Brock A. Beamer, MD

Education and Training

Post Graduate Education and Training

My interest in improving health for older adults has resulted in broad clinical experience and a diverse research history.  This has exposed me to many clinical subjects in many settings, and to many vexing ethical and regulatory issues.  My early research experiences ranged from my own molecular investigations of the etiology of obesity and diabetes to Lifestyle Activity weight loss interventions in middle aged, functionally fit individuals.  These efforts taught me, amongst other things, that obesity, weight loss and body composition do impact function but are far more complicated to study well than they may first appear.  Recent work in rehabilitation, strength training and fall prevention in older adults continues to challenge me to examine how best to balance risk vs. benefit on multiple levels --for individual participants, for the specific study, and for research enterprise more broadly.  Often a risk that a patient and I may deem worthwhile for the hope of clinical benefit is simply not appropriate for a research setting; this can be difficult to understand for volunteers who are turned away, and for young investigators struggling to recruit.  More difficult for senior research colleagues and regulators is that often the “high risk subject” will indeed have adverse outcomes while enrolled in research, but that the research itself may have minimally impacted the specific outcome much less the overall risk for the individual (a particularly relevant consideration for exercise interventions and for risk of falls). 

My main hope for aging research at UM-SOM and BVAMC is that we learn to blend well the compassion that drives our clinical practices and underlies our quest for better treatment options with scientific rigor and due appreciation of the safety and regulatory requirements alluded to above.  Learning to do good research and safe, ethical research should always go hand in hand.

Aging; Body Composition; Rehabilitation; Biology of Aging;

Finucane TE, Beamer BA, Roca RP, Kawas CH.  Establishing advance medical directives with demented patients: a pilot study.  Journal of Clinical Ethics, 1993; 4(1):51-4.

Beamer BA, Yen C-J, Negri C, Silver K, Brown KA, Yarnall DP, Burns DK, Roth J, Shuldiner AR.  Molecular scanning of the human peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (hPPAR-g) gene in obese Caucasians: identification of a Pro12Ala PPAR-g2 missense mutation.  Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1997; 241:270-274.

Blumenthal JB, Andersen RE, Mitchell B, Seibert MJ, Yang H, Herzog H, Beamer BA, Franckowiak SC, Walston JD.  Novel Neuropeptide Y1 and Y5 Receptor Gene Variants:  Associations with Serum Triglyceride and High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels.  Clinical Genetics, 2002; 62(3):196-202.

Punjabi NM, Beamer BA.  C-reactive Protein Associates with Sleep-disordered Breathing Independent of Adiposity.  Sleep. 2007;30(1):29-34. PMID: 17310862

Espinoza S, Guo H, Fedarko N, DeZern A, Fried LP, Xue Q, Leng S, Beamer B, Walston JD.  Glutathione peroxidase enzyme activity in aging and inflammation. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2008; 63(5):505-9.   PMID: 18426963

Xue QL, Walston JD, Fried LP, Beamer BA.  Prediction of Risk of Falling, Physical Disability, and Frailty by Rate of Decline in Grip Strength: The Women's Health and Aging Study. Arch Intern Med 2011 Jun 27;171(12):1119-21.  PMID: 21709116

Inacio M, Ryan AS, Bair WN, Prettyman M, Beamer BA, Rogers MW. Gluteal muscle composition differentiates fallers from non-fallers in community dwelling older adults. BMC Geriatr. 2014 Mar 25;14(1):37.  PMID: 24666603

Bair W-N, Prettyman MG, Beamer BA, Rogers MW. Kinematic and behavioral analyses of protective stepping strategies and risk for falls among community living older adults.  Clinical Biomechanics  2016 Apr 29;36:74-82.  PMID: 27228075.

Orwig D, Mangione KK, Baumgarten M, Terrin M, Fortinsky R, Kenny AM, Gruber-Baldini AL, Beamer BA, Tosteson ANA, Shardell M, Magder L, Binder E, Koval K, Resnick B, Craik RL, Magaziner J. Improving Community Ambulation after Hip Fracture: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial comparing two physical therapy interventions Journal of Physiotherapy. In press.  

Addison O, Inacio M, Bair W-N, Prettyman M, Beamer BA, Ryan AS, Rogers MW. Role of Hip Abductor Muscle Composition and Torque in  Protective Stepping for Lateral Balance Recovery in Older Adults. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In press.