Consumer Awareness and Perception on Mineral and Vitamin Supplements to Boost Immunity Against COVID-19

COVID-19 have been widespread all over the world. Mineral supplementation and Vitamin intake may help to reduce the severity of the common cold. This study determines the Knowledge, Attitude, And Practices of Consumers About Mineral and Vitamin Supplementation to boost immune system for COVID-19. 178 Participants who lived in the NCR Bubble particularly Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, and Bulacan., 18-years old and above were chosen by convenience sampling. To get the appropriate data needed, the researchers divided the questionnaire into 4 parts such as Demographics, Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices using likert scale. Descriptive analysis of frequencies and percentages for demographic characteristics, KAP assessment and likewert interpretation was applied. The respondents' knowledge, attitude, and practices toward micronutrient supplementation were evaluated. Results showed that the respondents have a very good understanding, belief, and practice of mineral supplementation and vitamin intake to boost the immune system. Before the pandemic, 178 respondents did not take mineral supplements; nevertheless, 58 respondents (32.58 percent) took vitamins, and 117 respondents (65.73%) took both mineral and multivitamin supplements. On the other hand, 61 (34.27%) respondents took vitamins, while 120 (67.42%) respondents took both mineral and vitamin supplements during the pandemic. In addition, the intake of these supplements increased during pandemic. Self-willingness (28.65%) was the most common response to factors linked with mineral and vitamin consumption prior to the pandemic, whereas doctor's prescription was the most common response during the pandemic (44.94%). The level of micronutrient supplementation practiced by the respondents was also applied because they knew and believed that it could reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection.

Excess Vitamins or Imbalance of Folic Acid and Choline in the Gestational Diet Alter the Gut Microbiota and Obesogenic Effects in Wistar Rat Offspring

Excess vitamin intake during pregnancy leads to obesogenic phenotypes, and folic acid accounts for many of these effects in male, but not in female, offspring. These outcomes may be modulated by another methyl nutrient choline and attributed to the gut microbiota. Pregnant Wistar rats were fed an AIN-93G diet with recommended vitamin (RV), high 10-fold multivitamin (HV), high 10-fold folic acid with recommended choline (HFol) or high 10-fold folic acid without choline (HFol-C) content. Male and female offspring were weaned to a high-fat RV diet for 12 weeks post-weaning. Removing choline from the HFol gestational diet resulted in obesogenic phenotypes that resembled more closely to HV in male and female offspring with higher body weight, food intake, glucose response to a glucose load and body fat percentage with altered activity, concentrations of short-chain fatty acids and gut microbiota composition. Gestational diet and sex of the offspring predicted the gut microbiota differences. Differentially abundant microbes may be important contributors to obesogenic outcomes across diet and sex. In conclusion, a gestational diet high in vitamins or imbalanced folic acid and choline content contributes to the gut microbiota alterations consistent with the obesogenic phenotypes of in male and female offspring.

Fusing image feature and title semantic regularization with adversarial networks for cross-modal retrieval

With the improvement of living standard, people pay more and more attention to their health. Food is the foundation of human life, modern society places more emphasis on a balanced diet, which controls fat, protein, carbohydrate and vitamin intake. So food computing is more and more important. Food retrieval is one of the important research directions in food computing. On the basis of food retrieval, we can predict ingredients and instructions in each dish, according to the ingredients and instructions to speculate on the visual effect of cooking, which can guide human reasonable diet, analyse human diet structure and diet culture and so on. In this paper, we focus on cross-modal retrieval between food image and recipe. Firstly, we analyze the problems existing in the present method. Based on the problems existing in the existing method, a fusion image feature and title regularization with adversarial network is proposed, which uses the idea of generative adversarial to align the modes, fuses the local features and global features of the image, and adds the semantic regularity of title to improve the accuracy of the retrieval.

The Role of Vitamin Deficiency in Liver Disease: To Supplement or Not Supplement?

Over the past few years, growing interest has been shown for the impact of dietary requirements and nutritional factors on chronic diseases. As a result, nutritional programs have been reinforced by public health policies. The precise role of micronutrients in chronic liver disease is currently receiving particular attention since abnormalities in vitamin levels are often detected. At present, treatment programs are focused on correcting vitamin deficiencies, which are frequently correlated to higher rates of comorbidities with poor outcomes. The literature reviewed here indicates that liver diseases are often related to vitamin disorders, due to both liver impairment and abnormal intake. More specific knowledge about the role of vitamins in liver disease is currently emerging from various results and recent evidence. The most significant benefits in this area may be observed when improved vitamin intake is combined with a pharmacological treatment that may also affect the progression of the liver disease, especially in the case of liver tumors. However, further studies are needed.

Vitamins as Possible Cancer Biomarkers: Significance and Limitations

The Western-style diet, which is common in developed countries and spreading into developing countries, is unbalanced in many respects. For instance, micronutrients (vitamins A, B complex, C, D, E, and K plus iron, zinc, selenium, and iodine) are generally depleted in Western food (causing what is known as ‘hidden hunger’), whereas some others (such as phosphorus) are added beyond the daily allowance. This imbalance in micronutrients can induce cellular damage that can increase the risk of cancer. Interestingly, there is a large body of evidence suggesting a strong correlation between vitamin intake as well as vitamin blood concentrations with the occurrence of certain types of cancer. The direction of association between the concentration of a given vitamin and cancer risk is tumor specific. The present review summarized the literature regarding vitamins and cancer risk to assess whether these could be used as diagnostic or prognostic markers, thus confirming their potential as biomarkers. Despite many studies that highlight the importance of monitoring vitamin blood or tissue concentrations in cancer patients and demonstrate the link between vitamin intake and cancer risk, there is still an urgent need for more data to assess the effectiveness of vitamins as biomarkers in the context of cancer. Therefore, this review aims to provide a solid basis to support further studies on this promising topic.

Added Sugar Intake and Risk of Falling Among Older People: The Seniors-ENRICA Cohort Study

Background: Added sugar intake is a key contributor to the development of several chronic diseases. We aimed to investigate the prospective association between added sugar intake and the risk of falling among older men and women. Methods: We analyzed data from 2,154 Spanish adults aged ≥65 years from the Seniors-ENRICA cohort. Baseline food consumption was collected in 2008-2010 with a validated diet history, in which 155 foods were identified to contain added sugar. The occurrence of falls was ascertained up to 2015. Analyses were conducted with Cox models adjusted for potential confounders, including nutritional status, chronic diseases and sleeping medication. Results: Over 7.2y of follow-up, 605 participants experienced ≥1 fall and 527 suffered injurious falls. The hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for ≥1 fall across quintiles of added sugar intake were: 1.0, 1.09 (0.83-1.42), 1.07 (0.82-1.40), 1.15 (0.88-1.52), and 1.48 (1.12-1.96); p-trend 0.03. The corresponding figures for injurious falls were: 1.0, 1.17 (0.88-1.56), 1.06 (0.79- 1.41), 1.13 (0.84-1.52), and 1.40 (1.03-1.90); p-trend 0.10. These associations did not vary over strata of age, protein, calcium or vitamin intake, diet quality, physical activity or alcohol consumption. No differences were found when solid and liquid sources of added sugars were examined separately. Conclusions: Intake of added sugars was associated with a higher risk of falling in older people. This adds to the evidence to support interventions to reduce added sugar intake.

One-Carbon Metabolites, B Vitamin Intake, Apolipoprotein E Genotype, and Their Interactive Effects on Cognitive Performance: Secondary Outcomes of the REACH Cohort

Objectives To investigate associations between one-carbon metabolites and cognitive performance in older adults, and to examine the interactive effects of B vitamin intake, apolipoprotein E genotype, and one-carbon metabolites on cognition. Methods Three hundred and thirteen healthy older men and women (65–74 years, 65% female) were included in this secondary analysis of the REACH cohort. Cognitive performance was assessed by the Computerised Mental Performance Assessment System (COMPASS). Fasting plasma one-carbon metabolites (betaine, choline, cysteine, dimethylglycine, glycine, homocysteine, methionine, S-adenosylmethionine, serine) were quantified by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry, and four-day food records were analyzed for nutrient intake. Presence of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele was measured by polymerase chain reaction amplification. Linear regression models were adjusted for age, sex, batch effects, education level, physical activity, energy intake and supplement use. Interaction terms were fit between continuous (metabolites) and categorical (quartiles of B vitamin intake or metabolites not fit as the main independent variable, presence of apolipoprotein ε4 allele) variables. Results Higher glycine concentrations were associated with better global cognitive performance (β = 1.340, P = 0.017), episodic memory (β = 1.396, P = 0.016) and location learning (β = 1.394, P = 0.027) in linear regression models, although this relationship was not apparent in participants with higher choline concentrations or the apolipoprotein ε4 genotype (interaction, P < 0.05). Conversely, the apolipoprotein ε4 genotype and higher vitamin B12 intake both attenuated the inverse association between Hcy and cognition across several domains of cognitive performance (interaction, P < 0.05). Conclusions The relationship between cognitive performance and one-carbon metabolites, notably glycine and homocysteine, is modified by vitamin B12 intake, apolipoprotein E genotype, and status of inter-connected metabolites. These findings point towards the need for a personalized approach to dietary interventions which protect against age-related cognitive decline. Funding Sources This work was supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and AgResearch Ltd.

Relationship between Vitamin Intake and Health-Related Quality of Life in a Japanese Population: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Shika Study

Although epidemiological studies revealed a relationship between psychosocial states, such as depressive symptoms, and nutritional intake, limited information is currently available on vitamin intake. The Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) is not limited to a specific disease, it is constructed based on a universal concept of health and is used to evaluate the Quality of life (QOL). A three-component scoring method was developed for “Physical component score (PCS)”, “Mental component score (MCS)”, and “Role/social score (RCS)”. Collectively, these summary scores are called the “QOL summary score”, which is regarded as a more detailed health summary score. In the present study, we aimed at epidemiologically examine the relationship between vitamin intake and QOL in middle-aged and elderly population in 3162 residents in Japan. In women, a multiple regression analysis showed a positive correlation between all vitamin intake and PCS scores, and between vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin C, and MCS scores. In consideration of depression as MCS of SF-36 and chronic pain as PCS, an insufficient vitamin intake may affect QOL in women; however, a causal relationship has not yet been demonstrated.

International citizen project to assess early stage adherence to public health measures for COVID-19 in South Africa

Introduction With over 500 000 infections and nearly 12 000 deaths, South Africa (SA) is the African epicenter of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. SA has implemented a 5-stage Risk-Adjusted Strategy which includes a phased national lockdown, requiring social distancing, frequent hand washing and wearing face masks. Strict adherence to this strategy is crucial to reducing COVID-19 transmission, flattening the curve, and preventing resurgence. As part of the 22-country International Citizens Project COVID-19 (ICPcovid), this study aimed to describe the SA adherence to the Risk-Adjusted Strategy and identify determinants of adherence. Method During 24 April-15 May 2020, people were electronically invited, through social media platforms and a text blast, to complete an online survey, accessible via www.icpcovid.com. The survey investigated COVID-19 testing and preventative adherence measures, then used logistic regression analysis to identify predictors of adherence. Results There were 951 participants, with 731(76.9%) 25 to 54 years. Most (672;70.7%) were female, and 705(74.1%) had a university degree. Since the epidemic started, 529(55.6%) and 436(45.9%) participants stated they were eating healthier and taking more vitamins, respectively. Only 82(8.6%) had been COVID-19 tested, and 1(1.2%) tested positive. In public, 905(95.2%) socially distanced, however 99(10.4%) participants had recently attended meetings with over ten people. Regular hand washing was practiced by 907(95.4%) participants, 774(81.4%) wore face masks and 854(89.8%) stayed home when they experienced flu-like symptoms. The odds of adhering to the guidelines were lower among men versus women (AOR 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.528, 0.971) and those who had flu-like symptoms (AOR 0.42, 95% CI = 0.277, 0.628). In contrast, increased odds were reported for those who reported increased vitamin intake (AOR 1.37, 95% CI = 1.044,1.798), and were either cohabiting or married (AOR 1.39, 95% CI = 1.042,1.847). Conclusion Despite high reported adherence, face mask use and symptomatic individuals not self-isolating, were areas for improvement. However, these factors cannot solely account for SA’s increasing COVID-19 cases. Larger general population studies are needed to identify other adherence predictors for a strengthened SA COVID-19 response. While the government must continue to educate the entire population on preventative measures, provide personal protective equipment and stress the importance of adherence, there also needs to be implementation of prioritised prevention strategies for men and single individuals to address their demonstrated lower adherence.