Search

Adipose tissue (AT), composed mainly of adipocytes, plays a critical role in lipid control, metabolism, and energy storage. Once considered metabolically inert, AT is now recognized as a dynamic endocrine organ that regulates food intake, energy homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, thermoregulation, and immune responses. This review examines the multifaceted role of adiponectin, a predominant adipokine released by AT, in glucose and fatty acid metabolism. We explore the regulatory mechanisms of adiponectin, its physiological effects and its potential as a therapeutic target for metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and fatty liver disease. Furthermore, we analyze the impact of various dietary patterns, specific nutrients, and physical activities on adiponectin levels, highlighting strategies to improve metabolic health. Our comprehensive review provides insights into the critical functions of adiponectin and its importance in maintaining systemic metabolic homeostasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legumes are nutrient-dense crops with health-promoting benefits. However, several barriers are associated with their consumption. Emerging issues including food neophobic tendencies or taboos, unclear dietary guidelines on legume consumption, health concerns, and socio-economic reasons, as well as long cooking procedures, adversely affect legume consumption frequency. Pre-treatment methods, including soaking, sprouting, and pulse electric field technology, are effective in reducing the alpha-oligosaccharides and other anti-nutritional factors, eventually lowering cooking time for legumes. Extrusion technology used for innovative development of legume-enriched products, including snacks, breakfast cereals and puffs, baking and pasta, represents a strategic way to promote legume consumption. Culinary skills such as legume salads, legume sprouts, stews, soups, hummus, and the development of homemade cake recipes using legume flour could represent effective ways to promote legume consumption. This review aims to highlight the nutritional and health effects associated with legume consumption, and strategies to improve their digestibility and nutritional profile. Additionally, proper educational and culinary approaches aimed to improve legumes intake are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fatigue is a typical consequence of cancer that can affect one's quality of life (QOL). The goal of this review is to provide comprehensive data on the impact of fatigue on QOL of cancer patients., Methods: An electronic data search in Web of Science, SCOPUS, and PubMed for relevant papers; those written in English; those reporting quantitative data; and those including more than one hundred patients who received just chemotherapy were included. Studies involving participants that received other kinds of anti-neoplastic therapies were excluded., Results: A total of 35 papers published between January 2000 and December 2021 were retrieved from the search databases of which (11612 patients) met the inclusion criteria. Findings showed that fatigue negatively affected QOL with a pooled prevalence of 49% (95% CI; 25.00-74.00) and the significant heterogeneity between articles was (I²=98%, P <0.001). Further, breast cancer contributed to the majority of selected articles with about 55 % (95%CI; 9:00- 94:00), followed by cancer (unspecified) 44% (95%CI; 5:00 - 92:00). Most studies (71%) (95%CI; 4:00 - 99:00) used the brief fatigue inventory (BFI) tool to assess severity of fatigue and 39% (95%CI; 17:00 -68:00) employed the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire to evaluate QOL among cancer survivors., Conclusion: The prevalence of fatigue in cancer patients is high and fatigue has a negative impact on QOL of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Directionality, fatigue needs to be addressed and treated properly for better improvement of health status and QOL in cancer patients.

Background: Thailand government has enacted a ban on vaping for eight years, but the number of vapers has continued to increase, particularly among teenagers. This study aimed to evaluate undergraduate pharmacy students' knowledge and attitudes toward e-cigarette use in Thailand., Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed between January and March 2022. The participants were selected from 14 universities of Thailand. For data collection, a questionnaire was developed online using Google Form. The participants had to complete the questionnaire within 5 to 10 days the via s. Chi-square and binary logistic analysis were used to assess the association between variables., Results: A total of 507 participants were recruited, The participants' mean age was 20.6 ± 1.9 years. About 98.6% of the participants knew about e-cigarette, and 74.4% had never been taught about e-cigarettes. Moreover, 68.8% of the participants declared that people around them were smokers. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the participants who declared that they were not sure if e-cigarettes contains nicotine or not were 10.5 more likely to consume e-cigarettes (AOR = 10.5; 95 % CI 3.130-35.181; P ˂0.001). Male participants who were at the academic year of three and four were more likely to use e-cigarettes than female students who were at the academic year of five and six (AOR 2.9; 95 % CI 1.599-5.214; P ˂0.001; AOR = 4.5; 95 % CI 1.412-14.571; P ˂0.001; AOR = 3.9; 95 % CI 1.263-12.511; p = 0.018)., Conclusion: OOur study findings showed that pharmacy students lacked knowledge about e-cigarettes and misunderstood about e-cigarettes substances. Future research is necessary to develop educational programs for health professionals to be ready to advise patients about e-cigarettes.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the prevalence and factors associated with anemia (hemoglobin [Hb] 12 g/dL) in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy., Materials and Methods: We conducted a prospective longitudinal study to collect demographic and clinical data on adult breast cancer patients with or without anemia who were admitted to HKL, UMMC, and NCI. The incidence of anemia was determined by detecting whether or not anemia developed during the course of chemotherapy. Mild, moderate, or severe anemia was defined. A chi-squared and logistic regression model were used to assess the effect of demographic and clinical factors on the incidence of anemia and multiple logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the associations of potential risk factors with the presence of CRA., Results: The study enrolled a total of 292 breast cancer patients. Anemia occurred at a rate of 41.1% ( n  = 120). Our findings indicated that clinical factors such as the number of chemotherapy regimens, dose reduction, and type of chemotherapy, for example, docetaxel, as well as demographic covariates such as age and BMI, all contribute to the incidence of anemia in cancer patients., Conclusions: According to this study, the prevalence of anemia in breast cancer patients is high. Patients' age, BMI, number of chemotherapy regimens, and docetaxel were risk factors; thus, protocols are needed to identify subgroups of breast cancer likely to benefit from novel management strategies., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2022 Fares M.S Muthanna et al.)