Healthy aging research helps identify critical aspects of health and metabolism that can improve the quality of care received in a clinical setting. New findings may contribute to the development or refinement of nutritional and physical activity guidelines, which can improve our community’s quality of life. Furthermore, discoveries from nutritional and drug intervention studies can lead to the approval of new drugs that may prevent or slow down the development of age-related diseases. “Our research is focused on understanding how the body changes as we age and in response to periods of physical inactivity. Older patients who are hospitalized often experience long-term bed rest, which by itself can have negative effects on health, particularly skeletal muscle health. Understanding the impact of bed rest on muscle health will allow us to develop effective countermeasures to help us provide better and more effective care for our aging populations.” says Dr. Coen. “A second area of focus relates to exercise, diet and health. We aim to understand how exercise and dietary factors prevent harmful changes in metabolic health as we age. A goal is to identify the best combination of diet and exercise to stave off diabetes and heart disease so that older adults in our care stay healthy.”