Grant: DRA: Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards - Doctoral

"Smoke from wood and other biomass burning, as a result of wildfires, residential burning, and agricultural burning is a growing threat to lung health. While we work to reduce the amount of wood smoke that people are exposed to through policy change and public health measures, complete avoidance is not realistic, and strategies to support resilience are needed. Diet has the potential to maintain health and prevent disease. Fruits and vegetables (high in antioxidants and bioactive compounds) and fatty fish such as salmon (rich in omega-3 fatty acids, with an important role in resolving inflammation), are foods proposed to protect the lung against the negative health consequences of air pollution exposures. My research will therefore test the effect of a diet enriched in fruits, vegetables, and fatty fish on the respiratory response to wood smoke via a randomized, controlled clinical trial. Healthy adult volunteers with baseline diets low in such foods will be randomly assigned to either continue eating their usual diet or be provided with weekly grocery (fruits and vegetables) and meal (salmon) delivery for four weeks. Volunteers will then be exposed to wood smoke for two hours after which lung function and markers of lung and systemic inflammation and oxidative stress will be measured. After a washout period (four weeks to return to pre-trial baseline), each volunteer will then receive the alternate dietary assignment, followed by another two-hour wood smoke exposure and assessment. By comparing the response to wood smoke across diets, the results will reveal whether diet, one of the most modifiable lifestyle factors, can offer protective and/or therapeutic effects against an increasingly prevalent environmental threat to lung health. "