High dietary sodium and low potassium intake is associated with high blood pressure (BP). The current study aimed to determine if the sodium-to-potassium ratio is more strongly associated with low (130-139/80-89 mm Hg) and high (≥140/90 mm Hg) BP thresholds among US adults than either sodium or potassium alone. A total of 30,776 patients aged ≥20 years with complete blood pressure participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003 to 2018. Demographic information and health characteristics were compared between men and women using the chi-square test for categorical variables and independent samples t-test for continuous variables. Logistic regression was performed to investigate the association of the odds ratios (OR) of different levels of sodium, potassium, and sodium-to-potassium ratio. After multivariable adjustment (age, gender, Body mass index, Smoking, education, Race, Alcohol, total energy intake, and physical activity), no relationship has been observed between high versus low sodium-to-potassium ratio and BP threshold of 130-139/80-89 mm Hg (odds ratio [OR]: 1.02, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.92-1.12). Higher sodium-to-potassium ratio (OR=1.24; CI: 1.11-1.38) and dietary intake of potassium (OR=0.66; CI: 0.55-0.80) showed significant association in reducing the BP threshold of ≥140/90 mm Hg. In dose-response analysis, higher BP ≥140/90 mm Hg was inversely associated with higher potassium intake. Furthermore, the sodium-to-potassium ratio showed higher odds in predicting the BP of patients aged ≤60 years, underweight, nonsmokers, and non-alcohol users. The study confirms an inverse association between higher potassium intake and higher BP threshold. The Doses-response analyses showed sodium-to-potassium ratio is a better predictor of BP thresholds than sodium or potassium alone.

Anti-inflammatory effect of Rosa canina, Salix alba, Scrophularia nodosa and Hedera helix were studied in LPS-stimulated primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from mice (n=18) by comparing homogeneous powders of small microparticles (50-100 μm, 100-180 μm and 180-315 μm) obtained from plants via a controlled differential sieving process (CDSp) versus total plant materials obtained via hydroethanolic (HE) extraction. Further, phytochemical composition of the fine powders and HE extracts was determined by LC-PDA-ESI/MS analyses. Results showed that a one-hour pretreatment of PBMCs with fine powders, particularly those with superfine particle sizes (i.e. 50-100 μm and 100-180 μm), significantly inhibited TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6 and NO production in LPS-stimulated PBMCs, by at least ca. 20% more than HE extracts (all, p<0.05). For each of the plants studied, their superfine powdered fractions were more concentrated in phenolic contents than their HE extracts. Overall, our results further confirm CDSp, as an environmentally friendly method, for improving the concentration of bioactive compounds as well as their biological activities.

Background: The modification of the gut microbiome has been proposed to alter immune response which is a key driver in low-grade inflammation as well as metabolic markers. This study was conducted to determine the effects of a low-calorie diet with and without nuts on some gut bacterial abundance, metabolic markers, and gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in stable coronary artery disease patients with overweight or obesity. Methods: Overweight or obese patients with stable coronary artery disease of both genders were randomly allocated to a nut-free calorie-restricted diet as 25% of energy deficit (CRD) or a CRD enriched with 39-60 g/d of mixed nuts (CRDEN) for 8 weeks (32 patients in CRD and 35 patients in CRDEN). Mixed nuts consisted of equal amounts of unsalted pistachios, almonds, and peanuts. Microbiota analysis was performed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction method on feces collected before and after the intervention, using primers targeting 16S ribosomal DNA of 4 different bacterial genera, including Bacteroides, Prevotella, Bifidobacterium, and Lactobacillus. We examined the plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, adiponectin as well as expression of toll-like receptor-4 (TLR4) and fractalkine receptor (CX3CR1) in PBMCs. Results: A significant reduction in expression of CX3CR1 (p=0.04) and a tendency to lower expression of TLR4 in PBMCs (p=0.06) was observed in the CRDEN group at the end of the study compared to the CRD group. The abundance of fecal Prevotella also tended to increase in CRDEN compared to the CRD group (p=0.06). Plasma insulin and adiponectin had no significant changes. There was a positive correlation between fecal Prevotella abundance and plasma adiponectin at baseline (r=0.315, p=0.015) and the end of the study (r=0.380, p=0.003). Conclusion: Our results suggest that the inclusion of mixed tree nuts and peanuts in a low-calorie diet for 8 weeks led to a lower CX3CR expression in PBMCs in a cohort of overweight or obese patients with stable CAD. This finding provides another beneficial effect of diet supplemented with nuts on factors associated with inflammation. Trial registration: this clinical study has been registered at the clinical trial registration center (clinicaltrial.gov): NCT04078919 on September 6, 2019.

Prognostic nutritional index, immune nutritional status and COVID-19Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip and Viroj WiwanitkitRujittika MungmunpuntipantipRujittika Mungmunpuntipantip, Private Academic Consultant, Bangkok, Thailandrujittika@gmail.com Private Academic Consultant, Bangkok, Thailand Search for more papers by this author and Viroj Wiwanitkit Department of Community Medicine, Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, India Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:November 09, 2021https://doi.org/10.1024/0300-9831/a000737PDFView Full Text ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreReferences1 Ekinci I, Uzun H, Utku IK, Ozkan H, Buyukkaba M, Cinar A, et al. Prognostic nutritional index as indicator of immune nutritional status of patients with COVID-19. Int J Vitam Nutr Res.. 2022; 92(1):4–12. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar2 Fang X, Li S, Yu H, Wang P, Zhang Y, Chen Z, et al. Epidemiological, comorbidity factors with severity and prognosis of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Aging (Albany NY). 2020;12(13):12493–503. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar3 Lee S, Fujita K, Morishita T, Negoro E, Oiwa K, Tsukasaki H, et al. Prognostic utility of a geriatric nutritional risk index in combination with a comorbidity index in elderly patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Br J Haematol. 2021;192(1):100–9. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar4 Iwai N, Dohi O, Naito Y, Inada Y, Fukui A, Takayama S, et al. Impact of the Charlson comorbidity index and prognostic nutritional index on prognosis in patients with early gastric cancer after endoscopic submucosal dissection. Dig Endosc. 2018;30(5):616–23. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google Scholar5 Adil A, Sobani ZA, Jabbar A, Adil SN, Awan S. Endocrine complications in patients of beta thalassemia major in a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 2012;62(3):307–10. First citation in articleMedline, Google Scholar6 Miller JL. Iron deficiency anemia: a common and curable disease. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 2013;3(7):a011866. First citation in articleCrossref Medline, Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byComparison of GLIM, SGA, PG-SGA, and PNI in diagnosing malnutrition among hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery patients24 January 2023 | Frontiers in Nutrition, Vol. 10COVID-19: relation to dietary habits, food items and nutrientsTorsten Bohn27 January 2022 | International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research, Vol. 92, No. 1 Special issue COVID-19Volume 92Issue 1January 2022ISSN: 0300-9831eISSN: 1664-2821 ReceivedOctober 15, 2021AcceptedOctober 31, 2021Published onlineNovember 9, 2021 InformationInternational Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research (2021), 92, pp. 3-3 https://doi.org/10.1024/0300-9831/a000737.© 2021Hogrefe AGConflict of interest:The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.PDF download

Several pre-workout supplements contain niacin, although the exercise performance effects of niacin are poorly understood. The purpose of the present study was to examine the performance effects of niacin versus caffeine as a pre-workout supplement. Twenty-five untrained males were recruited to complete three identical ramped aerobic cycling exercise trials. Participants were administered caffeine (CA) at 5 mg/kg body weight, 1000 mg niacin (NI), or a methylcelluloce placebo (PL) supplement prior to each trial. NI treatment induced significantly higher respiratory exchange ratio (RER) during exercise compared to the CA treatment, but not the PL treatment (PL=0.87±0.08, NI=0.91±0.08, CA=0.87±0.08; p=0.02). Similarly, exercise time to exhaustion (in minutes) was significantly different between the NI treatment and the CA treatment, but not the PL treatment (PL=27.45±4.47, NI=26.30±4.91, CA=28.76±4.86; p<0.01). Habitual caffeine use (p=0.16), habitual aerobic exercise (p=0.60), and habitual resistance exercise (p=0.10) did not significantly affect RER. Similarly, habitual caffeine use (p=0.72), habitual aerobic exercise (p=0.08), and habitual resistance exercise (p=0.39) did not significantly affect total work performed. The elevated RER and decreased time to exhaustion in the NI treatment suggests limited lipid availability during exercise and impaired exercise performance.

Both vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are now well-documented worldwide in relation to human health, and this has raised interest in vitamin D research. The aim of this article is therefore to review the literature on sources of vitamin D. It can be endogenously synthesised under ultraviolet B radiation in the skin, or ingested through dietary supplements and dietary sources, which include food of animal and plant origin, as well as fortified foods. Vitamin D is mainly found in two forms, D3 (cholecalciferol) and D2 (ergocalciferol). In addition to the D3 and D2 forms of vitamin D, 25-hydroxy vitamin D also contributes significantly to dietary vitamin D intake. It is found in many animal-derived products. Fortified food can contain D3 or D2 forms or vitamin D metabolite 25-hydroxy vitamin D. Not many foods are a rich source (> 4 μg/100 g) of vitamin D (D represents D3 and/or D2), e.g., many but not all fish (5-25 μg/100 g), mushrooms (21.1-58.7 μg/100 g), Reindeer lichen (87 μg/100 g) and fish liver oils (250 μg/100 g). Other dietary sources are cheese, beef liver and eggs (1.3-2.9 μg/100 g), dark chocolate (4 μg/100 g), as well as fortified foods (milk, yoghurt, fat spreads, orange juice, breakfast grains, plant-based beverages). Since an adequate intake of vitamin D (15 μg/day set by the European Food Safety Authority) is hard to achieve through diet alone, dietary supplements of vitamin D are usually recommended. This review summarizes current knowledge about different sources of vitamin D for humans.

Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have received more attention because of high prevalence and mortality rate. Besides genetic and environmental factors, the epigenetic abnormality is also involved in the pathogenesis of NCDs. Methylation of DNA, chromatin remodeling, modification of histone, and long non-coding RNAs are the main components of epigenetic phenomena. Methodology: In this review paper, the mechanistic role of vitamins and dietary patterns on epigenetic modification was discussed. All papers indexed in scientific databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Google Scholar, and Elsevier were searched during 2000 - 2021 using, vitamins, diet, epigenetic repression, histones, methylation, acetylation, and NCDs as keywords. Results: The components of healthy dietary patterns like Mediterranean and dietary approaches to stop hypertension diets have a beneficial effect on epigenetic hemostasis. Both quality and quantity of dietary components influence epigenetic phenomena. A diet with calorie deficiency in protein content and methyl-donor agents in a long time, with a high level of fat, disrupts epigenetic hemostasis and finally, causes genome instability. Also, soluble and insoluble vitamins have an obvious role in epigenetic modifications. Most vitamins interact directly with methylation, acetylation, and phosphorylation pathways of histone and DNA. However, numerous indirect functions related to the cell cycle stability and genome integrity have been recognized. Conclusion: Considering the crucial role of a healthy diet in epigenetic homeostasis, adherence to a healthy dietary pattern containing enough levels of vitamin and avoiding the western diet seems to be necessary. Having a healthy diet and consuming the recommended dietary level of vitamins can also contribute to epigenetic stability.

Oxidative stress and inflammation are underlying factors in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases. The postprandial state is characterized by low-grade oxidative and inflammatory responses, but the impact of different dietary patterns on these responses is unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate postprandial oxidative and inflammatory responses to Mediterranean diet (MED) and Western diet (WD) meals. In a randomised crossover design, eleven healthy women, aged between 19-45 years with a body mass index of 20.0-24.9 kg/m2, consumed two different isocaloric meals: MED and WD. Blood samples were collected at fasting and 2, 3, 4 h postprandially and analyzed for oxidative [total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), total thiol, native thiol, malondialdehyde (MDA)] and inflammatory [high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17, IL-23, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB)] markers. MED meal intake resulted in increases in TAS (0.05±0.02 mmol/L; p=0.017), total thiol (23.00±7.69 μmol/L; p=0.013) and native thiol (12.82±4.94 μmol/L; p=0.027), while a decrease in MDA (-0.17±0.06 nmol/L; p=0.022) at 2 h. On the other hand, TAS reduced significantly overall (p=0.005) after WD meal intake. There was a significant increase after WD meal intake for IL-6 (1.39±0.49 pg/mL; p=0.017), IL-17 (4.30±1.50 pg/mL; p=0.017), IL-23 (8.38±3.51 pg/mL; p=0.038) at 4 h. However, serum hs-CRP, TNF-α and NF-κB levels were not changed significantly by meal intake. The results indicate that MED meal induces favorable effects on oxidative stress, while WD meal partially increases inflammation in daily life.

Background: Many studies have investigated the effect of ALA supplementation on lipid profile, and different results have been obtained from these studies. The current systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis was conducted to achive a strong conclusion about the effect of ALA supplementation on lipid profile including total cholesterol (TC), low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL, HDL) and triglyceride (TG). Methods: A systematic search was performed in PubMed, SCOPUS, ProQuest and Embase for randomized placebo-controlled human trials that examined the effect of ALA supplementation on lipid profile up to November 2020. The dose and duration of ALA supplementation for included studies were ranged between 300-1200 mg/d and 2-16 weeks respectively. Weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the effect size. Cochran's Q and I2 tests were also used to assess between-study's heterogeneity. In addition, subgroup analysis was performed to investigate potential sources of heterogeneity. Dose-response relationship was done using fractional polynomial modeling. Results: Among all eligible studies, 12 studies with a total number of 548 participants were selected. ALA caused a significant reduction on TC (WMD): -10.78 mg/dl, 95% CI: -20.81, -0.74, P=0.002), LDL (WMD: -10.88 mg/dl, 95% CI: -19.52, -2.24, P=0.014) and TG (WMD: -31.02 mg/dl, 95% CI: -49.63, -12.42, P<0.001). There was also a non-significant increaes in HDL concentrations. In addition, dose-response analysis showed a positive association between LDL (Pnon-linearity=0.026), TG (Pnon-linearity<0.001) and duration of intervention in a non-linear model. Conclusion: The present meta-analysis revealed the beneficial effects of ALA supplementation on TC, LDL and TG levels. Moreover, the beneficial effects of ALA supplementation on LDL and TG levels was duration-dependent.

Background: Only few food frequency questionnaires (FFQs) have been specifically designed and validated for toddlers. There is no valid instrument to assess usual intakes of Iranian toddlers. The present study was designed to develop a FFQ, and to examine its validity and reliability among toddlers. Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019 in Iran. Mothers of 100 toddlers completed a semi-quantitative FFQ with 99 items as well as three non-consecutive dietary records. Data on maternal age, education, toddler gender, birth order, birth weight, current weight and height, and the age of beginning complementary foods were collected. By comparing the results obtained from dietary records and the FFQ, we assessed the relative validity. Reliability was evaluated by intra-class correlation coefficients between results of two FFQs administered with four weeks intervals to the same participants (n=20), as well as weighted kappa. The Bland-Altman plots were used to assess the level of agreement between two FFQs. Results: Mean and standard deviation (SD) of age was 32.71 (4.76) years and 22.42 (3.52) months, for mothers and toddlers, respectively. The FFQ showed acceptable validity and reliability. The correlation coefficients for the first FFQ were 0.82 (energy), 0.81 (fats), 0.60 (carbohydrate), 0.96 (calcium), 0.39 (iron) and 0.24 (vitamin C), all P-values were <0.001, except for vitamin C (P: 0.02). Reliability coefficients were between 0.77 (vitamin C) and 0.99 (calcium, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, riboflavin, vitamin B12, vitamin E and D). The Cronbach's Alpha was 0.91, showing high reliability. Conclusion: The present study provided a thorough assessment of both validity and reliability of T-FFQ, and indicated acceptable validity as compared with three-day dietary records and good reliability. Therefore, this FFQ could be a useful tool to evaluate usual dietary intake of toddlers.