For Immediate Release
Contact: Wendy Hinton
Director of Advancement Communications
King’s College
(570) 208-8130
wendyhinton@kings.edu
April 29, 2021 – Diane M. DellaValle, Ph.D., RDN, LDN, an associate professor teaching in the new Master of Science in Nutrition Sciences program within the Department of Sports Medicine at King’s College, reports a novel way to increase the uptake of iron supplementation in iron deficient women in the Journal of Dietary Supplements.
In her study, Dr. DellaValle screened the iron status of female athletes (which makes up about 30-40% of active females) and along with a low-dose of iron, randomly assigned them to a single serve powder packet), or an identical placebo powder packet for 8 weeks. While all women received the low-dose of iron, iron stores (serum ferritin) of women in the synbiotic supplement group were greatly improved after both 4 and 8 weeks compared to the placebo group. This study is important, as it shows how supplemental iron uptake in iron deficient women can be enhanced by synbiotic supplementation, which is an easy step for this population to take to improve their iron stores. She plans to follow this study up with a comprehensive look at dietary intake as well as the mechanisms behind these effects, including an assessment of the gut microbiome.
Dr. DellaValle completed the study while a professor at Marywood University. Dr. DellaValle is planning another study on the King’s campus using a different novel, sustainable approach to improving iron status in active college students starting in Fall 2021.
For more information on Dr. DellaValle and her research, please visit https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3855-432X.
Diane M. DellaValle, Ph.D., RDN, LDN