Research during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has largely put a halt on research in NCCL. Current guidelines prevent us from having subjects visit the lab to participate in human research involving exercise. While data collection for a majority of our studies is not occurring, lab members are still working to progress the ongoing projects in the laboratory; this includes processing existing data and composing manuscripts for scientific journals.
A comprehensive vascular and pulmonary study to best understand the novel disease COVID-19 (study has approval to continue during pandemic)
- This study is a collaboration between the MMPL, NCCL, and ERPL laboratories. We are looking for relatively healthy adults (18-65 yr) who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 4 weeks. You will be asked to perform multiple tests examining exercise capacity as well as lung, blood vessel and nerve function. Your involvement in this study will hopefully inform the scientific and medical community of the long-term health effects of having COVID-19. More information can be found using this link: https://phes.appstate.edu/laboratories/muscle-metabolism-perfusion-laboratory-mmpl/covid-19-study-study-enrollment
Influence of trait anxiety on autonomic and vascular function in otherwise healthy college students (on hold)
- We are looking for subjects with various levels of anxiety to examine physiological measures of stress (for example, blood pressure, heart rate, blood vessel function, and nervous system activity) at rest and in response to a variety of stressors in anxious vs. non-anxious college-aged students. Subjects must be otherwise healthy (no known cardiovascular, pulmonary, or metabolic diseases) and of college-age (18-24 yr).
Relationships between attentional focus and coordination during exercise (on hold)
- We are looking for healthy young adults (18-35 yr) who do not regularly participate in aerobic physical activity. This study requires three laboratory visits and will examine how focusing strategies and distraction influence coordination during treadmill running.
Impact of acute antioxidant supplementation on neural cardiovascular control in Psoriatic subjects (study has approval to continue during pandemic)
- We are looking for otherwise healthy adults (18-65 yr) currently diagnosed with Psoriasis. This study requires three laboratory visits and will examine the impact of antioxidant supplementation on cardiovascular health of people with Psoriasis.
Acute impact of prolonged sitting on resting autonomic function and sympathetic neural response to exercise (on hold)
- We are looking for healthy adults (18-40 yr). This study requires three laboratory visits and will examine how prolonged sitting affects the nervous system’s control of the heart and blood vessels at rest and during upper-body rowing exercise.
*If you are interested in participating in one of our current studies, please contact Dr. Stickford at stickfordas@appstate.edu.