Originally Broadcast on Thursday, May 13, 2021
Webinar Description:
A familiar experience for many of us is driving a car. One thing that is essential to making sure a car can efficiently move and get from one place to another is having adequate fuel or gasoline in the tank. The amount of fuel in the tank also controls how many places the car can go. A car with a full tank will be able to go to lots of places before needing a refuel while a car with a quarter tank of gas might only be able to go one or two places before running out of fuel.
Our bodies function very similarly to the cars in this example. We must be able to move from task to task, and from place to place to complete our activities of daily living. What gives us our fuel to move and get up and go, though? We primarily get our “fuel” from eating and drinking which supplies us with the necessary nutrition and hydration levels needed to function and survive. Sometimes we are met with injuries, illness, or just natural aging that affects our ability to swallow and eat, however. In these cases, getting the adequate fuel and energy needed for daily living can become difficult. Having less fuel in the tank can, in turn, make it harder to go as many places as we want and do as many things as we used to.
This talk will focus on nutritional homeostasis or the delicate balance between energy intake (eating) and energy use (movement). We will also have an in-depth discussion about functional reserves which are the extra resources in our body that we depend on when the balance within our body is challenged. This talk will lay a basic foundation that is appropriate for patients and their caregivers while also providing more advanced information to inform healthcare professionals such as Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) working with swallowing and swallowing disorders.
In the first part of this talk we will discuss an overview of how the energy balance in our bodies is created and subsequently maintained with the help of functional reserves. Next, we will talk about the impact of difficulty swallowing on this balance and availability of functional reserves. We will then shift to discuss how to maximize your mealtimes and participation in swallowing therapy to ensure you are getting the most “bang for your buck” and using the fuel in your tank appropriately. Finally, we will conclude with a discussion regarding the role of speech-language pathologists in making diet recommendations, when to consult with a dietician, and how patients can advocate for a team approach decision model when decisions about diets modifications are being made. It is our hope that this talk will empower patients, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals to consider a patient’s unique energy levels and ways to maximize and conserve this energy when designing diet recommendations and therapy goals.
Learner Goals
- Describe functional reserves and their role in maintaining nutritional homeostasis (energy balance).
- Understand how difficulty swallowing can impact energy intake and energy use for activities of daily living.
- Discuss ways to maximize energy and functional reserves when participating in swallowing therapy.
- Discuss how to advocate for and consider a multidisciplinary team approach when considering modifications to diets.
Meet the Presenters:
Raele Robison, PhD, CCC-SLP and Alicia K. Vose, PhD, CCC-SLP
Dr. Raele Robison, PhD, CCC,SLP, completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and her master’s degree in speech-language pathology at the University of South Florida. During her time as a master’s student, Dr. Robison completed a thesis under the tutelage of Dr. Emily Plowman investigating the impact of lingual resistance training in individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Dr. Robison elected to continue her academic journey when she joined the University of Florida Rehabilitation Sciences doctoral program in August 2015. While working on her doctoral studies, Dr. Robison was awarded a NIH diversity supplement and a NIH NINDS specialized D-SPAN pre- to postdoctoral F99/K00 grant. Research interests under these funding mechanisms include understanding the contribution of homeostatic regulatory mechanisms to the normal and disordered swallowing process. Upon graduation, Dr. Robison transitioned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to complete the K00 phase of her grant under the direction of Drs. Nicole Rogus-Pulia and Nadine Connor. Dr. Robison’s postdoctoral research is geared towards understanding how interrelated physiologic capacities throughout the body contribute to the development of dysphagia in frail older adults.
Dr. Alicia K. Vose, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Florida and Brooks Rehabilitation and has ~10 years of clinical experience specializing in dysphagia management in the acute care/ICU setting. She completed her PhD in Rehabilitation Science at The University of Florida where she investigated the role of kinematic biofeedback in dysphagia management and physiological mechanisms underlying normal and disordered airway protection. In her postdoctoral training, Dr. Vose maintains a strong commitment to clinical research where she focuses on the development of rehabilitation strategies the enhance neuroplasticity for impairments in swallowing and respiration. Currently, she is investigating the effects of acute intermittent hypoxia and respiratory strength training to enhance breathing and swallowing in individuals with neurologic injury as well as the effects of diaphragm stimulation on respiratory neural drive and function.
CEUs: No ASHA CEUs are offered for this webinar.
Cost: FREE. This webinar has been made free to all registrants. We recognize the financial hardship that is impacting many people due to the pandemic. As a non-profit, we feel this too. If you would like to make a donation, please visit our Donation Page.
The NFOSD wants to thank Bracco Diagnostics for their unrestricted educational grant.
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