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Completed

NCT Number: NCT01250509

Craving and Lifestyle Management Through Mindfulness Study

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindful eating program will lead to reductions in abdominal fat and total weight and improve cell aging in overweight and obese women compared to a waitlist control group.

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Key information

Conditions

Obesity Body Weight Nutrition Disorders Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Overnutrition Overweight Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Signs and Symptoms

Age range

21 year–50 year

Sex eligibility

Female

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Phase 2

Primary location

UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine

San Francisco, California, 94115, United States

About this study

Obesity is the largest growing epidemic, with about 65% of Americans overweight (Flegal, Carroll et al. 2002). Obesity, in particular, abdominal obesity, confers increased risk for a host of diseases, including hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease, resulting in shortened life span (Fontaine, Redden et al. 2003). Psychological stress is widely cited anecdotally as a factor that causes people to engage in overeating, and studies provide strong evidence that stress can promote obesity. Stress induces selective preference of sweet, high-fat food and increases visceral fat depots. The telomere maintenance system (telomerase activity and telomere length)are markers of cellular aging and predict mortality (Cawthon et al, 2003)and have been linked to both psychological stress and components of the metabolic syndrome. The proposed study adapts a program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) that has been shown to be effective in a variety of other stress-related conditions. Fifty overweight, pre-menopausal women at risk for the Metabolic Syndrome will be randomized in a 1:1 distribution to either a 3-month intervention to reduce stress and overeating [Craving and Lifestyle Management with Mindfulness (CALMM)] or wait list control group. The primary outcome measures include amounts of abdominal fat, weight, and telomerase activity. Data from this study are intended to provide pilot data for use in planning a larger randomized, controlled trial that will investigate the effects of the CALMM intervention on the metabolic and psychological processes assessed in this pilot study.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Pre-menopausal
  • BMI (25 - 40)
  • Weight < 300 lbs.
  • Negative urine glucose test

Exclusion criteria

  • Inability to provide informed consent
  • Age < 21 or menopausal as determined by self-report
  • DSM-IV diagnosis of an eating disorder
  • Any substance abuse, mental health, or medical condition that, in the opinion of investigators, will make it difficult for the potential participant to participate in the intervention
  • Factors that confound relations between stress and eating, including, drug abuse and use of medications containing corticosteroids.
  • Diabetes
  • Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
  • CHD
  • Breastfeeding (due to interference with stress hormone measurement)
  • Non English speaker
  • Pregnant as determined by pregnancy test at screening visit or planning to get pregnant in the next 6 months
  • Previous MBSR training and/or current meditation, yoga, or other mind-body practice
  • Initiation of new class of psychiatric medications in past 2 months.
  • Currently on a weight loss diet

Treatment and study plan

Craving and Lifestyle Management through Mindfulness

Behavioral

A preliminary, novel intervention was developed drawing on components from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT). The intervention program consisted of nine 2.5-hour classes and one 7-hour silent day of guided meditation practice after class 6.

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Abdominal Fat

    Time frame: Change from Baseline in Abdominal Fat (baseline and 4 months)

    Whole-body dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans were performed to assess body fat distribution. The DEXA densitometry (GE Healthcare Lunar Prodigy, Madison, Wis, USA) was adjusted to the fan beam mode and EnCore software version 9.15 was used. The primary region of interest was fat tissue from a rectangular region in the abdominal area defined by the upper boundary of the second lumbar vertebra to the lower edge of the fourth lumbar vertebra. The vertical sides were defined as the continuation of the lateral sides of the rib cage.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Weight

    Time frame: Change in Weight (baseline and 4 months)

  2. Telomerase Activity

    Time frame: Change from Baseline in Telomerase Activity at 4 months

    Cryopreserved peripheral blood nuclear cells (PBMCs) were thawed and live cells counted using a hemocytometer by the Trypan blue exclusion method. For each sample, an extract of 5000 cells per microliter was made and two concentrations, corresponding to 5000 and 10,000 cells, were assayed for each sample to ensure the assay was in the linear range. Telomerase activity was assayed by the Telomerase Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP) using a commercial kit (TRAPeze, Telomerase Detection kit, Upstate/ CHEMICON, Temecula, CA). Baseline and post-intervention samples for the same participant were assayed in the same batch and run on the same gel to eliminate any differences caused by reaction or procedural batch-to-batch variations. Technicians were blind to group assignment. Telomerase activity is defined as 1 unit = the amount of product from one 293T cell/10,000 PBMCs, and was quantified using the software ImageQuant 5.2 (GE Healthcare, Piscataway, NJ).

  3. Change in Psychological Stress (Baseline and 4 Months)

    Time frame: Change from Baseline in Psychological Stress

    The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale was used to evaluate perception of stressful events over the past month by using a 5-point Likert scale (0 = never to 4 = very often) (Cohen et al., 1983). The mean of the ten items was used in analysis. Higher scores indicate greater perceived stress.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of California, San Francisco

Other

Collaborators

  • Mount Zion Health Fund
  • National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Registry information

Official study title

Effects of Stress Reduction on Eating, Fat Distribution, and Cell Aging Among Overweight Women

Acronym: CALMM

Important dates

Study start
2006
Primary completion
2007
Study completion
2008
First posted
Nov 30, 2010
Registry last updated
Feb 18, 2013

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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