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Wageningen University

Nutrition, Heart Disease and Diabetes

Wageningen University via edX

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Overview

Learn about the role of nutrition in relation to diseases of the circulatory system and diabetes, which are major causes of death worldwide. You'll learn about the etiology of heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, stroke, other forms of cardiovascular diseases and how often these occur worldwide. You will learn about biological modifiable risk factors, such as blood pressure, blood cholesterol and obesity, and how they impact these diseases in a different way. After completing this course you will also have gained adeeper insight in underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, such as insulin resistance, and the role of (epi)genetic factors.

Dieticians and doctors often get questions from their patients on what they can do to improve their health. In this course,part of the Professional Certificate Program Nutrition and Disease, you will learn about the interaction between nutrients, diets and cardiometabolic disease (heart disease and diabetes).

For whom?

The MOOC Nutrition and Disease: Nutrition, Heart Disease and Diabetes is especially valuable for professionals (in training) from various disciplines related to nutrition and health, e.g. nutritionists, epidemiologists, public health workers, physicians, health care professionals, health policy makers, nutrition educators, biologists, and food scientists.

This course, is part of theNutrition and Disease Professional Certificate Program of Wageningen University & Research. Did you already complete Nutrition and Cancer? That is the other course in this Professional Certificate Program.

Syllabus

Module 1 – Cardiometabolic Disease Risk
In this module you will be introduced to the different types of cardiometabolic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Furthermore both biological and environmental risk factors for these diseases such as age, blood pressure and physical exercise will be presented.

Module 2 – Role of diet – Prevention of Cardiometabolic Disease
The role of macronutrient and food intake in relation to cardiometabolic disease prevention will be presented in this module. You will gain knowledge about the importance and development of dietary guidelines for the prevention of disease.

Module 3 – Pathophysiology of Cardiometabolic Disease
Learn about the pathophysiology and processes that contribute to the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Amongst others, insulin resistance, adipose tissue, inflammation, blood lipids and ischemia and reperfusion injury will be discussed.

Module 4 – Molecular Aspects
In this module you will learn about genetic and epigenetic practices in relation to nutrition and cardiometabolic diseases including EWAS, GWAS, diet-gene interactions, DNA methylation and Mendelian Randomisation.

Module 5 – Nutritional Strategies to Reduce Cardiometabolic Diseases
This final module describes some directions for reducing the burden of cardiometabolic diseases. Several dietary patterns, the focus of future scientific research and actions of different stakeholders are discussed.

Taught by

Marianne Geleijnse and Leanne Küpers

Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 431 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at edX based on 10 ratings

Start your review of Nutrition, Heart Disease and Diabetes

  • welcome

    This course was one of the most wonderful courses I have studied in the recent period, and in all honesty, I benefited a lot from all the information that was presented in the course, and its effect began quickly, as I started to change my lifestyle and advised many patients who visit my pharmacy, and I try to convince them of a lot One of the things in their diet that has an impact on their health, especially heart disease and diabetes.
    I was very happy to join you.

    Thank you so much.
  • I have a bachelor's degree from an American university in a health science field. I learned a great deal in this information dense course that included a nice balance of scientific data and practical application with clear presentation.
  • Very informative course, with clear explanation on mechanism on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus. Also very inspiring/ motivating to choose healthier diet & lifestyle
  • Profile image for Hans Reetoo
    Hans Reetoo
    I seldom give a 5-star rating to any course because I always believe that the course could have put an extra effort into the content, structure, layout, course assessments, and the learner support platform. The course on Nutrition, Heart Disease, an…
  • Anonymous
    From the title of the course, it appears that this course should be focusing on nutritional therapy for cardiometabolic diseases. However, the course didn't really focus on that and largely focused on the pathophysiology, genetics and epigenetics. I…
  • practical insights .diagnostic and preventiv method s.course content is excellent and elaborate /easy to understand and apply
  • i have alredy started to practice healthy eatin habits and invoving friends and family

    lots of thanks to classcentral

  • Anonymous
    These videos are great!
    Interesting and educational.
    It was easy to follow, with nice pictures in the background.
    Good that you can read the text on the side. It was also nice that you could control the speed.
  • Anonymous
    I enjoyed taking this course. I want to have all the info I can get to have the best quality of life I can achieve. I also like it because I can tell other people that may benefit from it. It is primordial to have a list of suggested readings if one would like to pursue more details in the available study reports that were done professionally.
  • Anonymous
    I signed up this course looking for answers to my questions on how to prevent and deal with heart diseases and diabetes. I did not expect to find straight answers because I have learned that our bodies are complex organs. I particularly like the emphasis on genetics as it does address the fact that the same health guidelines and treatment can't resolve problems for the whole population as some of us have different genes, and also that our lifestyle preference and environment can influence the genetic behavior ("expressions"). Overall, I am glad that I am taking this course for I did learn many useful things that I can apply to take care of my own health.
  • Anonymous
    My objective for taking this course, as a functional health researcher, was to broaden my knowledge in the area of cardiometabolic diseases, as well as to learn about potential non-pharmacological solutions and cures. The course covers a broad topi…
  • Anonymous
    I naturally have a stronger passion for nutrition, fruits vergitables and plants base treatment and therefore, the love for this course. I have already recommended this course to some of my close friends and encourage them to follow suite if they w…
  • Anonymous
    This course has been so helpful because it has given me more insight on cardiometabolic diseases and it has helped me to gain more knowledge about such diseases, I am going going to start working with cardiometabolic patients and will now know how to handle them with the knowledge I have gained on this course, would love to top up with a degree in nutrition,diabetes and heart diseases so that I become a professional in this field, hope you offer this as well on a degree level,I am really grateful, stay blessed
  • Anonymous
    This course is excellent for anyone just interested in the subject or wanting a future career in nutrition, heart disease and diabetes. The interviews with other researchers in the topics are especially interesting and highly educational. I would recommend this course to anyone wanting to expand there knowledge in the topic. I would like to say thank you on behalf of all the people who helped put together such an awesome course. I learned a lot from this experience and am excited to learn even more.
  • Anonymous
    Hello All. This course has definitely exposed me to the; history, current events and the potential future of nutrition. Especially in relation to non-communicable diseases. Already, nutrition can be a complex and highly polarizing area of study.…
  • Anonymous
    A very informative class. However, as a non-health care professional, I didn't expect the level of detail in some of the discussions (such as the genetics, pathology, epidemiology studies). The questions for those sections required very detailed responses that might be unexpected by the interested but casual student.
    One question about the Seven Country study - are there plans to expand the study group or start a different study to include more women and more ethnic groups? I often wonder if one of the reasons the Mediterranean diet is considered optimal may be because it was so Euro-centric. No African countries were included and only Japan from Asia.
  • Tralee May Sugrue
    I think the course is good. The three lecturers provide variety and they are all enthusiastic about their subject. The course is broken up into small segments that are relatively easy to fit into a busy life. There is a good balance of videos, written material, exercises, and online discussions. The thing I found stressful, having never done an online course like this before was understanding how to approach an exam. It would have been helpful to me to have it spelt out what time we are expected to spend on it, and clarifying that it is 'open book' etc. I still feel uncomfortable because I have not seen any explicit instruction about this. Tralee
  • Profile image for Min Htet Zaw
    Min Htet Zaw
    I like it. It's very scientific based on the fact and research presented in an attractive way. Topics are diverse but relevant to the course objective. I encouraged others to take this course. I gained much knowledge and deep understanding of the nu…
  • Anonymous
    The Pros: This course does not take the typical mainstream approach to nutrition and effects. It is quite updated and quotes a few great researchers. The epigenetic part of the fourth module and gut microbiome are also great since they are up to da…
  • Anonymous
    The information given is certainly interesting and goes very much into depth. For myself, I had hoped to find out more about what role vitamins, minerals and other supplements play and whether or not we should integrate them into our diet. Personal…

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