phytocomplex that is rich in hydroxytyrosol [Roberts et al., 2022-2023]) has shown promising effects on markers of health and exercise-induced oxidative stress. However, there is a lack of evidence supporting its combined efficacy alongside the use of heat therapy and thus warrants further investigation.

Therefore, this PhD project will aim to determine the long-term efficacy of both heat therapy and polyphenol-rich supplementation (such as olive-derived fruit water), through a series of independent and combined research designs, on markers of cardiometabolic health (including oxidative stress, inflammation, blood pressure and body composition).

Where you’ll study:

Cambridge

Funding:

This project is self-funded. You may be eligible for doctoral funding through government funding scheme. 

Details of studentships for which funding is available are selected by a competitive process and are advertised on our jobs website as they become available.

Next steps:

If you wish to be considered for this project, you will need to apply for our Sport and Exercise Sciences MPhil, PhD. In the section of the application form entitled ’Outline research proposal’, please quote the above title and include a research proposal. Please contact Dr Ash Willmott (ash.willmott@aru.ac.uk) for further enquiries and to discuss the PhD project in more detail.