Garrison Messenger
I am Garrison Messenger, I was born in East Lansing Michigan, and I am the youngest of 4 in my family. I am a graduating senior at Indiana University with a degree in Exercise Science. Over the summer I work as a medical assistant for a range of doctors. Including dermatologists, plastic surgeons, facial plastic surgeons and podiatrists. Growing up I stayed very busy with sports and school. I played basketball, baseball, and tennis throughout high school. I also do philanthropy work regarding mental health and to help support IUCAPS and sexual assault services. One fun fact about me is that I have a condition called anisocoria which means that one of my pupils is a size bigger than the other one even though I can see very clearly.
Effects of Breakfast Consumption on Thinking and Memory Skills in Older Adults
Introduction: The Population of the United States is aging. Currently, there are roughly 46 million U.S. citizens that are age 65 or older, by the year 2050 that number is expected to increase to about 90 million individuals. The main concern regarding this demographic is maintaining cognitive function. Maintaining cognitive function is important because the older population is at risk for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and dementia. Maintaining and even improving cognitive function could quite possibly be done through nutrition. Eggs are a good source of protein and other nutrients that are associated with cognitive function, and with Eggs being readily available throughout the United States and their relatively cheap costs the consumption of eggs could quite possibly be a great enhancement to the cognitive function of older adults.
Data/Intervention process: The study design is going to be a Randomized, controlled, double-blind trial with an expected sample size of 64 participants (n=64). Recruitment of participants will be done through an outreach campaign which will include outreach websites such as www.redcap.org and www.iconnect/indiana.com Then once participants are recruited a baseline assessment will be performed on all participants which will include a baseline score from a cognition computer exam along with a full-body workup including blood work will be performed. Then there will be two groups that participants will be assigned to randomly. The first group will be the intervention group, For the next 12 weeks, this group will be supplied with breakfast meals that contain whole eggs as the main entree. While the second group called the control group will be presented with breakfasts that will have a similar composition of calories and macros (I.e. Fat, protein, carbohydrates) but these meals will not contain any eggs. At the end of the 12 weeks, all participants will be tasked with completing another computer cognition exam and another full-body workup will be completed along with bloodwork. Then this would be the end of the intervention and data collection.
Analysis: After the intervention and collection of data from the participants such as the cognition exam scores and body composition results. Analysis of this data will be performed. First Exam scores from before and after the intervention will be compared to determine if there is a correlated relationship between egg consumption and cognitive function. Analysis of covariance will be used to compare the two groups and the changes that have occurred between them. Then Mediation analysis will be used to identify biomarker concentrations from the blood tests of the participants. Lastly, body composition data will also be used to help determine the overall effects of egg consumption on the participants.
Expected Results: Due to previously known information that a higher combined intake of Lutein and zeaxanthin are associated with faster performance on cognitive flexibility tasks in overweight and obese adults along with these two nutrients being thought of having a positive impact on higher-level brain function the expected result is that increased egg consumption will improve cognitive function due to an increase in these nutrients associated with cognitive function, along with increased levels of protein intake from eggs which are also associated with cognitive function.
Conclusion: The purpose of this nutrition study is to hopefully prove that an accessible and inexpensive option is readily available to the American public that can help improve cognitive function in elderly adults and to show that the consumption of eggs can help maintain and even improve one's cognitive function.
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