Dr. Racette’s clinical research focuses on the influence of diet and exercise interventions to promote health and fitness and reduce cardiovascular disease risk factors in a variety of populations, from children to older adults. Areas of clinical research expertise encompass carefully controlled diet and exercise interventions, long-term calorie restriction interventions as a means to delay age-related physiological decline, cardiac rehabilitation programs, lifestyle modification programs for weight loss and enhanced glucose regulation, and dietary phytosterol research. Current areas of collaborative investigation include cardiac rehabilitation research, novel therapies to improve exercise tolerance in patients with heart failure, long-term calorie restriction to enhance healthspan, and a registry of patients with heart disease whose cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed via aerobic capacity exercise tests. Research techniques include cardiorespiratory fitness assessments by indirect calorimetry during maximal oxygen consumption treadmill tests or using field tests, quantification of total energy expenditure and energy intake using doubly labeled water (DLW), assessment of body composition by DXA, biolelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), and MRI, and assessment of nutrient intake through food diaries, food frequency questionnaires, or surveys.

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