USANA & Linus Pauling Institute: A Valuable
Partnership
Partnership
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| Brian Dixon |
The following post is courtesy of USANA Senior Scientist Brian Dixon, Ph.D., who graduated from Oregon State and conducted graduate work at LPI.
USANA has had a long-standing relationship with the Linus Pauling Institute, an organization that is committed to "micronutrient research for optimum health." It is something I’m very proud of both personally and professionally. I graduated from Oregon State University and conducted my graduate work in laboratory research under the mentorship of Dr. Tory Hagen.
Professor Hagen’s research focuses on the underlying biochemical changes that occur in our cells during the aging process. I stayed on to do a post-doc in clinical gerontology investigating whether the elderly absorb nutrients, specifically lipoic acid, differently than their younger counterparts. This study was funded by USANA and is how I met Dr. Mark Brown, Dr. John Cuomo, and Dr. Tim Wood. USANA recruited me away from the LPI in January 2009.
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| USANA's Adam Dern and LPI's Meltem Musa |
- Determine the function and role of vitamins and essential minerals (micronutrients) and chemicals from plants (phytochemicals) in promoting optimum health and preventing or treating disease
- Determine the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in human health and disease, and the protective effects of dietary factors with antioxidant or anti-inflammatory properties
- Help people everywhere achieve a healthy and productive life, full of vitality, with minimal suffering, and free of cancer and other debilitating diseases
A Mutually Beneficial Relationship
It’s great to be able and pick up the phone and ask the various principal investigators questions regarding the latest nutritional research.
As a testament to the success of our partnership, USANA funding has supported graduate and undergraduate research, published nine scientific, peer-reviewed journal articles, and presented 13 scientific studies at leading national and international conferences on topics such as free radicals, antioxidants, detoxification, nutrition, cancer, inflammation, biology, aging, sports medicine, diet and optimum health.
A complete list of USANA-funded studies conducted at the Linus Pauling Institute can be found on USANA.com.
A recent study completed on a healthy lifestyle program in elementary school-aged children was just featured in the LPI Newsletter. The most surprising result for me was that in the relatively educated, affluent student population in Corvallis, Oregon, they found that most children did not get the recommended amounts of vitamins A and E, calcium, and magnesium from their diet, and many also did not get enough vitamin K, iron, and zinc. The complete details can be found on the LPI site.
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| Dr. John Cuomo |
However, it’s not all work and no play, as Dr. Cuomo and I learned after our recent visit to the Linus Pauling Institute.
After we finished meeting with various principal investigators discussing progress on our ongoing studies, as well as next year’s studies, we and some of the Linus Pauling Institute faculty and staff got a personal tour of the currently under construction Linus Pauling Science Center — a state-of-the-art research center that will be the Linus Pauling Institute’s new home this coming August.
The next day we had the opportunity to be the special guests of Dr. Balz Frei, the Director of the Institute, his lovely wife Simone Frei, LPI Program Coordinator, and Michele Erickson, LPI Director of Development, to take in the last football game of the year — “The Civil War” — between Oregon and Oregon State.
But don’t let all the “play” fool you. USANA is fully committed to supporting cutting-edge nutritional research and development whether in studies conducted by top scientists in our on-site laboratories, consulting regularly with our Scientific Advisory Council, or findings from the many research partnerships we have across the globe and especially the Linus Pauling Institute.
For More Information...
Be sure to check the Science section of USANA.com. It is constantly updated with the latest in nutritional research, including studies conducted at the Linus Pauling Institute.
