Volunteers Needed for Plant-Based Diets Study

DERBY – The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Griffin Hospital, 130 Division St., Derby, is looking for adult volunteers to take part in a study looking at how a vegan diet, with or without eggs, affects diet quality and heart health.

Study participants will eat a plant-based diet for approximately five months, including eggs for six weeks. 

The study team plans to enroll 35 adults in this study, including men who are 25 to 75 years old, and women up to 75 years of age who have gone through menopause, but are not on hormone replacement therapy. Those who qualify must be non-smokers, and have an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes based on certain criteria for this study.

Benefits for those who participate in this study include free study-related dietary counseling from a dietitian, free health testing, free eggs, grocery store gift cards to purchase vegan foods, and a total of $600 for completing the study.

For more information and to be considered for this study, please call Rocky at 203-732-1265 extension 300.

This study is funded by the Egg Nutrition Center, the science and nutrition education division of the American Egg Board that sponsors health-related scientific research that is primarily focused on eggs.

(This is a press release from Griffin Hospital)

Ansonia Alderman Applauds Valley Regionalization Study

(The following is is a letter from Ansonia Alderman Joseph Jaumann)

ANSONIA - As many of you know, Mayor Cassetti and I, as well as the Ansonia Board of Alderman have been discussing this study, as well as regionalization and shared services for many years.  As we continue to see funding from the State decrease, we must be proactive as a municipality and as a region, in protecting ourselves, our children, and our communities.  Working together we can study how to achieve greater efficiencies, better quality services, and greater availability of programs in our schools.
 

The Shelton Board of Education voted earlier this week to ask their Board of Alderman to join in the regionalization study that was approved in Ansonia in February.  I want to applaud the Shelton Board of Education and Shelton’s Mayor, Mark Lauretti for choosing to join Ansonia and Derby in the regionalization study. 

After many years of discussions regarding shared services and regionalization, the valley communities are finally coming together to discuss how we can all work together for the benefit of all the Naugatuck Valley.   With Shelton now choosing to join Ansonia and Derby, we now look to our good friends in Seymour and their First Selectman Kurt Miller to also join the study.  We hope to hear that announcement in the coming days.   

Joseph P. Jaumann

5th Ward Alderman

City of Ansonia

Volunteers Needed for MS, Sleep Study

DERBY - The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center and Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Center, both located at Griffin Hospital, 130 Division St., Derby, are seeking volunteers for a study on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and insomnia.

 

This study will compare mindfulness meditation to sleep hygiene counseling in treating insomnia and improving quality of life in individuals with MS.

 

“Many people with MS suffer from chronic insomnia, and some of the medications used to treat insomnia can have adverse effects,” said Joseph B. Guarnaccia, MD, Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Center director. “Therefore, it is desirable to find alternative treatments for insomnia. The potential role of mindfulness – which is focusing full attention on the present moment without judgment - in affecting sleep has not yet been studied in people with MS.”

 

To participate, volunteers must be adults with a diagnosis of MS who suffer from chronic insomnia. They must be willing to come to Griffin Hospital for three assessments throughout the study, and to attend a weekly, two-hour training session for eight weeks and one eight-hour weekend session, and wear a Fitbit activity monitor (provided to volunteers) for several weeks to record their sleep data.

 

Volunteers will be randomly assigned to training on either mindfulness or sleep hygiene, which will be offered at either Griffin Hospital or the Yale Stress Center.  They will receive $200 for their role in the training and assessment, which will be provided free of charge. This study is funded by a grant from the State of Connecticut’s Biomedical Research Trust Fund. 

 

For information, call 203-732-1265, extension 220 for Sue, or extension 300 for Rockiy.

 

About The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center

The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC) is committed to research pertaining to the primary, secondary, & tertiary prevention of chronic disease that is responsive to the priorities of the Lower Naugatuck Valley residents, the residents of Connecticut’s major cities, and other communities throughout the state. The center is dedicated to participatory research methods, to a robust research agenda inclusive of developmental/determinant, intervention, and translational research; to community involvement in public health; to the eradication of disparities in health and health care in the communities served; and to the dissemination of effective interventions in support of the national objectives of Healthy People

 

(This is a press release from Griffin Hospital)