15,977 volunteers from Navarre have participated in one of the more than twenty programs of study of Nutrition that have been carried out in the Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine and in the Clínica Universidad de Navarra for more than 15 years.

The projects, financed by different national and international organizations, have been aimed at improving the health of the beneficiaries through different nutritional actions, such as low-calorie diets, personalized diets, consumption of functional or nutraceutical foods, diets rich in olive oil, nuts or fiber, nutritional Education sessions and Education for the acquisition of healthy lifestyle habits, etc.

Most of these programs of study have been carried out in partnership with professionals of the Navarra Health System-Osasunbidea, through the network of health centers of the Pamplona region and, in the Predimed and Predimed Plus projects, within a national network coordinated by the high school de Salud Carlos III and the CIBERobn (research center Biomedical in network Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition).

Since 2003, the laboratory de research Metabólica of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra has promoted several projects. The one that gathered the most volunteers -3,260 Navarrese- took place in 2012 and aimed to relate high adiposity with different cardiometabolic risk factors. The last one, in 2015, involved 610 people from Navarra.

In the case of the programs of study carried out in the current research center in Nutrition, the average age of the volunteers has been around 40 years old (most of them were between 18 and 75 years old). However, the Center has carried out specificprograms of study on obesity and overweight with 400 children and adolescents in projects such as EVASYON, which seeks to apply a therapeutic program through comprehensive nutritional Education and physical activity. The participation of volunteers in these projects has involved thousands of blood tests, anthropometric measurements, consultations with doctors, nutritionists and nurses, blood pressure checks, nutritional Education sessions, diet design , etc.

771 navarros in Predimed Plus

In addition to the beneficial effects for the volunteers themselves, the results of these programs of study have been used to publish 534 scientific articles in international journals, have contributed to the development of more than 55 doctoral thesis and dozens of works of Master's Degree each year.

In the case of essay Predimed, the largest study ever carried out on nutrition and cardiovascular prevention, 1,055 Navarrese at high cardiovascular risk participated through their health centers. All of them were followed up for 7.6 years through 7,652 visits per year, 4,220 blood extractions and blood pressure controls.

The new Predimed Plus started in 2014 and 771 volunteers from Navarre have already been recruited, with the forecast of reaching 900 participants who undergo various tests (analytical tests, blood pressure control, report tests, etc.), group sessions and are provided with extra virgin olive oil and nuts to supplement their diets. Those responsible for the different programs of study want to thank all of them for their interest and effort to collaborate with an altruistic research that seeks to obtain benefits for the whole society.