This past week my husband and I celebrated our birthdays with a mini-vacation to the coast of North Carolina. We love traveling together, sharing new experiences while enjoying the outdoors.
One of the most memorable experiences for us this week was boating across the inlet and hiking along the natural barrier island of Shackleford Banks.
The beauty of the island will stay with me forever. Sharing it with Kent only added to the joy. Even after 30 years of marriage, the happiness we both feel through sharing these experiences never grows old.
I have written before about Shawn Achor’s book The Happiness Advantage. (1) Early in the book, Dr. Achor discusses various ways we can train ourselves to shift our mood towards the positive. In one example, Achor cites the work of CU-Boulder assistant professor of psychology Leaf Van Boven. Van Boven found through a series of surveys and experiments over several years that experiences make people happier than material goods. (2)
The research indicated that spending money on activities, especially ones with other people, such as concerts or travel, provides far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or luxury items.
Spending money on other people has also been shown to give more satisfaction and happiness to the spender than spending the same amount on oneself.
What about you? Do find yourself happier spending money on experiences vs. material items?
Is there a difference in how we perceive spending money, based on these criteria?
Try the following activity: Draw two columns on a piece of paper and track your purchases over the next month. Are you spending more on things or experiences? At the end of the month, look back over each column and think about the pleasure each purchase brought you, and for how long.
These purchases do not have to be luxury items or expensive trips. Start by thinking about the next $20 you spend. You may be surprised at how you begin to change your own beliefs about money.
So, what do you think? Is it true? Can you think of other reasons why an experience is better than a material good? Are there situations that the material goods bring greater happiness? I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.
Live Well,
Robin
References:
1) Achor, Shawn, The Happiness Advantage, Crown Publishing Group, New York, 2010.
2) University Of Colorado At Boulder. “Experiences Make People Happier Than Material Goods, Says University Of Colorado Prof.”ScienceDaily, 19 Dec. 2004. Web. 1 May 2012.
Leave the USANA Home Office headed east toward the towering Wasatch Mountains and any one of three routes will put you at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) in less than 20 minutes. There are 12 measly miles of road between the corporate headquarters and the medical campus—road that represents a connection deepened by, but not built upon, proximity.
Collaboration is the vocabulary word Tyler Barker, Ph.D., a physiologist and clinical researcher at TOSH, would use to describe the research relationship with his neighbors to the west. It’s a collaboration manifested in shared interest, workload, and desire to be better through a two-heads-are-better-than-one philosophy.
“USANA isn’t just supporting the research, they’re doing it,” Barker said. “It would not be possible without USANA. Sometimes I feel bad because I’m always bugging Brian.”
He’s talking about Brian Dixon, Ph.D., USANA’s director of product innovation, and one of the members of USANA’s Research and Development team Barker works with most closely. Dixon and Barker should be familiar with each other. Both logged time at the Linus Pauling Institute (LPI). They kept in touch after their time in Corvallis, Oregon, and have fostered the collaborative spirit both point to as a strength of the partnership, which officially started in 2009.
But Barker’s relationship with USANA actually goes back further. As part of a research partnership with LPI, USANA funded Barker’s dissertation.
A Recipe for the Perfect Collaboration
Although the research partnership between USANA and TOSH is fairly new, the collaborative nature of the relationship is already bearing fruit.
“USANA has brought TOSH to a whole new level,” Barker said. “TOSH is world renowned for its surgery and physical therapy, and the research, but I feel like the collaboration with USANA has taken that research to a whole new level.”
None of it would be possible without the unique expertise and resources Barker and TOSH bring to the table. And since TOSH is a world-class facility on the forefront of orthopedics, their contribution is by no means paltry. There’s the medical-campus setting with physicians, surgery, physical therapy, athletic training, and research under one roof. Then there’s the constant stream of patients that make up a large, varied population—everything from kids getting ready for their first football practice to osteoarthritis sufferers in need of a total knee replacement. Everything adds up to the perfect setting for human clinical research about nutrition and orthopedics, and the perfect partner for collaboration.
“Tyler and his team bring a specific skill set and expertise to a problem, and our team at USANA brings another skill set. It works well,” Dixon said. “You have a physiologist working with a molecular biologist, and Tyler can do things that we can’t do. We can do things that they can’t do. Those are the perfect collaborations.”
Like with anything, the research collaborations between USANA and TOSH start with a good idea. Conversations between Barker and USANA’s team produce ideas that could work for both parties. USANA and TOSH then work to turn those ideas into mutually beneficial research. That means designing a study, manufacturing the supplements, working on blinding and randomization—important steps to assure scientifically valid results—recruiting subjects, and collecting and analyzing the data. So the collaboration runs from conception to publication or presentation of the findings.
“I feel like it’s more on an academic level, as opposed to something marketing-driven,” Barker said of the relationship between the two groups.
Teamwork in Action
The relationship between USANA and TOSH materializes in the four human clinical studies currently underway—all of which explore the convergence of orthopedics and nutrition.
The first study examines whether low vitamin D status impairs recovery from muscle damage, and whether supplementing increases vitamin D levels and improves recovery. Data is only collected in the four winter months, but TOSH has finished subject recruitment and enrollment. Barker is ready to start data analysis, and he’s excited about what he’s seen so far. There have already been presentations at international scientific conferences, and the first manuscript from the study is in print now.
Barker was also able to leverage USANA’s resources to secure $40,000 in additional grant money for the study, getting even more research out of the company’s investment.
Knees are the focus of two other USANA-TOSH collaborations. One study builds on Barker’s dissertation, investigating the role vitamins E and C play in strength recovery following ACL injury and surgery, and whether multivitamin/multi-mineral supplements have an influence on strength recovery, as well. The ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. The study is approaching 50-percent subject recruitment, and Barker expects to do an interim analysis soon.
The other knee study explores whether multivitamin/multi-mineral supplements influence strength recovery, inflammation, and wound healing following a total knee replacement—a procedure that is increasing in frequency, especially in women. Barker said they are halfway to their goal of 30 subjects.
Data collection is continuing on both knee studies, but is just underway in the final USANA-TOSH collaboration—a vitamin D-osteoarthritis study. There are already 20 subjects, and five have finished their 12 weeks of supplementation—either a custom pack of vitamin D, fish oil, and joint-health supplements, or placebos. It’s a big study that involves several end points and outcome measures. But it’s important because, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, osteoarthritis affects an estimated 26.9 million adults in the United States, and is currently the leading cause of disability. This study is so important USANA has committed $250,000, plus the cost of supplements and other sample analysis.
There are other things Barker has going on as well, like a case study exploring vitamin D status in the first subject to enroll in the total knee study. “We’re funding four studies and we expect four conclusions to come out of it,” Dixon said. “But Tyler goes above and beyond. He is consistently reanalyzing the samples he and his team have already collected as new research comes out to verify findings or even make new ones. So we get a lot of bang for our buck.”
And the fact that these studies are happening in humans, in a medical setting, makes the research even more valuable.
“Subjects are coming here to get better—they have a bum knee or a bum hip or something—we want to make their lives better,” Barker said. “But at the same time, let’s do a little research to find out what’s going on and see if we can improve that.”
A Bright, Busy Future
When USANA evaluates which research to support, the phrase “cutting edge” is always part of the conversation. Working with researchers pushing the frontier of science is paramount, and the research with TOSH definitely fits USANA’s cutting-edge mantra. Crossover between orthopedics and nutritional science has been infrequent, but it’s quickly becoming an emerging area of interest—one where TOSH and USANA are already making advances.
“You can probably count all the studies that have examined vitamin D and inflammation in orthopedics on one hand,” Barker said.
Most of the research in orthopedics involves surgery, physical therapy, and biomechanics. There have been a few studies with vitamin C, iron, and folate, but most have been observational, not experimental, in nature. USANA and TOSH are trying to do both and, in the process, produce truly groundbreaking work.
And by no means is that work done. In fact, Barker and Dixon think the future looks bright. USANA funding has already allowed Barker to hire two research assistants to help shoulder the burden of running numerous clinical studies at the same time. Barker usually has about five studies on the backburner, too, and there are indications that some of those might be of interest to USANA.
“We’ve talked about a couple of possible studies, and there’s some additional funding that’s going to be coming TOSH’s way,” Dixon said. “Who knows where nutritional science and patient care is going to go in the future? But we’ll obviously be on that cutting edge.”
Barker would like to get to a point where USANA and TOSH are doing larger phase two and three clinical studies. The specifics aren’t clear, but what is—judging by the glowing way he talks about the collaboration he’s had with USANA—is Barker’s excitement about what the future holds for the partnership.
“USANA has quality supplements and quality people,” Barker said. “And then, with all the subjects and patients that walk through the doors here, basically, what we can do is endless. There are always questions and hypotheses.”
Live Well,
Robin
This article was first published as one of the Scientific Method series at USANA Health Sciences, and has been republished here in its entirety.
Inside the lab of a nearly new building. Inside a petri dish and the clear, seemingly non-descript liquid dripped from so many pipettes. Inside the cells composing various in vitro experiments and the DNA that builds life itself. Zoom in close enough on the Linus Pauling Institute, and you can see the mechanics of scientific discovery.
It’s for the discoveries that the new building, the new lab, the petri dishes, the pipettes, and the unquantifiable collection of scientific passion, knowledge, and energy exist. At the Linus Pauling Institute (LPI), it’s all dedicated to discovery—the game-changing kind that helps people live longer, healthier lives.
Observation
The researchers working on the campus of Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis are following in the footsteps of the scientific pioneer that lends his name to the institute. Linus Pauling, Ph.D., is the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes—Chemistry in 1954 and Peace in 1962. From a 13-year-old chemist in his mother’s basement, Pauling grew into one of the most important scientific figures of the 20th century, breaking ground in the nature of the chemical bond, and micronutrient research—especially the importance of vitamin C.
In 1973, Pauling co-founded what eventually became LPI. Basing their research on the idea that a balanced and nutritious diet is the key to optimal health, LPI scientists focus on how vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (chemicals from plants) play a role in human health. Nearly 30 years later, Pauling’s belief that micronutrients are important is still central, uniting the work of the researchers who carry on his legacy.
“I always have to laugh when MDs say, ‘We don’t need this vitamin!’” said Balz Frei, Ph.D., director and endowed chair of LPI and OSU distinguished professor of biochemistry and biophysics. “Wait a minute. Vitamin? ‘Vita’ is Latin for life. These things are essential nutrients. We need them. Without them, you die or suffer from serious disease.”
Driven by the mission to promote optimal health through micronutrient research, the institute has grown in acclaim, becoming one of the first two Centers of Excellence for Research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine designated by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Hypothesis
It’s this mix of mission and excellence that brought USANA and LPI together in 2007, when a 10-year partnership was announced to facilitate the exploration of key nutrients to help people live healthy and productive lives.
“We have very similar interests and very similar mission statements,” Frei said. “Our focus is on health span, not so much life span. Of course, if you eat right and you exercise and you take the right dietary supplements you hopefully live longer, but you also live better…USANA is focusing on health span, too—trying to help people stay healthy up to an old age and help them be productive, and not just free of disease, but also vital and energetic. This makes perfect sense, then, for the LPI to partner with USANA.”
The partnership comes to life in the financial support USANA provides for projects at the institute—scientific- and outreach-related—and intellectual collaboration on mutually beneficial research. It’s a win-win, with LPI getting support for projects that are tough to fund through traditional channels, and USANA staying connected to pioneering research and the advancement of nutritional science.
“We have very similar interests and very similar mission statements…This makes perfect sense, then, for the LPI to partner with USANA.”
— Balz Frei, Ph.D., director and endowed chair of LPI and OSU distinguished professor of biochemistry and biophysics
Experiment
The work most closely associated with Pauling’s is coming out of the Frei lab. Building on a seminal paper he wrote called “Vitamin C is an Outstanding Antioxidant in Human Blood Plasma,” which has been cited over 1,200 times, Frei has continued his vitamin C work, but also explores other compounds and their role in slowing the progression of atherosclerosis—the hardening of arteries caused by plaque build up.
Frei’s research examines the interaction between vitamin C and lipoic acid. Along with fellow LPI researcher, Tory Hagen, Ph.D., Frei is looking at the anti-inflammatory properties of these compounds. Two ongoing clinical trials at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) are looking at the effects of lipoic acid supplementation in overweight subjects and heart disease patients.
The interaction of flavonoids with digestive enzymes is also of interest to the Frei lab. In vitro studies have shown certain flavonoids and extracts, like grape-seed and green tea extract, can inhibit digestive enzymes, slowing starch breakdown into glucose, which lowers the body’s response to this high-glycemic food. They are working to take this from the lab to humans—the goal of all the research at LPI.
Of course, Frei isn’t the only scientist at LPI immersed in interesting research. Visit the office of Emily Ho, Ph. D., and it’s easy to guess one of her lab’s interests. It’s green, stuffed, and sitting in a chair next to her desk.
Broccoli—specifically the sulforaphane found in broccoli sprouts—is one of the two areas Ho’s lab is researching. The LPI principal investigator and associate professor of public health and human sciences also works on zinc projects. Prostate cancer prevention is the thread tying her research together, but she also looks at inflammatory response and immune function, as well.
“You can’t always get a prostate from people, so we study other things, as well,” Ho said with a laugh.
Ho and her collaborators recently ran a controlled feeding study looking at zinc and DNA damage. They found DNA damage increased through the depletion period of the study, and after four weeks receiving adequate zinc—through diet and supplements—subjects’ DNA damage levels returned to normal. There isn’t a good biomarker for zinc status, so one of Ho’s missions is to find a measure that indicates deficiency in this important antioxidant.
Ho has also worked with an LPI colleague to identify a new mechanism for sulforaphane. Now they are running two clinical trials at OHSU in breast cancer patients and men with high risk of prostate cancer. Ho is using epigenetic biomarkers—reversible changes to the genome that occur outside the DNA and alter the way cells behave—to test the impact of sulforaphane.
Each LPI researcher is different. Adrian “Fritz” Gombart, Ph.D., doesn’t have any stuffed effigies in his office, and the LPI principal investigator and associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics prefers to focus on the role vitamin D plays in the innate immune response—the system that signals the presence of a pathogen and prevents it from gaining a foothold in the body.
The research Gombart is doing provides a better understanding of vitamin D’s role in immune function, and could shed light on its ability to regulate an antimicrobial peptide gene called cathelicidin in different immune cells, as well as the response to different infectious diseases. Soon, he is hoping to do human clinical studies examining whether higher vitamin D status leads to higher cathelicidin levels in a large population of healthy people.
Results
Around LPI, Fred Stevens, Ph.D., comes up a lot. The LPI principal investigator and associate professor of medicinal chemistry is working with cutting-edge techniques that could speed up the normally slow process of scientific advancement.
These techniques present a different way of approaching problems and allow for scientific connections to be made more quickly. In a recent study, Stevens and his collaborators used the techniques to make an interesting discovery about vitamin C deficiency. The results suggest vitamin C is critical for maintenance of cellular energy metabolism, and could explain why vitamin C insufficiency causes fatigue.
Another LPI principal investigator, Gerd Bobe, Ph.D., is using Stevens’ techniques to explore the health benefits of various foods. Bobe, an assistant professor in animal sciences, said these techniques give us a better idea of what a drug, supplement, or diet does to a specific person, allowing for more personalized treatments and preventions.
Conclusion
Bobe is also lending his statistics skills to the Healthy Youth Program. This outreach effort is tackling the issues of nutrition and physical education in schools. Since its inception in 2009, the reach of the Healthy Youth Program has grown substantially. It started with a fitness and nutrition study in elementary school children and an assessment of their micronutrient intake. Now, the program runs cooking classes for children and partners with Corvallis High School to develop a garden maintained by students.
The number of Healthy Youth Program employees has grown from one to five, and the impact of the program continues to expand exponentially. USANA has given $250,000 to support the Healthy Youth Program in its efforts to provide education and activity programs for kids and their families.
Through collaboration on cutting-edge research and support for programs providing nutrition education and activities for kids, USANA has found a kindred spirit in LPI. In the future, this partnership will continue to help people find optimal health and live longer, more productive lives.
In the coming weeks, look for more Scientific Method stories with additional in-depth information on USANA’s research partnerships. Next week’s story focuses on the research and relationship between USANA and TOSH.
