1.
Examining the Vitamin D Status of Children With Solid Tumors.
Juhász, O, Jakab, Z, Szabó, A, Garami, M
Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2020;39(2):128-134
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Plain language summary
Literature shows that 75% of the adult population worldwide experience vitamin D deficiency, of whom 13% fall under the category of extremely severe vitamin D deficiency (<10 ng/ml). The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the Vitamin D status of children with tumours or without. A secondary aim was to analyse the effects of vitamin D supplementation (as a complement to cancer treatment) on the vitamin D levels of children. The study included 173 children (males n=96; females n=77) aged between 0 and 18 who were treated for cancer. The control group consisted of 569 (males n=310; females n=259) children, aged 0 to 4 who received treatment at the clinic for reasons other than cancer. Results indicate that initial Vitamin D levels were significantly lower among children with cancer (19% lower than in the control group). A correlation between insufficient and deficient initial serum vitamin D levels and unfavourable prognosis was found. Authors suggest that vitamin D supplementation would be most efficient if medicine would follow the present trend of personalised therapy.
Abstract
Objective: Our aims were to compare the vitamin D status of children with and without cancer and to examine the possible correlation between vitamin D levels in children with cancer before initiating treatment and prognosis.Method: We compared the data of 173 children with cancer with those of 569 children without cancer.Results: We measured a significant difference (p = 1.34E-08) between the vitamin D levels of children with cancer before treatment and children without cancer. There was a significant correlation between the initial vitamin D levels of children with cancer and the prognosis (p = 0.016, odds ratio = 51.33) at 5% significance.Conclusions: The average vitamin D level was 19.76% lower in the population with cancer compared with the average of the control group, and we found a correlation between the lower vitamin D levels in children with cancer and the adverse prognosis. We suggest that supplying vitamin D is reasonable and a prospective study of vitamin D in pediatric patients with cancer is recommended.
2.
[The potential role of organic and conventional yoghurt consumption in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease].
Egresi, A, Drexler, D, Hagymási, K, Blázovics, A, Jakab, Z, Kocsis, I, Dakó, S, Bacsárdi, A, Lengyel, G
Orvosi hetilap. 2020;(35):1466-1474
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Health is an important motivation for the consumption of both organic and functional foods. Organic food contains fewer pesticide residues and statistically more selected health-related compounds such as polyphenols in plant products and polyunsaturated fatty acids in milk and meat products. Recent studies suggest that the gut-liver axis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, so probiotics could be a therapeutic tool. Comparing the health effects of yoghurt from organic origin with so-called conventional yoghurt is difficult, because there is no biomarker that would signal the difference with good specificity and sensitivity. AIM: The aim of this study was to investigate numerous biomarkers to evaluate the difference between yoghurt from conventional and organic origin and their health effects in NAFLD. PATIENTS AND METHOD We performed a prospective, cohort study consisting of 37 (age = 51.73 ± 11.82, male = 21, female = 16) patients with NAFLD at the 2nd Department of Internal Medicine of the Semmelweis University, Budapest. Diagnosis of NAFLD was based on ultrasonography and the exclusion of other etiololgy. The patients were examined also with shear wave elastography to evaluate the hepatic fibrosis stage. We divided the patients randomly into two groups. The patients consumed individually daily 300 grams of yoghurt from organic (n = 21) or conventional (n = 16) origin for 8 weeks. We collected 37 routine laboratory data, measured 4 cytokines, 3 markers of the redox-homeostasis and 14 body composition values before, after, and 12 weeks after the yoghurt consumption. RESULTS We found a mild elevation of vitamin D and a minimal reduction of LDL after the yoghurt consumption, but in the other 35 routine laboratory data there was no statistical difference. Adiponectin and leptin levels were elevated after the yoghurt consumption in the "conventional group". In contrast, we found significant decrease of adiponectin levels in the "organic group" after the treatment. Only the adiponectin tendency was different in the two groups. The induced free radical content was also statistically lower after the yoghurt consumption. In the body composition measurements, there were no significant differences. CONCLUSION These data suggest that adiponectin could be a possible biomarker to evaluate the effectiveness of probiotic treatment in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Our work can serve as a basis for future studies investigating relationships between organic yoghurt consumption and health outcomes. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(35): 1466-1474.