Research

The goal of the PRISM Study is to learn about ways to improve sleep and mental health during and after pregnancy. PRISM study participants will learn ways to improve sleep in 6 weekly sessions, complete surveys and interviews during and after pregnancy, and receive payment for completing surveys and interviews. 

For more information or to contact study staff, visit https://prismstudy.ucsf.edu.

Publications: 

• Viewpoint: Challenges and Strategies for Engaging Participants in Videoconferencing Appointments

One of AME’s biggest highlights during 2021 was to launch our COVID-19 vaccination studies, BOOST, an

d BOOSTER. Both these studies examine how the COVID-19 vaccine response is affected by factors such as age, stress, and sleep. While BOOST looks at the initial vaccine series, BOOSTER examines the antibody response to the initial COVID-19 booster. These studies push our vaccine research further by examining how antibodies are maintained over a 6-month period. Understanding factors that influence long-term antibody response may help us figure out ways to improve the durability of the vaccine protection against COVID and other diseases.

To learn more visit the BOOST Study Website. 

Publications:

• COVID-19 mRNA or viral vector vaccine type and subject sex influence the SARS-CoV-2 T-cell response
• Examining the Association of Vaccine-Related Mindsets and Post-Vaccination Antibody Response, Side Effects, and Affective Outcomes
• COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects and Long-Term Neutralizing Antibody Response : A Prospective Cohort Study
• Predictors of Long-Term Neutralizing Antibody Titers Following COVID-19 Vaccination by Three Vaccine Types: the BOOST study

NGHS is a follow-up study to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Growth and Health Study taking pla

ce from 1987 to 1997.NGHS aims to look at how stress affects women's nutrition, health, and weight. In addition, the project focuses on factors related to children's weight, the transmission of stress across generations, and the correlation between race and health. We hope that knowledge acquired from this project and the original study will help improve women and children's health.

NGHS is being conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, San Francisco. The project is funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

For more information or to contact the study staff, visit the NGHS Website. 

Publications:

 

• Examining Links between Daily Stressor Appraisals and C-Reactive Protein Levels in Black and White Women: The National Growth and Health Study​​
• Maternal Childhood Adversity Accelerates Epigenetic Aging of Children
• Essential Nutrients, Added Sugar Intake, and Epigenetic Age in Midlife Black and White Women
• Grandparents' Educational Attainment is Associated with Grandchildren's Epigenetic-Based Age Acceleration in the National Growth and Health Study.
• Intragenerational and Intergenerational Transmission of Food Insecurity: An Analysis of Black and White Women and Children From the NHLBI Growth and Health Study
• Psychosocial Disadvantage During Childhood and Midlife Health: NIMHD Social Epigenomics Program
• Early Life Adversity Predicts an Accelerated Cellular Aging Phenotype Through Early Timing of Puberty
• Intergenerational Effects of Maternal Lifetime Stressor Exposure on Offspring Telomere Length in Black and White Women.
• Cohort Profile: The Longitudinal National Growth and Health Study (NGHS) of Black and White Girls from Northern California Tracking How Behavioural and Psychosocial Risk Factors Predict Cardiovascular Risk and Biological Ageing in Midlife and in Offspring.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences and BMI: Lifecourse Associations in a Black-White U.S. Women Cohort.
• Longitudinal Stability of Disordered-Eating Symptoms From Age 12 to 40 in Black and White Women.
• Adolescent BMI Trajectory and Associations with Adult Metabolic Syndrome and Offspring Obesity.
• Prospective Relationships Between Skin Color Satisfaction, Body Satisfaction, and Binge Eating in Black Girls.
• Effects of Early Life Adversity on Pubertal Timing and Tempo in Black and White Girls: The National Growth and Health Study.
• Differences in Gut Microbiome by Insulin Sensitivity Status in Black and White Women of the National Growth and Health Study (NGHS).
• Childhood Stress and Midlife Depression in Women: The Influence of Diet Quality.
• Drive for Thinness in Adolescents Predicts Greater Adult BMI in the Growth and Health Study Cohort over 20 Years. 
• Diet Quality and Depression in A Midlife Biracial Cohort of Women: The Role of Stress And Early Life Adversity.
• Chronic Psychological Stress and Racial Disparities in Body Mass Index Change Between Black and White Girls Aged 10–19.
• Exercise Mitigates Cumulative Associations Between Stress and BMI in Girls Age 10 to 19.
• The Relative Importance of Predictors of Body Mass Index Change, Overweight and Obesity in Adolescent Girls.

The Sleep and Social Experiences (SASE) Study investigates the role of social experiences on sleep. Healthy and normal sleepers are asked to visit our Sleep Lab for two consecutive evenings, during which time they are exposed to a variety of social experience tasks. After, participants sleep overnight in the lab. During sleep, we collect data related to cardiovascular physiology and polysomnography to examine how social experiences “get under the skin” to impact bodily processes and contribute to health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). 

 

For more information or to contact study staff, visit https://www.saseucsf.net/! 

The UCSF Stress and Resilience study aims to understand stress, and how daily habits such as breathing, physical exercise, or meditation may change how your body responds to stress and improve your mood and physical health.

Publications:

• A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of a Wim Hof Method Intervention in Women with High Depressive Symptoms

The AME Lab is currently conducting the Healthy Beverage Initiative Study in conjunction with the UCSF Wellness Center. In response to the strong evidence base linking the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to chronic diseases (including obesity and diabetes), the UCSF Healthy Beverage Initiative (HBI) eliminated the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages on all UCSF campuses and hospitals.

The HBI Study is comprised of two parts. The first part, the larger Parent Study, is a wide survey-based study that tracks the sugar sweetened beverage consumption of UCSF employees from before the sales ban to 12 months post-ban. The metabolic sub-study is comprised of frequent sugary beverage-drinkers from within the Parent Study Sample. We will look at various signs of metabolic health, including body measurements, weight, insulin reactivity, and liver function, before and after the sales ban.

Publications: 

• Did a Workplace Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Sales Ban Reduce Anxiety-Related Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
• Essential Nutrients, Added Sugar Intake, and Epigenetic Age in Midlife Black and White Women: NIMHD Social Epigenomics Program.
• Controlled Trial of a Workplace Sales Ban on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages.
• A Brief Motivational Intervention Differentially Reduces Sugar-sweetened Beverage (SSB) Consumption.
• Work Site Access to Fluoridated Tap Water and Retail Beverages.
• Health Impacts of a Workplace Sales Ban on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages: A brief motivational intervention reduces sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in those with high cravings. 

The Clinical Effectiveness of Digital Insomnia Therapy (CrEDIT) Study aims to test the therapeutic benefits of a digital sleep program for subjects diagnosed with Insomnia Disorder. Subjects will be recruited around the country and undergo clinical interviews before being randomly assigned to one of two different sleep improvement programs. The CrEDIT study will begin recruiting soon, so stay posted on our website for more information on how to join.

The Cardiovascular, Sleep and Imaging (CASI) Study is one of the first studies of its kind to investigate the potential link between sleep disorders and cardiovascular health. In this study, healthy sleepers are compared to insomnia patients in their sleep physiology and arterial inflammation using a PET/MRI scan. The CASI Study is a pilot aimed to gather initial data for more larger studies in the future and will pave the way for more promising research on this important and prevalent topic.

 

 

The Brain Health Registry is an online research study designed to help researchers identify, assess, and monito

r cognitive changes over time that are associated with brain aging.

The Brain Health Registry is open to all adults and currently has over 80,000 participants enrolled. Participants answer questions about themselves and their lives, and complete cognitive functioning tasks all from their own computer. Our team has implemented a specific set of questionnaires specifically for family members who are caring for a loved one with a disability or disease. We are trying to understand the benefits and challenges of being a family caregiver, with the ultimate goal of designing interventions to help caregivers thrive in their daily life.

Read more and enroll in the Brain Health Registry today at https://www.brainhealthregistry.org/. 

University of California San Francisco scientists hope to determine how a single sauna

session affects body temperature. This study is being run by Ashley Mason, PhD, of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. The purpose of the HEAT BED study is to test whether a single sauna session can raise core body temperature to 38.5 C (101.3 F) and to study how peripheral body temperature changes before and after this single sauna session. 

Participants must be men or women, aged 18-45 years old. If you are interested in enrolling, take 10-minute survey to see if you’re eligible!

For questions or more information, visit the HEAT BED Study website or email [email protected].

Carrying excess weight can increase the risk of health problems during pregnancy, and predicts excess gain during the short period of gestation. The MAMAS study is built on the premise that simple recommendations for diet and exercise may not be enough to help women maintain a healthy weight during pregnancy. The goal of the study is to learn if providing stress reduction skills and mindful eating training, in addition to encouraging good nutrition and physical activity, will help low- to middle-income overweight women achieve healthy weight gain during pregnancy and reduce stress. The study will also follow the health and temperament of the babies (led by Nicki Bush, Ph.D.)

Website: http://www.mamasstudy.com

You can find MAMAs official manual here (--including worksheets, guided meditations, and more!). 

Publications: 

• Association of Food Insecurity and Food Addiction Symptoms: A Secondary Analysis of Two Samples of Low-Income Female Adults
• Neighborhood Typology and Cardiometabolic Pregnancy Outcomes in the Maternal Adiposity Metabolism and Stress Study
• Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Distress, Weight Gain, and Glucose Control for Pregnant Low-Income Women: A Quasi-Experimental Trial Using the ORBIT Model.
• The mindful moms training: development of a mindfulness-based intervention to reduce stress and overeating during pregnancy
• Recruitment and retention of pregnant women for a behavioral intervention: lessons from the maternal adiposity, metabolism, and stress (MAMAS) study. 
• Novel Interventions to Reduce Stress and Overeating in Overweight Pregnant Women: A Feasibility Study. 
• Effect of prenatal mindfulness training on depressive symptom severity through 18-months postpartum: A latent profile analysis. 
• Sugary beverage and food consumption, and leukocyte telomere length maintenance in pregnant women.
• Poor Sleep Quality, Psychological Distress, and the Buffering Effect of Mindfulness Training During Pregnancy. 
• Potential for a stress reduction intervention to promote healthy gestational weight gain: focus groups with low-income pregnant women.  
• Cardiovascular Disease-Related Pregnancy Complications Are Associated with Increased Maternal Levels and Trajectories of Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers During and After Pregnancy
• The Effects of a Prenatal Mindfulness Intervention on Infant Autonomic and Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation
• Association between persistent endocrine-disrupting chemicals (PBDEs, OH-PBDEs, PCBs, and PFASs) and biomarkers of inflammation and cellular aging during pregnancy and postpartum
• Associations between sociodemographic characteristics and exposures to PBDEs, OH-PBDEs, PCBs, and PFASs in a diverse, overweight population of pregnant women.
• Persistent organic pollutants and maternal glycemic outcomes in a diverse pregnancy cohort of overweight women
• Recruitment and retention of pregnant women for a behavioral intervention: lessons from the maternal adiposity, metabolism, and stress (MAMAS) study

Environmental influences during the first years of life, beginning in the womb, are strong determinants for later life health. Accumulating evidence from prenatal programming and developmental research shows how early life stress and poor nutrition can affect health across the life course. Can better nutrition and lower stress during pregnancy improve a baby's nervous system development and metabolism? In this study, we follow the offspring born to women in the MAMA's prenatal intervention study. We examine how offspring body composition, temperament, emotion regulation, and executive function develop over the first four years of life, and whether those babies born to women in the intervention group develop more optimally than those born to women from a "treatment as usual group."

Publications on Intervention Effects: 

• Effect of prenatal mindfulness training on depressive symptom severity through 18-months postpartum: A latent profile analysis
• Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Distress, Weight Gain, and Glucose Control for Pregnant Low-Income Women: A Quasi-Experimental Trial Using the ORBIT Model
• Poor Sleep Quality, Psychological Distress, and the Buffering Effect of Mindfulness Training During Pregnancy
• Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Infant Healthcare Utilization: The Moderating Role of Prenatal Mindfulness.
• Long-term effects of a prenatal mindfulness intervention on depressive symptoms in a diverse sample of women
• The Effects of a Prenatal Mindfulness Intervention on Infant Autonomic and Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation

Other Publications:

• Maternal Stress During Pregnancy Predicts Infant Infectious and Noninfectious Illness.
• A Pilot Validation Study of the Newborn Behavioral Observations System: Associations with Salivary Cortisol and Temperament. 
• Transactions Between Maternal and Child Depressive Symptoms Emerge Early in Life.
• Autonomic Nervous System Functioning Assessed During the Still-Face Paradigm: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review of Methods, Approach and Findings.
• Basal and Reactivity Levels of Cortisol in One-Month-Old Infants Born to Overweight or Obese Mothers from an Ethnically and Racially Diverse, Low-income Community Sample.
• Effects of Pre- and Postnatal Maternal Stress on Infant Temperament and Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity and Regulation in a Diverse, Low-Income Population. 
• Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity in Toddlers — Resting and Developmental Challenges.
• A Prospective Investigation of Prenatal Stress and Childbirth Perceptions in an Ethnically and Socioeconomically Diverse Sample.
• Prenatal Maternal Objective and Subjective Stress Exposures and Rapid Infant Weight Gain
• Infant Weight-for-Length Gain Associated with Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity
• Distribution, Stability, and Continuity of Autonomic Nervous System Responsivity at 18- and 36-Months of Age
• Young children's traumatic stress reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic: The long reach of mothers' adverse childhood experiences
• Longitudinal hair cortisol in low-income young children: A useful biomarker of behavioral symptom change?
• The Prism of Reactivity: Concordance Between Biobehavioral Domains of Infant Stress Reactivity in an Ethnically Diverse Sample.
• Identifying Profiles of Multisystem Physiological Activity Across Early Childhood: Examining Developmental Shifts and Associations with Stress and Internalizing Problems. 
• Parenting Buffers the Association Between Prenatal Stress and Infant Physiological and Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation. (Under Review).
• Association between maternal eating attitudes and child feeding in a racially diverse, low-income sample.
• Developmental consequences of early life stress on risk for psychopathology: Longitudinal associations with children’s multisystem physiological regulation and executive functioning

Using data from a national health survey, this study will be the first to examine telomere length in a nationally representative sample, expanding on past findings linking socioeconomic status (SES) to shorter telomere length, and telomere length to mortality. The study examines these relationships in a racially and ethnically diverse sample, and moderating effects of genetic vulnerabilities, as well as mediating effects of health behaviors.

Publications: 

• Socioeconomic Status, Health Behavior, and Leukocyte Telomere Length in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2002. 
• Leukocyte Telomere Length and Mortality in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2002. 
• Associations of Cadmium and Lead Exposure with Leukocyte Telomere Length: Findings from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2002.
• Soda and Cell Aging: Association Between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Healthy Adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The Know Your Telomeres Study examined change in telomere length as a function of health behaviors and stress levels over the course of one year in 250, 50 to 65 year old healthy and community-dwelling women. In the study, half the women were told their telomere length at the start of the study, and all women were followed for one year to examine the effects of information about one's own personal telomere length on behaviors, and the possible resulting changes in telomere length at followup.

Publications: 

• Lifetime Adversity and Later Adulthood Telomere Length in Nationally Representative US Health and Retirement Study
• Determinants of Telomere Attrition Over 1 year in Healthy Older Women: Stress and Health Behaviors Matter. 
• The impact of personal telomere testing on distress and health behaviors (forthcoming)

In non-human species like rats, yeast, mice, flies, worms, fish, and even rhesus monkeys, caloric restriction causes lifespan to increase, sometimes by ten-fold. The Caloric Restriction with Optimal Nutrition & Aging (CRONA) study tests whether long-term human calorie restrictors might also have signs of slowed aging. This project is in collaboration with former postdoctoral fellow Dr. A. Janet Tomiyama, now at the Departments of Psychology and Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University.

Learn more about this study from Dr. Janet Tomiyama in this video.

Publications: 

• Long-term calorie restriction in humans is not associated with indices of delayed immunologic aging: A descriptive study.  
• Clues to Maintaining Calorie Restriction? Psychosocial Profiles of Successful Long-term Restrictors

Does going to a resort for a week have the same effects as being in a meditation retreat, at the same resort? With a collaborative group of researchers, we examined the psychological stress processes, self-identity, and aging biology of healthy women randomized into a resort or meditation retreat group. The retreat group was taught body and mind awareness, mantra meditation, and self-reflection. We are examining the short term changes in cell function and well-being (over days) and a month later.

Publications:

• Meditation and vacation effects have an impact on disease-associated molecular phenotypes

SHINE is a clinical trial that examines the effects of two different 6-month weight loss programs for obese, non-diabetic adults on weight, body fat, and psychological well-being. The two programs both include nutrition and exercise components, as well as stress management techniques aimed at long-term weight loss. The key outcomes include weight loss and maintenance, body fat distribution, insulin sensitivity, psychological well-being, stress hormones, immune function, and cell aging.

Publications: 

• Effects of Mindfulness-Based Weight Loss Intervention on Long-Term Psychosocial Well-being Among Adults with Obesity: Secondary Analyses from the Supporting Health by Integrating Nutrition and Exercise (SHINE) Study.
• Exploratory Analysis of Racial/Ethnic and Educational Differences in a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Mindfulness-Based Weight Loss Intervention.
• Do Stress Eating or Compulsive Eating Influence Metabolic Health in a Mindful Eating Intervention?
• Reduced Reward-Driven Eating Accounts for the Impact of a Mindfulness-Based Diet and Exercise Intervention on Weight Loss: Data from the SHINE Randomized Controlled Trial.​
• Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Mindful Eating, Sweets Consumption, and Fasting Glucose Levels in Obese Adults: Data from the SHINE Randomized Controlled Trial.
• Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Distress, Weight Gain, and Glucose Control for Pregnant Low-Income Women: A Quasi-Experimental Trial Using the ORBIT Model.
• Weight Loss Maintenance and Cellular Aging in the Supporting Health Through Nutrition and Exercise Study.
• Impact of a Mindfulness-Based Weight-Loss Intervention on Sleep Quality Among Adults with Obesity: Data from the SHINE Randomized Controlled Trial.

Drawing from principles of evidence-based mindfulness stress-reduction, we are developing and testing a smart phone application that aims to reduce stress, increase emotional resilience, and slow the effects of stress related cellular aging. The app will include very brief "in the moment" exercises, social interaction and bio-sensor monitoring (breath-rate and heart rate variability), as well as tracking and feedback. This project includes two main phases, (I) an iterative design approach with rapid prototyping and user feedback to determine effective messaging and feature design and (II) a pilot test of the feasibility, efficacy and effectiveness of the smart phone intervention by assessing app use and engagement, telomere length and other biomarkers of stress and cellular aging, and stress related behaviors.

Publications: 

Stayed tuned!

This study examines bidirectional effects between daily psychological processes, stress arousal, and nightly sleep, among of fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder. A complementary study to SAGE (see above), it also examines daily dyadic interactions within couples coping with the stress of parenting and how these dynamics affect nightly sleep. Lastly, it examines how these relationships might change after a mindfulness based parenting stress intervention.

Publications: 

Stay tuned!

SAGE, the Stress Aging and Emotions study for parents, is the third in a series of examinations of how the chronic stress of being a family caregiver affects cellular aging. Drawing on a sample of mothers of children on the autism spectrum, the study seeks to understand how psychological stress affects the body and mind. We aim to identify patterns of vulnerability and resilience to stress, to help with development of a hardiness intervention. We measure biological aging primarily by looking at immune cell telomeres, which form the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, as well as telomerase, the reparative enzyme that keeps telomeres in good working order. Telomeres appear to act as a cellular clock that runs faster under physiological and psychological stress. The intensive study of resilient coping will help shape interventions.

Publications:

• Maternal Caregiving Stress and Metabolic Health: Sexual Activity as a Potential Buffer
• Associations Between Klotho and Telomere Biology in High Stress Caregivers
• Asymmetrical Effects of Sleep and Emotions in Daily Life.
• Early Life Adversity, Pubertal Timing, and Epigenetic Age Acceleration in Adulthood.
• Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress.
• Sexual intimacy in couples is associated with longer telomere length.​ 
• Stress resilience: Narrative identity may buffer the longitudinal effects of chronic caregiving stress on mental health and telomere shortening. 
• A Mitochondrial Health Index Sensitive to Mood and Caregiving Stress. 
• Mind wandering and stress: When you don't like the present moment. 
• Acceptance or Despair? Maternal Adjustment to Having a Child Diagnosed with Autism.
• Effects of daily maladaptive coping on nightly sleep in mothers.
• Associations between chronic caregiving stress and T cell markers implicated in immunosenescence. 
• Cumulative lifetime stress exposure and leukocyte telomere length attrition: The unique role of stressor duration and exposure timing. 
• Maternal caregivers have confluence of altered cortisol, high reward-driven eating, and worse metabolic health. 
• Chronic stress is associated with reduced circulating hematopoietic progenitor cell number: A maternal caregiving model. 
• Systematic and Cell Type-Specific Telomere Length Changes in Subsets of Lymphocytes. 
• In vitro proinflammatory gene expression predicts in vivo telomere shortening: A preliminary study.
• Chronic Stress and Impulsive Risk-Taking Predict Increases in Visceral Fat over 18 Months.
• Associations between childhood adversity and daily suppression and avoidance in response to stress in adulthood: can neurobiological sensitivity help explain this relationship?

 

The Stress Free UC Study is a large-scale, randomized control trial examining the relationship between stress and mindfulness in UC employees. It is the first study of its kind, spanning five UC campuses, including UCSF, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, and UC Riverside. This study is fully digital, and participants are asked to use a digital mindfulness application daily. Researchers at UCSF are partnering with the Healthy Campus Network to execute the two components of the Stress Free UCSF Study. The first component, Stress Free UC, is a broad, survey-based study tracking the stress and mindfulness of UCSF employees from before the mindfulness intervention to 12 months post-intervention. The second component, or the Stress Free UC + Health, is examining various signs of biopsychological health, including body measurements and biological indices, in overweight UC employees before and after the meditation intervention. Medical and employment records are also being collected to assess the real-life implications of stress and mindfulness on health.

Publications:

• Impact of digital meditation on work stress and health outcomes among adults with overweight: A randomized controlled trial