Can regular exercise reduce the protein needs of adults with type 2 diabetes?
From left: University of Illinois Professor Nick Burd, postdoc Mikaela Kasperek, Ph.D. student Gena Irwin, and Associate Professor Jacob Allen pose inside Freer Hall’s gym, where their labs will train participants in a 12-week exercise program for a clinical trial.
For healthy adults, roughly .8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day is enough to maintain muscle mass and support daily function.
But for adults with type 2 diabetes, an estimated 1 in 10 adults in the United States, their protein requirements remain relatively undefined, but are believed to be elevated when compared to their non-diabetic counterparts. Especially as diabetic individuals age, their bodies often become more anabolic resistant: less responsive to the muscle-building effects of exercise and protein intake.
Researchers from the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are recruiting participants for a human clinical trial to understand the protein needs of older adults with type 2 diabetes, and whether regular exercise can help their bodies use protein more efficiently.
“The problem with current strategies for type 2 diabetes is they largely try to keep throwing protein in people’s diets: eat more, eat more, eat more,” HK Professor Nicholas Burd said.
Piling on the protein could have detrimental effects. There’s evidence that circulating amino acids, including branch chain amino acids that promote muscle mass, are associated with poorer outcomes for people with diabetes, said HK Associate Professor Jacob Allen.
Their upcoming study, “Exercise impact on dietary protein efficiency in older adults with type 2 diabetes,” is funded by a grant from the American Diabetes Association. The principal investigators are Burd, who researches protein metabolism, and Allen, who studies how exercise and nutrition impact the gut microbiome.
Health and Kinesiology professors Jack Senefeld and Steve Petruzzello are co-investigators on the study.
HK Assistant Professor Jack Senefeld and Professor Steve Petruzzello are co-investigators on the study, bringing expertise on training diabetic individuals and psychological well-being during exercise. Ph.D. candidate Gena Irwin and postdoc Mikaela Kasperek will lead the work from the Burd’s Exercise Performance Lab and Allen’s Integrative Microbiota Physiology labs respectively.
Starting this fall, the researchers will recruit 30 older adults to participate in this study—15 individuals living with type 2 diabetes and 15 without—and bring them into Freer Hall’s gym for a 12-week fitness program that mixes weight training with endurance exercise.
The researchers will use sensitive tools in their labs to figure out how efficiently participants’ bodies utilize protein, and whether that efficiency varies for older adults with and without diabetes. After participants wrap the exercise program, the team will test whether resistance training improved their bodies’ usage of protein overall, lessening their daily protein needs.
“To make an older person’s muscles more youthful, you can exercise them,” Burd said. “But we don’t know how the gut’s being impacted, and we don’t know how type 2 diabetes interferes with some of the ‘youthfulness’ effects of exercise.”
Some of our dietary protein ends up in our skeletal muscle, through muscle-protein synthesis, and some of it is used for energy. But there’s a “black box” around where the rest of our protein goes in the body, Allen said.
“We think that the microbes in the gut, the gut microbiome, might be responsible for some of this, but this has never been studied,” Allen said. “We’ve run some pilot work that fueled part of this study, where we can show that indeed, ingested amino acids are converted into these microbial metabolites.”
Why might that matter? Some of these metabolites are important for human health overall, Allen said. For example, short chain fatty acids—the byproducts of dietary fiber being processed in our gut—bring a host of benefits for metabolism and the immune system.
The research teams will host intervention days at the beginning and end of the 12-week exercise program, to see how participants’ bodies are using the protein in their muscle and gut.
Participants will consume amino acids labeled with stable isotope tracers. The labs will collect breath samples to see how much of the labeled amino acid is showing up in the breath—if more of that labeled protein appears in participants’ breath, their bodies aren’t as good at incorporating it into muscle.
Blood samples will help the scientists understand how the gut is taking those amino acids and converting them into potentially beneficial metabolites.
The second intervention day at the end of the trial will determine whether an exercise program changed the way participants’ bodies use protein.
“There are very few labs in the U.S that not only have the expertise, but have the infrastructure to be able to do this kind of work, so we’re very fortunate for Illinois and our department,” Burd said. “Stable isotope tracers require expensive machines to analyze.”
What’s in it for participants? On top of helping the scientists form dietary guidelines for older adults with type 2 diabetes, they’ll receive progressive exercise training from expert students and faculty at the college, that will hopefully serve them well beyond their last visit.
“A big goal is to change behavior, too, to make them healthier,” Allen said. “That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do.”
Editor’s note:
Interested in participating in this study? Take the survey to see if you qualify, or email the organizers at HK-ADA-Study@illinois.edu
Oct. 16, 2025 | Department of Speech and Hearing Science
On July 17, 2025, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved the decision to phase down the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) Program. Please read further to understand our decision and our continued commitment to hearing education and clinical services.
Our History in Audiology Training
The Doctor of Audiology (AuD) Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is nationally recognized for its excellence in clinical training and academic leadership. For decades, our program has prepared future audiologists to meet the evolving demands of healthcare addressing hearing and balance, consistently earning top rankings among peer institutions. Our alumni and current students continue to shape the field—advancing research, leading clinical innovation, and improving patient outcomes.
Speech and Hearing Science Building.
Today, the need for innovative models of hearing care is only increasing. With 48 million people in the United States and 477 million worldwide living with hearing loss, the demand for accessible, high-quality hearing care is growing rapidly. As a department, we are committed to supporting our students, alumni, partners, and community in addressing this global challenge.
Re-Envisioning Audiology Education at Illinois
Audiology education in general has experienced long-term challenges. Among these, a shortage of audiologists has contributed to a shortage of local clinical placement sites and clinical faculty, limiting the availability of supervised clinical training experiences. This is combined with limited applicants to our AuD program and competition from other AuD programs across the state and region. Over the past two years, the department engaged in a comprehensive review of the AuD program, assessed multiple models for long term sustainability, engaged in dialogue with statewide partners, and evaluated future trends in audiology education and clinical practice. As a forward-thinking department, we have decided to transition to new educational training models for supporting the future of hearing care.
After careful consideration, and with the best interests of our students, faculty, and the department in mind, we made the difficult decision to phase down the AuD program. As a result, we are no longer accepting applications to the AuD program.
A Continued Commitment to Hearing Health
We remain committed to educating future practitioners and leaders in hearing health. All currently enrolled AuD students will continue to receive full support from the faculty in meeting their educational and clinical requirements through the completion of their degrees. Our program continues to hold full accreditation status with the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA). We are also designing new opportunities for students in our other degree programs to interface with our Audiology Clinic, collaborate with leaders in hearing science, and pursue interdisciplinary learning and innovation.
Our Audiology Clinic remains fully operational and continues to accept new patients and referrals without interruption. We are committed to serving the clinical needs of the university community and the public. Furthermore, we continue to pursue innovative models and partnerships as a leader in hearing throughout the state.
Designing the Future of Hearing Education and Research
Hearing science remains a core strength of our department, supported by a vibrant research community and ongoing investment in hearing innovation. Our faculty direct projects of national and international impact, to support children and adults across the lifespan with their hearing needs, and to improve clinical practice and technological solutions. With the growing influence of artificial intelligence, we are designing innovative undergraduate education opportunities that merge clinical practice with advancing computational methods, preparing students to thrive and lead in data-driven healthcare. We are building the future of hearing science and clinical practice, and we are training our PhD students to lead in this rapidly evolving field through our mentorship and interdisciplinary training.
We are deeply proud of our AuD program and the many accomplishments of our students, alumni, and faculty. We are also grateful for the valuable contributions of our adjunct faculty, emeriti faculty, and external clinical supervisors. We invite alumni, clinical partners, collaborators, and prospective students to join us in building the future of hearing science and advancing hearing care and education in Illinois and beyond.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Ian Mertes, the Director of the Audiology Program (imertes@illinois.edu).
Join activities hosted by Health and Kinesiology faculty and students
Exercise is Medicine Month on Campus kicked off with an in-person yoga event at Freer Hall lawn. (Provided)
Exercise is Medicine on Campus (EIM-OC) is an annual initiative that calls upon colleges and universities to promote physical activity as a core component of health and wellness. More than 200 campuses in the United States have registered for the program.
This month, Health and Kinesiology faculty and students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—led by this year’s EIM at Illinois committee chair Emerson Sebastião—have planned out several activities to bring campus together in movement. Representatives from the Illinois Counseling Center, Campus Recreation, McKinley Health Center, Carle Illinois College of Medicine and local health organizations joined this year’s committee.
All month, participants can join the online “Move More Challenge” by posting a video or photo of them exercising, and tagging @illinoishealthkin on Instagram.
Coming up:
Free Pilates
A free, introductory pilates class in front of Freer Hall, led by HK Teaching Assistant Professor Alana Harris. Bring your own mat!
When: Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 12 p.m. at Freer Hall lawn
Check your vitals
Get your blood pressure and resting heart rate checked for free by HK students and faculty. Students will provide education on physical activity and exercise guidelines.
When: Wednesday, Oct. 15 from noon to 1 p.m. at Illinois Street Residence Hall Wednesday, Oct. 22 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Student Dining and Residential Programs building (SDRP)
Fall into Fitness 5K | Run, Walk and Roll
Join a 5K race that starts at Freer Hall and loops through campus. Check-in and registration begins at 7:30 a.m., and the race starts at 8:30 a.m.
When: Sunday, Oct. 19 at 8:30 a.m. Check-in begins at 7:30 a.m.
Read Chancellor Isbell’s official proclamation for Exercise is Medicine Month on Campus:
Committee Members 2025-2026
Chair: Emerson Sebastião, Ph.D., Health and Kinesiology
Nicholas Burd, Ph.D., Health and Kinesiology
Alana Harris, Ph.D, Health and Kinesiology
Diana Morales (Graduate Student Representative)
Harrison Guo (Undergraduate Student Representative)
Maggie Verklan, the Counseling Center
Alexia Hammonds (Graduate Student Representative)
Brie Whitted, McKinley Health Center
Jared Willard, MD, Christie Clinic
Annie Tigranyan (Carle Illinois College of Medicine Student Representative)
Megan Huibregtse, Ph.D., is a first-year assistant professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, but she’s no stranger to the Midwest. Huibregtse obtained her bachelor’s in neuroscience and a Ph.D. in human performance from Indiana University, Bloomington.She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University before joining the AHS faculty this fall.
Megan Huibregtse (Fred Zwicky / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
Talk about what drew you to the College of AHS. Why did you choose to come to Illinois?
Megan: I was looking for an environment where I could connect with a vibrant research community and work directly with undergraduate and graduate students. While my work spans multiple disciplines such as clinical neuroscience or psychiatry, traumatic brain injury is one of the most common neurological conditions (Maas et al., 2022 The Lancet Neurology), and there’s a real public health concern about acute and long-term neurobehavioral effects.
So, AHS’s mission of improving health and well-being across the lifespan is a great fit for my research program. Plus, the neuroimaging resources here are unparalleled, and I can’t wait to start using the 7 Tesla scanner.
(The University of Illinois and Carle Health co-own a 7 Tesla MRI scanner, which provides a huge step up in quality for brain imaging.)
You’ve described yourself as ‘obsessed with the brain.’ When and how did your fascination with neuroscience begin?
I was unlucky enough to get two concussions from playing volleyball when I was younger, and the second led to the discovery of a brain tumor in my left frontal lobe. It might have been a coincidence, but the tumor was right next to where I hit my head when I got the first concussion.
Fortunately, the surgery to remove it went well, and I’ve been fascinated by the brain and what happens in response to injury ever since. Having personally gone through many hours of magnetic resonance imaging, I learned what a powerful tool it is to non-invasively examine the brain.
Within the area of traumatic brain injury, you’ve already investigated a wide variety of topics, from sub-concussive head impacts in high school football to head trauma from intimate partner violence. How do you generally describe your research interests?
That’s right—I’ve been fascinated by various aspects of neurotrauma. In general, I would say that my interests revolve around comprehending how our experiences (brain injuries, traumatic events, and when they occur simultaneously) impact our brain health. I consider brain health in terms of both structural integrity and function.
What are your priorities as you’re getting started here at Illinois?
This year, I’m working on setting up my research program—recruiting graduate students and undergraduate research assistants, submitting my protocols to the Institutional Review Board, and getting acquainted with the excellent neuroimaging resources at the Beckman Institute.
How has your experience in Urbana-Champaign been so far? Is there anything you’d like your colleagues to know about you?
It’s been great so far! Having completed my degrees at another Big Ten school (Indiana), Urbana-Champaign feels familiar already. Outside of work, I love to cook and bake for my family and friends.
Today’s Department of Health and Kinesiology once hosted the nation’s foremost researchers of sport psychology. Nearly 50 years on, these pioneers reunited at Huff Hall for a weekend on campus.
When Rainer Martens arrived at the University of Illinois in the summer of 1966, he stepped out of his blue Mustang and bounded up the steps of George Huff Hall, to see the university’s Sport Psychology Laboratory with his own eyes.
What he found on the third floor of Huff initially disappointed him: old equipment piled up in the corner of a room with just enough space to seat a class. “We thought we’d come to the wrong place,” Martens said.
Turns out, he wasn’t in the wrong place—maybe just a little early.
What followed was the explosive growth of sport psychology research at Illinois. With help from the university’s world-class department of psychology, a group of likeminded doctoral students—including Martens, Glyn Roberts and the late Dan Landers—began building a formal sport psychology graduate program at Illinois, to study the mental aspects of athletic success, motivation and performance.
Dozens of doctoral students went on to matriculate in the program and bring their discoveries to institutions across the globe. By the late 1970s, Illinois had become the torchbearer for modern-day sport psychology in the U.S., with a vibrant group of researchers at the helm.
Five decades later, a group of those same students and faculty returned to campus to catch up with their former colleagues, and take a tour of their old academic home. The guest list left an indelible mark on the field of sport psychology as it stands today.
Even as Illinois’ own sport psychology program has faded, the legacy of its achievements and discoveries endure in the modern day College of Applied Health Sciences. Faculty at AHS, particularly in Health and Kinesiology, continue to study the psychological effects of exercise and physical activity at large, building on more than 100 years of tradition.
“All these former students, they’ve all gone on to distinguished careers. They’ve gone on to become presidents of national sport psychology organizations, and spoken all over the world,” Martens said. “This gathering, it’s a once in a lifetime thing.”
To cap off their walk down memory lane, these legends of sport psychology got to share lunch with current-day faculty and doctoral students in the Department of Health and Kinesiology.
“That was very humbling, we never expected anybody to turn out,” said Glyn Roberts, who worked as a professor of sport psychology at Illinois until 1998. “It was very rewarding that they would do that for us.”
Guests of honor
Rainer Martens, a professor of kinesiology at Illinois until 1984, and co-founder of Human Kinetics, leading publisher of books and journals on physical activity
Julie Martens, PhD in sport psychology and the first employee of Human Kinetics, who retired as executive vice president in 2009
Glyn Roberts, professor emeritus at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and former professor of sport psychology at Illinois
Tara Scanlan, professor emerita of psychology at UCLA, and her husband Larry Scanlan
Diane Gill, kinesiology professor emerita at UNC Greensboro
Dan Gould and Marty Ewing, professors emeriti at Michigan State. Both earned a Ph.D. at Illinois, and Gould taught here until 1991
Damon Burton, professor of sport psychology at the University of Idaho
Robin Vealey, professor of kinesiology and health at the University of Miami, Ohio
Linda “Bump” Harrison, a publisher who got her PhD in the program in 1987
Marc Lochbaum, professor of kinesiology at Texas Tech who went to Illinois for undergrad and was mentored by several sport psychology greats
Absent were Joan Duda, professor of sport and exercise psychology at University of Birmingham, and Dan Landers, a professor of sport and exercise psychology and co-founder of the Journal of Sport Psychology, who passed away in 2023
‘We didn’t realize it, but we were pioneers’
Though Illinois experienced fertile growth of sport psychology in the 1970s, the seeds were planted by Coleman Griffith, known as the “father of sport psychology” for his pioneering work into the mental aspects of athletic performance.
Griffith founded and ran Illinois’ Athletic Research Laboratory until 1932, where he studied the links between personality and physiology on athletic success. He wrote two books—“Psychology of Coaching” and “Psychology and Athletics”— but left no proteges for his research. Griffith later became provost of the university.
Physical fitness pioneer Thomas “TK” Cureton started his Physical Fitness Research Laboratory in 1944, occasionally collaborating with psychologist Raymond B. Cattell. The two of them examined the relationship between physical activity on personality and several of Cureton’s graduate students examined the anxiety-reducing effects of exercise. In 1951, Professor Alfred “Fritz” Hubbard revived Griffith’s research line with a new Sport Psychology Laboratory, located in a third floor office of Huff Hall, then known as Huff Gymnasium.
Hubbard specialized in motor learning, but saw latent potential in the sport psychology discipline. After a decade of research and recruitment, Hubbard had a prediction: the number of graduate students interested in sport psychology would double or triple by the end of the 1970s. His forecast of growth came true.
Still, those who joined the Illinois sport psychology program in the 1960s found their way to the field before an academic path formally existed. Some started out in coaching or physical education, and were searching for applied knowledge to use in the field.
For Rainer, his experience with intense anxiety before youth wrestling matches inspired him to understand competitive nerves and how to quell them.
After getting degrees from the then-named Department of Physical Education, Landers, Martens and Roberts all eventually joined the Children’s Research Center, a grant-funded research vehicle seeking to explain children’s behavior from multiple academic disciplines.
The recent grads worked in the center’s Motor Performance and Play Research Laboratory, where they used social psychology principles to study children’s play, and explore how their stress levels, personalities and more influenced their motor learning.
The grant-funded lab supercharged their progress.
“A lot of the stuff we did initially was stress related. How do you reduce stress? That was Rainer’s research—what he called competitive anxiety,” said Roberts, who began working at the Children’s Research Center in 1973. “Mine was motivation: how do you make people do what they ought to be doing?”
Full-time research positions to study the field were unusual, and freeing. From 1968 to 1975, Martens stayed on with the Children’s Research Center. Lifted by the university’s resources, namely its enormous library, computing power and collaborators in psychology, the lab produced leading research in sport psychology before peer institutions had caught on to the emerging discipline.
Julie Martens (center left) and Tara Scanlan (second from right) share a laugh in Huff Hall. Both of them obtained their doctoral degrees in sport psychology from the University of Illinois.
Jean Driscoll (center) chats with Dan Gould and Damon Burton, both graduates of the sport psychology program at Illinois who went on to successful careers in the field.
Bill Goodman (center) retired associate dean for administration at the College of AHS, tours former Illinois sport psychology students and faculty around Huff Gym.
Chris Tamas, the current coach of the Illinois volleyball squad, speaks to former sport psychology students and faculty in Huff Gym.
Jean Driscoll shows off the wall of Distinguished Alumni Award winners from the College of Applied Health Sciences.
Former Illinois sport psychology students and faculty sit in one of the new Huff Hall classrooms. The space used to be part of the Huff Gym indoor pool.
A reunion of sport psychology faculty and students at Illinois brought the guests inside and outside Huff Hall, where much of the early research into their field took place.
Former Illinois sport psychology faculty and students walk up the ramp of the Khan Annex, an addition to Huff Hall that opened in 2011.
Glyn Roberts (center) points to the wall of deans of the College of Applied Health Sciences.
Don Hardin (right), adjunct instructor at AHS and former women's volleyball head coach, talks about the history of Huff Hall with former sport psychology students and faculty.
The sport psychology tour stops by the Freer Hall gym, used for research purposes.
Former sport psychology students and faculty tour the basement labs of Freer Hall.
The enthusiasm of Illinois sport psychologists was clearly infectious. After a couple years teaching physical education, Diane Gill attended a conference at Brockport, New York, where she got to hear both Dan Landers and Rainer Martens speak about their research at Illinois. By her first semester in Urbana-Champaign, Gill was in Martens’ class “Social Psychology and Physical Activity,” where his first doctoral student, Tara Scanlan, was teaching assistant.
“Taking that course, immediately I thought, ‘this is the area I’d like to be in,’” Gill said.
She soon worked with the pair on their competitive anxiety research, and later studied competitiveness and athletes’ “achievement orientation,” or drive to improve and accomplish goals within their sport, along with a host of other topics in the field.
“Illinois was the place to be if you wanted to be in sport psychology,” she said.
Gill is newly retired, having spent more than 30 years as a professor of kinesiology at University of North Carolina, Greensboro after obtaining her master’s and Ph.D. at Illinois.
(“My doctoral students are retiring,” said Martens, now 82. “That makes me really old.”)
Physical activity—whether it’s high-level athletics or recess play—is all one field.
Diane Gill
Professor Emerita of Kinesiology, UNC Greensboro
Julie Martens, née Simon, was accepted into the program in 1973, coming to Illinois specifically to study with Rainer. (They would get married nearly 20 years later).
“[Tara Scanlan and Diane] had an office out at the Children’s Research Center right next to Rainer’s. As I got to know them, we used to be out there every evening. They said, “Come on out, you can study at night with us,’” Julie said. “That’s how I got involved with meeting the other students, then I got an assistantship and got where I wanted to be.”
The scientists would run experiments, hop over to the nearby cafeteria in the Adler Mental Health building for lunch and sketch out ideas for new research designs on napkins. Those early days were “invigorating,” Martens said.
By 1980, U. of I. was the premier place of study for sport psychology, alongside Penn State. They had turned the topic into a formal graduate program, and the field was continuing to blossom. In 1979, Dan Landers and Rainer co-founded the Journal of Sport Psychology, where Landers was the inaugural editor-in-chief.
As the field grew in relevance, new pathways opened up and Illinois sport psychology spread across the country. Sport psychology got a “big break” when the Olympic Training Committee allowed athletes to be advised by professionals who weren’t clinicians or psychiatrists, Roberts said—sport psychologists could now help athletes develop strategies to perform under extreme stressors.
“The U. of I. was very special. And the thing that stuck with me was we attracted such good students. We generated a reputation, and students wanted to come here from all over the world,” Roberts said. “We didn’t realize it, but we were pioneers.”
‘No better program in the world’
Between visits to their old labs and offices, the sport psychology legends visited classrooms in Huff Hall where there used to be a swimming pool, and walked on floors of Freer Hall that were once open air.
“In Freer and Huff, things have changed, which is good in many ways. You wouldn’t want the same stuff you had 50 years ago,” Gill said.
Over the weekend, the sport psychology crew took the 40-minute drive to Allerton Park in Monticello, where they hosted the nation’s first conference in sport psychology: the North American Society for Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) in 1973.
Several of them later served as executives and presidents of the society. The first conference also planted the seeds for Human Kinetics, the Champaign-based publisher of sport and exercise science founded by Martens and his first wife, Marilyn.
Though a formal sport psychology program no longer exists at Illinois, the field has expanded and evolved. The Department of Health and Kinesiology continues to study the psychological aspects and benefits of physical activity.
Rainer Martens speaks to his former Sport Psychology colleagues, and the current-day faculty of Health and Kinesiology.
“I think of it as one field. Physical activity—whether it’s high-level athletics or recess play—is all one field,” Gill said.
After walking through their old stomping grounds, the group met with current-day faculty and students of Health and Kinesiology for lunch in Freer Hall.
“This was the group that got sport psychology a foothold in this country,” said HK Professor Steve Petruzzello, who runs the college’s Exercise Psychophysiology Laboratory. “It’s wonderful to see these folks back here, to see their eyes light up as they’re walking around the halls, seeing spaces that look familiar and some that are completely unfamiliar.”
What remains from this era of sport psychology, and even the early days of Athletic Research Laboratory, are questions on the relationship between physical activity and psychology—including personality, stress, cognitive factors and affect, or feeling states.
“Faculty currently study these kinds of topics in older adults and children, in diverse populations, and in more specialized groups like tactical athletes,” Petruzzello said. “So really, the pioneering work of Coleman Griffith at Illinois over 100 years ago has evolved and developed into what it is today.”
Before heading off, the sport psychologists dispensed career advice with some of the rising graduate students and faculty. Linda Harrison obtained her Ph.D. from the program in 1987—she opted to go into the publishing industry instead of academia, but she credits her time at Illinois for developing her abilities to think and ask questions.
“The grad students all benefited from the historic founding fathers of sport psychology and the scholars who picked up the torch to carry the program to the next level,” Harrison said. “I am sure there was no better program in the world than the one offered at U. of I.”
Editor’s note:
To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu The College of Applied Health Sciences and Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics are celebrating 100 years of Huff Hallthis fall.
Misuse of nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas,” is on the rise nationally. Researchers warn that the U.S. may be at the “bottom of the hill” for this public health issue.
Canisters of Galaxy Gas, a nitrous oxide product often carried by smoke shops and online sellers. (Credit: Galaxy Gas)
An anesthetic most often used at the dentist or doctor’s office, nitrous oxide or “laughing gas” has been misused recreationally for decades in the form of whipped cream chargers, often called “whippets.”
Research from a University of Illinois professor shows an alarming rise in fatalities associated with the drug in the last decade, potentially driven by efforts to mass-market products to a new generation.
In the study, “US nitrous oxide mortality” published in JAMA Network Open and co-authored by Health and Kinesiology Assistant Professor Rachel Hoopsick and University of Mississippi Assistant Professor of Public Health Andrew Yockey, the researchers tracked the number of deaths in the United States associated with nitrous oxide misuse from 2010 to 2023, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
In that timeframe, U.S. annual deaths from nitrous oxide poisoning are up by nearly 600%, the study found. Of the 1,240 reported deaths during that period, 74% occurred in the last 7 years.
“I think we are currently at the bottom of a hill,” said Hoopsick. “Without any type of regulatory intervention, deaths and poisonings from nitrous oxide will increase at an accelerating rate and become a tremendous public health issue.”
For reference, 23 users of nitrous oxide died from the drug in 2010, compared to 156 in the year 2023. two factors make the picture look even worse: the sale of nitrous oxide is largely unregulated, and unlike most “party drugs,” users can die after inhaling it just once.
“This product is killing kids, it’s killing young adults,” Yockey said. “There’s no clear intention for using this product recreationally. Our message at the end of the day is: no one should be dying from nitrous oxide poisoning, at all.”
The number of annual deaths associated with nitrous oxide misuse has leapt by 600% in the last 14 years, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. (Source: “US nitrous oxide mortality”)
Repackaged for a new generation
Hoopsick and Yockey are frequent collaborators on research into substance use and mortality, often studying highly addictive drugs like methamphetamine and heroin.
Rachel Hoopsick (Provided)
Until recently, Yockey wasn’t convinced nitrous oxide misuse had become a public health issue. During a class he taught on substance abuse, he initially dismissed whippets as a fad of the past.
“A student raised their hand and said, ‘I can buy this at a gas station,’” Yockey said. Sure enough, the student pulled up pictures of colorfully packaged canisters of nitrous oxide, with goofy brand names such as “Galaxy Gas” or “Exotic Whip.”
These emerging brands are exploiting a regulatory loophole, the researchers said. Nitrous oxide is the whipping agent for whipped cream, so companies use that purpose as a cover to sell the product for recreational use.
“Flavored and scented versions, there’s no legitimate culinary purpose for that,” Hoopsick said. “It’s a gas—it doesn’t flavor the whipped cream. But it gives a scent or flavor to that gas for people using it as an inhalant.”
In the U.S., misuse of the inhalant has steadily risen since 2010. From 2023 to 2024, the number of intentional nitrous oxide exposure reports increased by 58 percent, Yockey wrote in a letter to the Journal of Medicine, Surgery and Public Health. More than 13 million people in the U.S. report using the inhalant in their lifetime.
A separate analysis showed emergency medical visits for nitrous oxide misuse in Michigan jumped by four to five times from 2019 to 2023.
We don’t want to wait until we’re at the top of the mountain, which is what we did with opioids.
Rachel Hoopsick
Assistant Professor of Health and Kinesiology
As of now, due to the culinary purpose of these products, the sale of nitrous oxide is still largely unregulated. Four states—Alabama, California, Michigan and Louisiana—have banned its recreational use as of July 2025. Others, such as Arizona and Connecticut, have banned the sale of the substance to minors; New York banned the sale of whipped cream chargers to anyone under 21 years of age.
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration advised consumers to avoid inhaling nitrous oxide “from any size canisters, tanks, or chargers,” naming more than a dozen brands.
Still, in most states, users can pick from collections of brightly colored whipped cream chargers or dispensers at local smoke shops, or have canisters of nitrous delivered to their door from online shopping platforms.
“Since last summer, it’s taken off,” Yockey said.
A familiar playbook
The marketing “playbook” for nitrous oxide bears eerily similarity to the tobacco industry, Hoopsick said, in both appeal and accessibility. Sellers minimize health risks while dressing up the products in flashier exteriors, targeted at young people.
Tobacco companies were pressured by federal regulators to end practices that targeted young buyers, such as flavored cigarettes and cartoon brand mascots.
A canister of “original flavor” Galaxy Gas. (Credit: Galaxy Gas)
“We know nitrous oxide has neurological effects,” Hoopsick said. “But sellers rarely, if ever, provide health warnings. The public largely views it as a harmless party drug.”
Unlike the usual “party drug,” however, nitrous oxide risks both instant brain damage and death. The brief “high” temporarily paralyzes users, and can lead to hypoxia, or deprivation of oxygen to the body. Nitrous oxide inactivates vitamin B12, which can lead to a host of other health problems, including nerve damage.
Many deaths arise from the drug’s paralytic effect: the researchers were recently contacted by a mother whose college-age child died from drowning in a hot tub after inhaling nitrous oxide.
In the researchers’ view, the best path to stem nitrous oxide misuse is by making it harder to get, by raising the age requirements for purchase or limiting where the substance can be purchased.
“From a public health perspective, now is a critical window of time to intervene,” Hoopsick said. “We don’t want to wait until we’re at the top of the mountain, which is what we did with opioids.”
AAC refers to a range of methods that people use to communicate, other than spoken language
Savanna Brittlebank first became interested in AAC after working with children who had trouble communicating (Photo provided)
By ADELYN MUI
Savanna Brittlebank has dedicated her academic career to improving communication for individuals with complex needs. As a new faculty member in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in the College of Applied Health Sciences, she brings knowledge and experience to the field of augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC.
AAC refers to a range of methods that people use to communicate, other than spoken language. It includes gestures, symbols, pictures, writing or use of electronic devices to express thoughts, needs and wants.
Brittlebank first became interested in AAC after working with children who had trouble communicating. She initially majored in psychology but worked extensively with individuals with disabilities. One of the reasons she decided to come to the University of Illinois is that she values the robust resources that the university has.
“There’s a lot of opportunity as well for expansion of my research because there is just a strength across different disciplines of the research that’s going on,” Brittlebank said. “The university really values that and has a lot of support to kind of push that growth as well, which drew me here. I keep learning more and more.”
Brittlebank recalled a time when she worked with a 3-year-old girl who was hearing-impaired and blind. The child also had an intellectual and developmental disability and no speech.
“She was still developing language, and I didn’t know what to do,” Brittlebank said. “I didn’t know how to best support her communication. Whenever I spoke to my supervisors and when I looked in the research, there really wasn’t anything. I realized I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know how to help this population. I realized that’s more where my passion was, and so I went back and studied further, and I’ve focused on research on that ever since.”
Brittlebank grew up in Zimbabwe and completed her BSc Hons (comparable to a U.S. bachelor’s degree) at University of York in England before coming to the United States to complete her M.S. at Pennsylvania State University. After her M.S., she worked clinically in Wisconsin as a speech-language pathologist, then returned to Penn State for her Ph.D. From there, she made her way to Illinois as an assistant professor in SHS.
“University of Illinois is one of the most disability-friendly campuses,” Brittlebank said. “There’s so many different resources available for individuals with disabilities, and there’s so much accessibility, more so than I’ve seen in a lot of other places. That was really encouraging considering I often work with people with disabilities who have limited speech.”
Since joining the university in fall 2024, Brittlebank has been in the process of getting new projects up and running and finishing old ones. She said one of her goals is to expand the accessibility of these interventions in lower-resource communities. In late April, Brittlebank received an award from the Campus Research Board for her project titled “Communication Partner Training to Support Language Outcomes in Children with Significant Disabilities.” This intervention research will investigate the effectiveness of training communication partners (e.g., paraprofessionals, direct support staff) of young children with significant challenges in both speech and motor abilities (i.e., multiple disabilities) in an evidence-based strategy to enhance child language outcomes.
In addition to access for lower-resource communities, Brittlebank also said that AAC is still moving forward in terms of representation for different cultures and different languages.
“AAC can be particularly challenging. I think one of the biggest barriers is access to technology,” Brittlebank said. “We can definitely support communication with photographs or with writing, but a lot of what’s out there as well is access to these computer- or tablet-like systems where you can access the internet. Families might not have it readily in the home as it’s a more costly system.”
AAC can be particularly challenging. I think one of the biggest barriers is access to technology.
Savanna Brittlebank
Assistant Professor
Brittlebank has worked on projects such as Transition to Literacy or T2L, a software that provides dynamic speech and text output upon selecting a graphic symbol. She said that traditional systems can be limiting—if every single word is not programmed, an individual cannot say everything that they want. However, the T2L feature helps support literacy by teaching individuals.
“It’s the idea that it’s an additional support to direct literacy instruction, but it’s a great way that it can be embedded and someone can get exposure to literacy learning throughout the day,” Brittlebank said.
Brittlebank said literacy is powerful: if an individual has the alphabet, they can say anything they want.
“Literacy, in this day and age as well—it really enables social communication and building friendships. If someone has trouble with speech, and then they have trouble with communication, that has a series of impacts from not being able to engage in education or limiting employment opportunities and limiting the ability to make friendships,” Brittlebank said. “It’s really important to make sure that individuals have access to language and communication and have appropriate access to language and communication.”
Under the mentorship of world-renowned scholars, doctoral students make significant contributions to the advancement of theory and practice in speech and hearing science through their dissertation research, as they prepare to assume leadership roles in clinical, industrial and academic settings.
Below, three of our outstanding SHS doctoral students discuss their research, and the impact they hope to have on the field.
Conflict monitoring
Mentored by Department of Speech and Hearing Science Professor Raksha Mudar in the Aging and Neurocognition Lab, Lizzy Lydon is focusing her doctoral research on communication abilities in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Her specific focus is on the cognitive construct called conflict monitoring, which helps individuals detect and resolve competing information in the environment. Lydon uses electroencephalography to examine alterations in brain waves when people with MCI perform different conflict monitoring tasks.
Before beginning her Ph.D. studies, Lydon worked as a speech-language pathologist with patients with MCI, many of whom reported communication challenges. “I often found it difficult to determine what type of treatment was the best choice for these individuals,” she said. “After looking through research, I realized there was a lack of evidence-based treatments for communication challenges in populations that experience mild changes to their cognition and language.”
Previous research had focused on understanding memory changes in adults with MCI. An emerging body of literature suggests that other cognitive functions such as conflict monitoring are affected. In using EEG in her research, Lydon may be able to identify neurophysiological markers that can be used for early diagnosis of MCI Research has shown that people with MCI are at a significantly greater risk of developing dementia than typically aging peers, Lydon noted, so it’s important not only to identify MCI earlier but also to better characterize the changes they experience.
“This can help to inform the development of interventions that have the potential to slow the progression to dementia and allow people to maintain independence and quality of life as long as possible,” she said.
In the fall, Lydon will join the faculty of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Miami University in Ohio as an assistant professor. She plans to continue to investigate how MCI affects different aspects of communication, as well as how these changes impact the ability to engage socially with others. “I am looking forward to this next adventure,” Lydon said, “and I’m so thankful for all the training I received here at Illinois.”
Listening effort
Silvia Murgia also plans to pursue an academic position after completing her degree this summer. For her dissertation, she is evaluating the impact of background noise and dysphonia, a voice disorder, on the mental energy needed to listen, or listening effort, of children performing a speech comprehension task. She is taking a comprehensive approach to her study, using subjective and objective measures of listening effort, including EEG analysis, as well as assessments of cognitive function to explain individual differences.
Murgia is mentored by SHS Associate Professor Pasquale Bottalico in the Speech Accommodation to Acoustics Lab. Understanding listening effort in children is crucial, Murgia said, as they spend a significant amount of time in school learning through communication activities. It is essential to minimize the amount of mental energy children use to listen in order to optimize the resources available for cognitive tasks such as memorization, comprehension and evaluation. Studies show that children’s cognition is affected by the speaker’s voice quality, the presence of background noise and the complexity of the listening task. Research also suggests that individual differences in executive function may be associated with variations in listening comprehension under adverse conditions. Her research addresses both external factors affecting listening effort and internal cognitive mechanisms that help children to cope with external challenges.
“My dissertation aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how these adverse conditions impact listening effort and comprehension,” she said. “This could have significant implications for educational practices, especially in designing interventions and strategies to support children with different listening and cognitive profiles.”
In her academic career, Murgia plans to expand her research to include children with hearing loss and special needs. Her goal is to improve the academic outcomes and overall well-being of all children by identifying effective ways to reduce listening effort and optimize learning environments.
“I hope that my research empowers children by advocating for their communication needs and ensuring that they have access to the resources and support they require to succeed academically and socially,” she said. “I want to contribute to creating inclusive environments where all children can thrive.”
Vocal intensity
December 2023 graduate Simin Soleimanifar’s dissertation research investigated how using two cochlear implants, known as bilateral cochlear implantations, affected the ability of users to control variations in vocal intensity, or the volume of their voice, as compared to users with a unilateral cochlear implantation.
Soleimanifar noted that the challenges faced by bilateral cochlear implant users in controlling vocal intensity have not been widely researched. Through her study, she hoped to identify the underlying factors contributing to the challenges, with a specific focus on how differences in the perception of loudness growth between the two ears affect vocal performance.
“Vocal performance plays a crucial role in effective communication, and difficulties in controlling vocal intensity can lead to social and emotional consequences for the individuals affected,” Soleimanifar said. “By shedding light on the specific auditory perceptions that influence these difficulties, this research has the potential to lead to better-tailored cochlear implant programming and rehabilitation strategies, ultimately improving the communication outcomes for bilateral cochlear implantation users as well as their overall quality of life.”
Mentored by SHS Associate Professor Justin Aronoff in the Binaural Hearing Lab, Soleimanifar currently is a clinical research associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is pursuing a career that bridges research and clinical practice. In addition to providing empirical evidence on the impact of bilateral cochlear implantation on vocal intensity control and identifying the role that mismatched loudness growth perception between ears plays in vocal performance, she hopes to inform clinical practice by highlighting the need for individualized implant programming and rehabilitation approaches that consider the auditory perceptions specific to bilateral cochlear implantations. Soleimanifar is particularly interested in applying her research findings within a multidisciplinary team to develop innovative implant technologies and rehabilitation strategies.
Dear students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science,
As we enjoy the spring colors across campus, I welcome you to the latest departmental newsletter. It fills me with great pride to share the progress we’ve made in recent months and provide a glimpse into the prospects on our horizon.
Our dedication to advancing the fields of audiology and speech-language pathology remains steadfast. In this edition, we showcase the stories of faculty, students and alumni making significant contributions across various facets of our field. These narratives underscore the strength of our community and the profound impact we have on enhancing quality of life.
I invite you all to explore the contents of this newsletter, celebrate our successes and envision the limitless possibilities ahead. Together, we will continue to empower individuals facing communication challenges, pioneer groundbreaking research and shape the trajectory of communication sciences and disorders.
Lastly, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to SHS faculty, staff and students for your unwavering dedication. Your tireless efforts are the cornerstone of our achievements, and your enthusiasm propels us forward.
Warm regards for a restful and reinvigorating summer.
