Healthy Lungs for Life: Nutrition and Lung Health

Paola is the Chair of the ELF Professional Advisory Committee. She will chair the Healthy Lungs for Life: Nutrition and Lung Health session and is ready to raise the profile of the links between diet and lung health.

Colette is on the Patient Representative Group at Milton Keynes University Hospital for Nutrition and Catering, and she also participates in the annual hospital audit from a patient perspective. Food wise: this covers a range of menu choices, special dietary requirements, ease of food and drink selection and the efficient delivery to the bedside. Cost conscious, sustainable nutritional choices considering the varying health needs of the patient.
Colette has been with the European Lung Foundation (ELF) since September 2020 with the Covid19 Patient Advisory Group. Colette is a qualified mental health first aider and is now a member of the ELF Mental Health Patient Advisory Group.
Colette has her asthma under control. She is also a a registered carer and her home nutrition covers the range of respiratory, diabetic, Autistic restricted and sensory sensitive, hypertensive and anxiety. She has a very keen interest in nutrition and manage managing health conditions!

Dr Carlos Camargo is an expert in nutrition and respiratory health and Professor at Harvard University. He has over 30 years' research experience on the link between nutrition and lung disease and is keen to raise the profile of how we can eat for better lung health.

In addition to this, Carlos founded the Emergency Medicine Network (EMNet), an international research collaboration that aims to advance public health objectives and focuses on areas such as lung conditions, allergies and emergency medicine. He has also worked on several guidelines focusing on diet, asthma and food allergy within the US.

Dr Megan Jensen is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She has a particular interest in exploring how nutrition in pregnancy and childhood can link to lung health.

Dr Jensen has managed clinical asthma trials in Australia and Canada and has also helped to develop position statements and policies in the areas of nutrition and lung health. She leads a Maternal & Paediatric Respiratory Nutrition research program and is passionate about raising the profile of diet in childhood and its links to lung health.

Neil Williams is a Senior academic in Nutrition Science and Exercise Physiology in the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). He established the research of exercise induced asthma and dietary supplementation at NTU where he completed his PhD. Dr Williams leads a research group investigating the role of dietary interventions targeting the gut barrier and its resident microbes to support respiratory and gut health in athletic and non-athletic (asthma, IBS) populations. In relation to respiratory health the research primarily focuses on the use of dietary biotic interventions to reduce airway inflammation and asthma severity. Furthermore, the work investigates how gut permeability may contribute to increased systemic inflammation in respiratory disease.
Dr Williams is also interested in the role of the gut microbiota in exercise performance and athlete health. Dr Williams has published extensively in this area and routinely contributes to the dissemination of nutrition science to support gut and respiratory health at international conferences. Dr Williams is passionate about translating nutrition science into practice and is an advocate for how diet and nutrition can support health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Dr Williams has published public facing books and provided outreach and public engagement on this topic area.