Letter from the Director
Summer is here. Are you walking more? Most of the scientific literature suggests that adults and children move more and sit less during the summer. Mood also improves. BMI tends to decline in summer, and even babies born in summer are less likely to have obesity. Death rates are also about 25 percent lower in summer than in winter.
Hopefully you are experiencing some of these positive summer seasonal effects, but group trends don’t always apply to the individual. As highlighted in this newsletter, some of our Center’s research teams are busy trying to understand individual differences in human health, including the role of biopsychosocial and environmental factors.
Why do some people respond to treatment and others don’t? Why do some succeed at long-term weight control and others don’t? Why do some get diabetes and others don’t? These data may inform a future of personalized medicine where individual differences, clinical trial data, and seasonal variations will all simultaneously be considered in prescribing an individual’s optimal path to health.
Wishing you a healthy and active summer.
Suzanne Phelan, Director
References
Rich C, Griffiths LJ, Dezateux C. Seasonal variation in accelerometer-determined sedentary behaviour and physical activity in children: A review. Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 2012;9:49.
Mehrang S, Helander E, Chieh A, Korhonen I. Seasonal weight variation patterns in seven countries located in northern and southern hemispheres. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2016 Aug;2016:2475-2478. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7591232.
Grant WB, Bhattoa HP, Boucher BJ. Seasonal variations of US mortality rates: Roles of solar ultraviolet-B does, vitamin D, gene expression, and infections. J Steriod Biochem Molecular Biol; 2017.
Yang, Ginsburg, Simmons. Personalized medicine in women's obesity prevention and treatment: implications for research, policy and practice; Obesity Reviews; Volume 14, Issue 2; 2013 Feb; 145–161.
The STRIDE newsletter was written and edited by Casey Heaney (heaney@calpoly.edu), Susan Staub (sstaub@calpoly.edu), and Suzanne Phelan (sphelan@calpoly.edu).