scholarly journals Harnessing SmartPhones to Personalize Nutrition in a Time of Global Pandemic

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Niv Zmora ◽  
Eran Elinav

The soar in COVID-19 cases around the globe has forced many to adapt to social distancing and self-isolation. In order to reduce contact with healthcare facilities and other patients, the CDC has advocated the use of telemedicine, i.e., electronic information and telecommunication technology. While these changes may disrupt normal behaviors and routines and induce anxiety, resulting in decreased vigilance to healthy diet and physical activity and reluctance to seek medical attention, they may just as well be circumvented using modern technology. Indeed, as the beginning of the pandemic a plethora of alternatives to conventional physical interactions were introduced. In this Perspective, we portray the role of SmartPhone applications (apps) in monitoring healthy nutrition, from their basic functionality as food diaries required for simple decision-making and nutritional interventions, through more advanced purposes, such as multi-dimensional data-mining and development of machine learning algorithms. Finally, we will delineate the emerging field of personalized nutrition and introduce pioneering technologies and concepts yet to be incorporated in SmartPhone-based dietary surveillance.

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_6) ◽  
Author(s):  
P Bhattacharya ◽  
D Mobarak

Abstract Introduction WHO declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic on March 11th 2020. It has has a profound on health care delivery and allocation of resources. Aim To find out the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality rates of patients admitted under general surgery in our hospital. Method Retrospective data collection of deaths in all inpatients from March to November 2020 (group A)and comparing it with data collected on inpatients from March to November 2019( Group B). Results There were 46 deaths out of 3534 admissions in group A compared to 55 deaths out of 6576 admissions in group B. This meant a rise of mortality from 0.84% in 2019 to 0.94 % in 2020, this is a statistically significant result (p = 0.02). The median age of mortalities in 2020 is 81.5 vs 79 years in 2019 and median documented interval between onset of symptoms to presentation in hospital was 2 days in 2020 as it was during 2019. Perforations accounted for more than half of 2020 deaths ( 29 out of 46) and 6 patients out of 46 were COVID-19 on swab testing. Conclusions 1. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on mortality rates in general surgery in 2020. 2. Perforations account for a majority of deaths, as evidenced by mean time to presentation at hospital; this may be attributed to delayed seeking of healthcare facilities as a result of lockdown. 3. Public education is required to seek medical attention early to improve outcomes of serious surgical conditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (22) ◽  
pp. 2467-2473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Reyes-Muñoz ◽  
Federica Di Guardo ◽  
Michal Ciebiera ◽  
Ilker Kahramanoglu ◽  
Thozhukat Sathyapalan ◽  
...  

Background: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), defined as glucose intolerance with onset or first recognition during pregnancy, represents one of the most common maternal-fetal complications during pregnancy and it is associated with poor perinatal outcomes. To date, GDM is a rising condition over the last decades coinciding with the ongoing epidemic of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Objective: The aim of this review is to discuss the role of diet and nutritional interventions in preventing GDM with the explanation of the special role of myo-inositol (MI) in this matter. Methods: We performed an overview of the most recent literature data on the subject with particular attention to the effectiveness of diet and nutritional interventions in the prevention of GDM with the special role of MI. Results: Nutritional intervention and physical activity before and during pregnancy are mandatory in women affected by GDM. Moreover, the availability of insulin-sensitizers such as different forms of inositol has dramatically changed the scenario, allowing the treatment of several metabolic diseases, such as those related to glucose dysbalance. Although the optimal dose, frequency, and form of MI administration need to be further investigated, diet supplementation with MI appears to be an attractive alternative for the GDM prevention as well as for the reduction of GDM-related complications. Conclusion: More studies should be conducted to prove the most effective nutritional intervention in GDM. Regarding the potential effectiveness of MI, further evidence in multicenter, randomized controlled trials is needed to draw firm conclusions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 877-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanka Klimova ◽  
Kamil Kuca ◽  
Martin Valis ◽  
Jakub Hort

Background: Currently, there is a significant increase in the number of older generation groups, which may result in serious economic and social issues. Therefore, there is a need to prolong the active life of these older individuals, especially by focusing on modifying lifestyle factors such as healthy nutrition. In fact, recent research has shown that, for example, nuts are an important part of people’s healthy diet because they have appeared to be neuroprotective compounds which might maintain or in some cases even improve people’s cognitive functions. Objective: The purpose of this review study is to explore the role of the nut nutrition in the maintenance and delay of cognitive decline among older individuals. Results: The findings indicate that the nut consumption may contribute to the delay of cognitive decline in aging. However, this nut diet is just one component of the multi-nutrient dietary intervention for health aging. Conclusion: More longitudinal controlled randomized studies have to be performed in this field to prove the efficacy of the nut nutrition for the delay of cognitive decline.


Author(s):  
Kjeld Schmidt

The emergence of practice-centered computing (e.g., Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, or CSCW) raises the crucial question: How can we conceptualize the practices into which the prospective technology is to be integrated? How can we, reasonably, say of two observed activities or events that they are, or are not, instances of the same type? These are crucial questions. This chapter therefore attempts to clarify the concepts of “practice” and “technique.” First, since our ordinary concepts of “practice” and “technique” developed as part of the evolution of modern technology, as tools for practitioners’ and scholars’ reflections on the role of technical knowledge in work, the chapter outlines the major turning points in the evolution of these concepts, from Aristotle (via the scholastics), to enlightenment thinkers such as Diderot and Kant, and finally to Marx and Marxism. The chapter thereafter moves on to analyze the concepts as we use them today in ordinary discourse.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiharu Uchida

Retinoblastoma protein (pRB) interacts with E2F and other protein factors to play a pivotal role in regulating the expression of target genes that induce cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and differentiation. pRB controls the local promoter activity and has the ability to change the structure of nucleosomes and/or chromosomes via histone modification, epigenetic changes, chromatin remodeling, and chromosome organization. Functional inactivation of pRB perturbs these cellular events and causes dysregulated cell growth and chromosome instability, which are hallmarks of cancer cells. The role of pRB in regulation of nucleosome/chromatin structures has been shown to link to tumor suppression. This review focuses on the ability of pRB to control nucleosome/chromatin structures via physical interactions with histone modifiers and chromatin factors and describes cancer therapies based on targeting these protein factors.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 976
Author(s):  
Fiorenzo Moscatelli ◽  
Francesco Sessa ◽  
Anna Valenzano ◽  
Rita Polito ◽  
Vincenzo Monda ◽  
...  

At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (COVID-19) appeared on the world scene, which mainly affects the respiratory system, causing pneumonia and multi-organ failure, and, although it starts with common symptoms such as shortness of breath and fever, in about 2–3% of cases it leads to death. Unfortunately, to date, no specific treatments have been found for the cure of this virus and, therefore, it is advisable to implement all possible strategies in order to prevent infection. In this context, it is important to better define the role of all behaviors, in particular nutrition, in order to establish whether these can both prevent infection and improve the outcome of the disease in patients with COVID-19. In the literature, it is widely shown that states of malnutrition, overweight, and obesity negatively affect the immune system, leading to viral infections, and several studies have shown that nutritional interventions can act as immunostimulators, helping to prevent viral infections. Even if several measures, such as the assumption of a specific diet regimen, the use of dietary supplements, and other similar interventions, are promising for the prevention, management, and recovery of COVID-19 patients, it is important to highlight that strong data from randomized clinical trials are needed to support any such assumption. Considering this particular scenario, we present a literature review addressing several important aspects related to diet and SARS-CoV-2 infection, in order to highlight the importance of diet and supplementation in prevention and management of, as well as recovery from COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siva Kumar Jonnavithula ◽  
Abhilash Kumar Jha ◽  
Modepalli Kavitha ◽  
Singaraju Srinivasulu

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1180
Author(s):  
Kayvan Khoramipour ◽  
Karim Chamari ◽  
Amirhosein Ahmadi Hekmatikar ◽  
Amirhosein Ziyaiyan ◽  
Shima Taherkhani ◽  
...  

Adiponectin (a protein consisting of 244 amino acids and characterized by a molecular weight of 28 kDa) is a cytokine that is secreted from adipose tissues (adipokine). Available evidence suggests that adiponectin is involved in a variety of physiological functions, molecular and cellular events, including lipid metabolism, energy regulation, immune response and inflammation, and insulin sensitivity. It has a protective effect on neurons and neural stem cells. Adiponectin levels have been reported to be negatively correlated with cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, and shown to be affected (i.e., significantly increased) by proper healthy nutrition. The present review comprehensively overviews the role of adiponectin in a range of diseases, showing that it can be used as a biomarker for diagnosing these disorders as well as a target for monitoring the effectiveness of preventive and treatment interventions.


Author(s):  
Ellen Taylor ◽  
Sue Hignett

Thinking in patient safety has evolved over time from more simplistic accident causation models to more robust frameworks of work system design. Throughout this evolution, less consideration has been given to the role of the built environment in supporting safety. The aim of this paper is to theoretically explore how we think about harm as a systems problem by mitigating the risk of adverse events through proactive healthcare facility design. We review the evolution of thinking in safety as a safety science. Using falls as a case study topic, we use a previously published model (SCOPE: Safety as Complexity of the Organization, People, and Environment) to develop an expanded framework. The resulting theoretical model and matrix, DEEP SCOPE (DEsigning with Ergonomic Principles), provide a way to synthesize design interventions into a systems-based model for healthcare facility design using human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) design principles. The DEEP SCOPE matrix is proposed to highlight the design of safe healthcare facilities as an ergonomic problem of design that fits the environment to the user by understanding built environments that support the “human” factor.


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