Using metabolomics to examine the association between diet, inflammation, and frailty in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)

Project Summary

Frailty is a condition where our bodies become less resilient and struggle to cope with stress. Healthy diets can lower the risk of frailty or prevent frailty from getting worse. Collecting information about people’s diet is challenging and does not account for the unique ways each person’s body digests food. To give better dietary advice, we need to better understand what we eat and how it affects frailty. Metabolomics, the study of small molecules produced by the body may provide insight regarding the pathways through which diet impacts frailty. One important pathway is that changes in our body’s metabolic profile from diet may lead to inflammation and cause frailty. Most studies have looked at single molecules or specific foods when studying diet and frailty, but it is likely more complex than that. Our project aims to use metabolomics related to diet to connect the dots between diet, inflammation, and frailty.