Research Program. Precision Nutrition and obesity

Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology Group

Group leader: Prof. Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo

Objectives: our strategic objective is to produce relevant information to support clinical and population-based policies aimed at controlling cardiovascular diseases and their functional adverse outcomes. Specifically we work on the following research areas:

  • Nutritional and omic determinants of frailty and functional status in the older adult.
  • Diet and physical activity as determinants of obesity and cardiovascular risk in the elderly.

The results of our studies have been incorporated into the National Strategy for Ischemic Heart Disease Control, the National Strategy for Obesity Prevention and Control, and the National Strategy on Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, elaborated by the Ministry of Health of Spain.

Prof. Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo

Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Medical. School of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Associate researcher, IMDEA Food. Group leader of the Cardiovascular and Nutritional. Epidemiology Group

Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, MD, PhD, is Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Medical School of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Dr. Rodríguez Artalejo graduated from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and received postgraduate training in the La Paz University Hospital, the Institute of Health Carlos III and the Spanish Ministry of Health in Madrid, as well as in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg of Public Health in Baltimore. He has published over 400 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 51) and contributed to many policy documents on health planning and evaluation and on prevention and control of obesity and cardiovascular disease.

He has received the Carles Martí Henneberg award to a scientific career on
Nutrition Research, the Ciril Rozman award of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine, the Silver Medal of the National Plan on Drug Addiction, and the Encomienda de la Orden Civil de Sanidad. Dr. Rodríguez Artalejo has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency of Foods Safety and Nutrition, and currently serves in the European Advisory Committee of Health Research of the World Health Organization and in the Expert Panel of the European Joint Action on Prevention of Frailty (ADVANTAGE).

Members

Esther Lopez-Garcia

Senior researcher and Head of Research Line in Nutritional and omic determinants of frailty, multimorbidity and unhealthy aging in the older adults

Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Medical School. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Associate researcher, IMDEA Food. Group member of the Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology Group.

Esther Lopez-Garcia, PhD, MPH, MhPharm is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She has been a Fulbright fellow in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health and a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Dr Lopez-Garcia research interests include:

  1. Epidemiology and prevention of obesity and cardiovascular disease through diet and lifestyle.
  2. Diet and the risk of physical function impairment, frailty and disability in the older population.
  3. Metabolomics in frailty and disability.

Dr Lopez-Garcia has assessed in detail the effect of the Mediterranean dietary patterns, coffee, meat and dairy consumption, in the risk of CVD and disability, using data from large population studies in the USA, UK and Spain. She has also examined the biological mechanisms that may explain these associations, including inflammation and endothelial dysfunction, markers of glucose metabolism and leptin, and more recently metabolomics profiles of physical impairment and functional disability.

  • Struijk EA, Rodríguez-Artalejo F, Fung TT, Willett WC, Hu FB, Lopez-Garcia E. Sweetened beverages and risk of frailty among older women in the Nurses' Health Study: A cohort study. PLoS Med. 2020 Dec 8;17(12):e1003453.
  • García-Esquinas E, Carrasco-Rios M, Ortolá R, Sotos Prieto M, Pérez-Gómez B, Gutiérrez-González E, Banegas JR, Queipo R, Olmedo P, Gil F, Tellez-Plaza M, Navas-Acien A, Pastor-Barriuso R, Rodríguez-Artalejo F. Selenium and impaired physical function in US and Spanish older adults..
    Redox Biol. 2020 Nov 28;38:101819
  • Montero-Salazar H, Donat-Vargas C, Moreno-Franco B, Sandoval-Insausti H, Civeira F, Laclaustra M, Guallar-Castillón P. High consumption of ultra-processed food may double the risk of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis: the Aragon Workers' Health Study (AWHS). BMC Med. 2020 Aug 13;18(1):235.
  • Cabanas-Sánchez V, Higueras-Fresnillo S, DE LA Cámara MÁ, Esteban-Cornejo I, Martínez-GÓmez D. 24-h Movement and Nonmovement Behaviors in Older Adults. The IMPACT65+ Study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Apr;51(4):671-680.
  • Martinez-Gomez D, Esteban-Cornejo I, Lopez-Garcia E, García-Esquinas E, Sadarangani KP, Veiga OL, Rodriguez-Artalejo F. Physical activity less than the recommended amount may prevent the onset of major biological risk factors for cardiovascular disease: a cohort study of 198 919 adults. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Dec 15. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099740.

                                  

most relevant publications
  • García-Esquinas E, Ortolá R, Banegas JR, Lopez-García E, Rodríguez-Artalejo F. Dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, fish intake and healthy ageing. Int J Epidemiol. 2019 Sep 28. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyz196.
  • Sandoval-Insausti H, Blanco-Rojo R, Graciani A, López-García E, Moreno-Franco B, Laclaustra M, Donat-Vargas C, Ordovás JM, Rodríguez-Artalejo F, Guallar-Castillón P. Ultra-processed Food Consumption and Incident Frailty: A prospective Cohort Study of Older Adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2019 May 27. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glz14.
  • Machado-Fragua MD, Struijk EA, Ballesteros JM, Ortolá R, Rodriguez-Artalejo F, Lopez-Garcia Habitual coffee consumption and risk of falls in 2 European cohorts of older adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2019 May 1;109(5):1431-1438.
  • Cabanas-Sánchez V, Higueras-Fresnillo S, DE LA Cámara MÁ, Esteban-Cornejo I, Martínez-GÓmez D. 24-h Movement and Nonmovement Behaviors in Older Adults. The IMPACT65+ Study. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Apr;51(4):671-680.
  • Martinez-Gomez D, Esteban-Cornejo I, Lopez-Garcia E, García-Esquinas E, Sadarangani KP, Veiga OL, Rodriguez-Artalejo F. Physical activity less than the recommended amount may prevent the onset of major biological risk factors for cardiovascular disease: a cohort study of 198 919 adults. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Dec 15. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099740.