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Osteoporosis is a multifactorial disease characterized by loss of bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, which leads to a consequent increase in the risk of skeletal fractures. Diet awakes a critical interest in osteoporosis, because it is one of the few determinants that can be safely modified. A healthy well balanced nutrition can play an important role in prevention and pathogenesis of osteoporosis, but also in support of a pharmacological therapy. Numerous evidences have already established that dietary calcium, proteins and vitamin D are essential nutrients for achieved peak bone mass and maintaining skeletal health. Dairy products, by providing both calcium and proteins, represent the optimal source of highly bioavailable nutrients for bone health. Among dairy foods in particular cheese results one of the major source of calcium in the adults western diet and also in the Italian adults diet. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is an homemade Italian food whose denomination "Protected Designation of Origin" is linked to an artisanal manufacturing process in limited geographic area of Northern Italy and is an optimal source of essential nutrients for acquisition and maintenance of bone health. Parmigiano Reggiano is a cheese easy digested, for the presence of ready to use proteins and lipids, lactose free, rich in calcium, with possible prebiotic and probiotic effect. On the basis of its nutritional characteristics and of its easy digestibility Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is recommended in all feeding age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease of infectious etiology in children. Most of the children infected with HCV are asymptomatic, and only a few of them develop signs and symptoms of end-stage liver disease early in life. It is not possible to predict either in which patients HCV infection will have a bad outcome or the critical time in early adulthood when disease progression will accelerate. The experiences with therapy in children with chronic hepatitis C are based on earlier and continuing data from adult trials. The currently recommended treatment for chronic HCV infection in adults is the combination of peginterferon-á and ribavirin. The choice of this regimen is based on the results of randomized clinical trials that demonstrated the superiority of this combination treatment over standard interferon-á and ribavirin. Recently, results of pivotal, multicenter, interventional open-label studies on combined treatment with peginterferon-á and ribavirin in children have been published, and the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have approved the combination therapy in those older than 3 years. The aim of this review is to evaluate critically the available data regarding the safety and efficacy of combination treatment with peginterferon-á and ribavirin in children.

Epidemiological studies suggest that consumption of isoflavones rich diets can improve several postmenopausal complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the absorption and the efficacy of isoflavonic supplementation in the treatment of menopausal symptoms.36 postmenopausal women received 75 mg/day of isoflavones in the form of tablets, for six months. 21 subjects concluded the treatment. Plasmatic and urinary samples were collected before and after the treatment, along with a dietary interview. Isoflavones were determined in biological samples and in commercial administered supplements by a HPLC/DAD system.Results showed the presence of genistein (from 0.043 to 1.820 micromol/L) in plasma samples, and of genistein (from 2.486 to 20.363 micromol/24h) and daidzein (from 11.106 to 98.091 micromol/24h) in the urines of the treated women. In the 21 completers the Greene Climateric scale value for hot flushes changed from 3 to 1 or 0. No changes of the endometrial thickness and of the breast tissue were detected. The analysis of the supplement content in the tablets was in agreement with what declared by the producer.Administration of isoflavone supplements produced a decrease of symptoms in this cohort of postmenopausal women monitored for isoflavone absorption.

Within the past several years, the relation between diet and health has been accepted by the mainstream nutrition community and in this connection interest in the physiological role of bioactive compounds present in plants has dramatically increased over the last decade.The phytoestrogens are bioactive molecules present as nutritional constituents of widely consumed vegetables. Their name derives from the fact that they are able to bind to estrogen receptors and to induce an estrogenic/antiestrogenic response in target tissues. Natural estrogens are involved in a multiplicity of programmed events in target tissues as uterus, breast, pituitary gland and hormone responsive tumors. Phytoestrogens are present in many human foodstuffs including fruits (plum, pear, apple grape berries, …), vegetables (beans, sprouts, cabbage, spinach, soybeans, grains, hops, garlic, onion,…), wine, tea, and they have been identified in a number of botanical dietary supplements. They include a wide variety of structurally different compounds such as isoflavones, mainly found in soy, lignans found in grains, stilbenes found in the skin of grapes. Other less investigated compounds include flavones, flavans, isoflavanes and coumestans. The estrogenic or antiestrogenic activity of any chemicals depends on the ability of the compound to interact with the ERs (ERα , ERβ ).This article reported the knowledge about the activity of phytoestrogens from a pharmacological point of view for their estrogenicity or antiestrogenicity.