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Research Methods

Research and Animal Rights

1946 brought with it, dramatic changes in research and human experimentation (Schuklenk, 2005). As a class, we have covered many vital and important issues regarding human welfare and rights, as they relate to ethical research design. Many of these processes are built upon informed consent. However, an animal cannot participate in such a process, and several…

The Right to Participate

The history of subject abuse within research is well documented prior to 1946 (Pick, Berry, Gilbert, & McCaul, 2013). Since then, stringent measures have been developed and implemented to protect the rights of individuals directly involved in experimentation. However, have participants been excessively shrouded and shielded by these aforementioned measures? Have participants been distanced from…

History of Informed Consent

Ethical guidelines in human research finds its beginnings shortly after the Second World War. A cornerstone of ethical research is informed consent, and a fundamental principle of ethical standards is to treat human participants with respect while protecting individual rights. However, these guidelines did not exist prior to 1946. In the following sections, I would…

Ethics and Research

Schuklenk1 defined ethics, as a means of providing guidance to researchers regarding how they ought to behave and act in a situation in addition to outlining justified reasons for doing so. Paradoxically, there is no universal ethical consensus, only several competing ethical theories. In the following sections, this author would like to compare principle-based ethics, deontological ethics, and…

Evidence-Based Practice and Low Back Pain

Understanding the utility and efficaciousness of evidence-based practice (EBP) is a vital first step in ensuring safe and effective outcomes with my clientele. In the following sections, I would like to provide an example of EBP, the findings I have used, and how it has helped me successfully re-strengthen clients with low back pain (once…

Evidence-Based Medicine and the Exercise Professional

Post-rehabilitation (PR) clients require diligent and scrupulous program design. This population is often deconditioned and weak, decreasing the available margin of error and increasing the risk of re-injury. Thus, program development and the pursuit of best practice should be grounded in pragmatic and evidence-based approaches. In the following sections, I would like to explore evidence-based…

Limitations of Low Carbohydrate Diets

Modern Western diets tend to be rich in macronutrient sources from refined carbohydrates. In this author’s last assignment, the application of very low carbohydrate diets (VLCD) was explored as a means of treating metabolic syndrome (i.e., diabetes, poor blood lipid profiles, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and decreased insulin sensitivity) (Song, Lee, Song, Paik, & Song, 2014)….