Interviewee: Alana Fortress, MPH, College of Pittsburgh | Editors: Romina Garcia De Leon, Janielle Richards (Weblog Co-Coordinators)
Revealed: April 18th, 2025
Are you able to inform me about your analysis?
I’m a analysis assistant on the Middle for Girls’s Biobehavioral Well being on the College of Pittsburgh Medical Middle, engaged on two NIH-funded research: the MsBrain2 Examine (PIs: Dr. Rebecca Thurston, Dr. Pauline Maki) and the RISE (Relationship Influences on Sleep, Emotion, and Coronary heart Well being) Examine (PI: Dr. Karen Jakubowski). The MsBrain2 Examine explores how menopausal signs relate to midlife ladies’s mind well being and cognitive functioning longitudinallywhereas the RISE Examine focuses on the connection between sleep, cardiovascular well being, and relationships in ladies at midlife. Moreover, the RISE Examine examines how trauma, adversity, and psychosocial components corresponding to intimate accomplice violence have an effect on ladies’s well being.
At midlife and throughout the menopause transition, ladies are extra vulnerable to poor sleep and insomnia signs, each of which can be associated to bothersome vasomotor signs like scorching flashes and evening sweats, in addition to negatively have an effect on psychological well being (for extra on this– Alana suggests checking our this podcast with Dr. Rebecca Thurston). We acquire blood samples to evaluate inflammatory biomarkers, conduct 7T MRI mind scans and carotid artery ultrasounds, measure bodily well being metrics, administer questionnaires, conduct interviews and cognitive assessments, and assess members’ sleep with quite a lot of gadgets.
What’s the present standing of your analysis?
The RISE Examine is nearing the completion of participant enrollment, which is thrilling as a result of it means we’ll quickly start analyzing the info. For my grasp thesis, my major purpose is to research whether or not self-compassion is linked to raised sleep outcomes among the many MsBrain Examine cohort. Girls accomplished questionnaires throughout their visits, and we measured sleep high quality and insomnia signs each subjectively and objectively (utilizing wrist-Actigraphy) to evaluate the connection.
What drove you to check ladies’s well being?
Girls’s well being, significantly throughout midlife and menopause, has traditionally been underrepresented in analysis. There’s nonetheless loads we don’t know, which has vital implications for girls’s remedy, in addition to their psychological and bodily well being as they age. I discover it actually thrilling to contribute to analysis that may really be translated into helpful outcomes for girls—not simply throughout their reproductive years however all through their lives.
I’m significantly keen on exploring facets of constructive psychological well-being. For instance, I hope that by specializing in enhancing ladies’s self-compassion throughout midlife, we may probably enhance sleep outcomes for them. The sphere of ladies’s well being, particularly menopause analysis, tends to focus closely on detrimental signs, which might really feel overwhelming and discouraging. I bear in mind speaking to my very own mother about my analysis, and he or she mentioned it sounded “miserable.” I need to be a part of analysis that doesn’t simply spotlight the challenges ladies face but in addition supplies hope and sensible methods for enhancing their high quality of life. In spite of everything, if I have been to speak to my physician in 30 years and listen to nothing however detrimental issues about growing old, I’d discover that basically disheartening.
The place do you see your analysis heading?
I accepted a brand new function as a scientific coordinator on the Oregon Alzheimer’s Illness Analysis Middle at Oregon Well being and Science College (OHSU) in Portland! I’m excited to contribute to cognitive growing old analysis. I’m going to be engaged on some pilot imaging research associated to cognitive functioning within the heart’s longitudinal cohorts. I plan to proceed my work in ladies’s well being analysis as effectively.
My curiosity has additionally expanded to exploring the constructive facets of well-being and their function in defending bodily and psychological well being. Most analysis tends to concentrate on detrimental experiences and their detrimental results, however I consider it’s equally vital to research what components or interventions—corresponding to remedy or resilience-building strategies—may help buffer towards these detrimental impacts. I’m excited to proceed researching ways in which constructive experiences and interventions can help ladies’s well being as they age, significantly in midlife.
