Clinical Applied Nutrition (CAN)

Contact: scoe@brookes.ac.uk +44 (0)1865 483839

About us

Good nutrition is important to maintain function and health as we age, and this becomes increasingly important in those with neurological conditions, children and the elderly. We aim to develop research into the area of nutrition for symptom management and health maintenance in a variety of vulnerable and disease populations, and to implement this research alongside other key areas including exercise interventions and gait analysis.

The rise of the clinical nutrition research has built on current collaborations, both nationally and internationally, within the group, and will continue to expand this expertise.

Person chopping vegetables

Part of

Related courses

Applied Human Nutrition (MSc / PGDip / PGCert)
Nutrition (BSc (Hons))

Leadership

Dr Shelly Coe

scoe@brookes.ac.uk

Senior Lecturer in Nutrition

View profile

Membership

Name	Role	Email
Dr Johnny Collett	Reader in Clinical Exercise and Rehabilitation	jcollett@brookes.ac.uk
Professor Helen Dawes	Honorary Professor	hdawes@brookes.ac.uk
Dr Patrick Esser	Reader in Sport and Rehabilitation Technology	pesser@brookes.ac.uk
Professor Derick Wade	Professor In Neurorehabilitation	dwade@brookes.ac.uk

Name	Thesis Title	Supervisors	Completed
Matt Poulter	Diet, Nutrition, and Health in UK prisons	Professor Jonathan Tammam, Dr Shelly Coe	2024
Francesca Tabacchi	Nutritional support in cancer patients during treatment.	Professor Jonathan Tammam, Dr Shelly Coe, Dr Vasiliki Iatridi, Professor Eila Watson	Active

Projects

Project title and description	Investigator(s)	Funder(s)	Dates
Association of diet and other lifestyle factors on non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s This overall aim is to co-develop and evaluate the feasibility of a diet-based lifestyle intervention to support the management of fatigue and associated non-motor symptoms amongst individuals with Parkinson’s disease. The intervention will be developed through participatory design methodology whereby it is informed by data analysis of clinical data from the Oxford Parkinson’s Discovery Cohort (OPDC), in addition to interviews and consensus workshops with patients, carers and healthcare professionals.	Dr Shelly Coe	Oxford Brookes University	From: September 2019 Until: December 2023

Project title and description	Investigator(s)	Funder(s)	Dates
Flavonoid-rich pure cocoa to reduce fatigue in people with Multiple Sclerosis Dietary changes may be a simple, cost effective and safe therapy for improving symptoms experienced in people with MS (pwMS), and thus for increasing quality of life. Many pwMS have expressed their interest in dietary therapies to manage their symptoms; however scientific evidence for these therapies is lacking. The aim of this project is to undertake a feasibility study to determine whether flavonoid-rich cocoa has the potential to improve fatigue in pwMS in order to inform a follow-on trial.	Dr Shelly Coe, Professor Helen Dawes	MS Society	From: September 2015 Until: December 2018
Exploration of lifestyle including dietary patterns on later life quality of movement A healthy lifestyle, e.g. diet patterns and physical activity, has been associated with an overall health state, including improved cognitive ability and more recently an association has been found to motor performance and function. Currently little is known on how lifestyle factors throughout life affect quality of movement in later life. This is a national and international collaboration.	Dr Shelly Coe, Dr Patrick Esser	Oxford Brookes University	From: September 2017 Until: December 2020
Nutrient intake and association with symptom severity in a Multiple Sclerosis Registry cohort The aim of this study is to determine the self-reported dietary intake of a representative sample of pwMS. This will promote our understanding of the current dietary behaviours in this group in order to determine: if differences exist between the diet in pwMS compared to the general UK population and to the UK dietary guidelines; specifically for what foods and/or nutrients these differences occur; and the influence of covariates (type and stage of disease) on diet.	Dr Shelly Coe		From: January 2015 Until: December 2020
Standing up for Cerebral Palsy The aim is to determine the feasibility and possible extent of the immediate and short-term effects of interrupting sitting with brief moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA) breaks on physical and cognitive performance in young people with Cerebral Palsyl. Possible benefits of PA breaks in young people with cerebral palsy (YPwCP) are extremely promising as YPwCP are less fit, less active than their typically developing (TD) and show deficits on cognitive tasks.	Professor Helen Dawes	AMR	From: January 2018 Until: December 2020

Key Publications

2021

Coe S, Tektonidis TG, C Coverdale, Penny S, Collett J, Chu BTY, Izadi H, Middleton R, Dawes H (2021) A cross sectional assessment of nutrient intake and the association of the inflammatory properties of nutrients and foods with symptom severity in a large cohort from the UK Multiple Sclerosis Registry. Nutrition Research, 85, 31-39, DOI: 10.1016/j.nutres.2020.11.006.

2020

Saltaouras G, Lightowler H, Coe S, Watson E (2020) Diet and nutrition information and support needs in pelvic radiotherapy: a systematic, mixed-methods review. European Journal of Cancer Care, DOI: 10.1111/ecc.13297

2019

Coe S., Cossington, J., Collett J., Izadi H., Soundy A., Ovington M., Durkin L., Kirsten M., Clegg M., Cavey A., Wade DT., Palace J., DeLuca G., Chapman K. & Dawes H. (2019) A feasibility study to determine whether flavonoid-rich pure cocoa has the potential to reduce markers of fatigue in people with relapsing and remitting Multiple Sclerosis: a randomised double blind placebo controlled design, JNNP. 0, 1-7. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2018-319496

Tektonidis TG, Coe S, Esser P, Maddock J, Buchanan S, Mavrommati F, Schott J, Izadi H, Richards M and Helen Dawes H (2019) Diet quality in late midlife is associated with faster walking speed in later life in women, but not men: findings from a prospective British birth cohort. British Journal of Nutrition, 28, 123(8):913-921. doi: 10.1017/S0007114519003313
Berezowska M , Coe S and Dawes H (2019) Effectiveness of Vitamin D Supplementation in the Management of Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 20, 1301; doi:10.3390/ijms20061301