The health benefits of fish oil, and its omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid content, have attracted much scientific attention in the last four decades. Fish oils that contain higher ...amounts of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n-3) than docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3), in a distinctive ratio of 18/12, are typically the most abundantly available and are commonly studied. Although the two fatty acids have traditionally been considered together, as though they were one entity, different physiological effects of EPA and DHA have recently been reported. New oils containing a higher quantity of DHA compared with EPA, such as fractionated and concentrated fish oil, tuna oil, calamari oil and microalgae oil, are increasingly becoming available on the market, and other oils, including those extracted from genetically modified oilseed crops, soon to come. This systematic review focuses on the effects of high DHA fish oils on various human health conditions, such as the heart and cardiovascular system, the brain and visual function, inflammation and immune function and growth/Body Mass Index. Although inconclusive results were reported in several instances, and inconsistent outcomes observed in others, current data provides substantiated evidence in support of DHA being a beneficial bioactive compound for heart, cardiovascular and brain function, with different, and at times complementary, effects compared with EPA. DHA has also been reported to be effective in slowing the rate of cognitive decline, while its possible effects on depression disorders are still unclear. Interestingly, gender- and age- specific divergent roles for DHA have also been reported. This review provides a comprehensive collection of evidence and a critical summary of the documented physiological effects of high DHA fish oils for human health.
Vegetarian diets exclude all animal flesh and are being widely adopted by an increasing number of people; however, effects on blood lipid concentrations remain unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to ...quantitatively assess the overall effects of vegetarian diets on blood lipids.
We searched PubMed, Scopus, Embase, ISI Web of Knowledge, and the Cochrane Library through March 2015. Studies were included if they described the effectiveness of vegetarian diets on blood lipids (total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride). Weighted mean effect sizes were calculated for net changes by using a random-effects model. We performed subgroup and univariate meta-regression analyses to explore sources of heterogeneity. Eleven trials were included in the meta-analysis. Vegetarian diets significantly lowered blood concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the pooled estimated changes were -0.36 mmol/L (95% CI -0.55 to -0.17; P<0.001), -0.34 mmol/L (95% CI -0.57 to -0.11; P<0.001), -0.10 mmol/L (95% CI -0.14 to -0.06; P<0.001), and -0.30 mmol/L (95% CI -0.50 to -0.10; P=0.04), respectively. Vegetarian diets did not significantly affect blood triglyceride concentrations, with a pooled estimated mean difference of 0.04 mmol/L (95% CI -0.05 to 0.13; P=0.40).
This systematic review and meta-analysis provides evidence that vegetarian diets effectively lower blood concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Such diets could be a useful nonpharmaceutical means of managing dyslipidemia, especially hypercholesterolemia.
Chronic atrophic gastritis is a significant premalignant lesion of gastric carcinoma. There is a great need to prevent the progression to gastric carcinoma through early intervention and treatment ...for chronic atrophic gastritis. Weifuchun, a famous Chinese patent drug, has been widely used for chronic atrophic gastritis in China. However, it remains unclear whether Weifuchun is effective for atrophic gastritis.
To determine the effectiveness and safety of Weifuchun for chronic atrophic gastritis.
We systematically retrieved seven databases (Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, and Chinese Biological Medical Database) from their inception to October 5, 2022. Methodological quality was examined using the Cochrane Risk of bias tool. We also used RevMan 5.4 software for statistical analysis to examine the effectiveness and safety of Weifuchun.
Fifteen studies with 1,488 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The study indicated that Weifuchun was more effective (RR 1.52; 95% CI 1.41, 1.63; p<0.00001) than Western medicine and other Chinese patent medicine. In addition, Weifuchun was more effective in improving gastric mucosal under gastroscopy, improving histopathologic changes of gastric mucosal, and inhibiting Helicobacter pylori. However, no significant difference in safety was examined between Weifuchun and the control group (RR 2.83; 95% CI 0.85, 9.38; P = 0.09).
The meta-analysis revealed a significant statistical difference with Weifuchun in effectiveness compared to the control group. However, there was no significant difference in safety. Thus, more high-quality clinical studies are needed in the future.
Registration number CRD42022365703.
The current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend multiple healthy eating patterns. However, few studies have examined the associations of adherence to different dietary patterns with long-term ...risk of total and cause-specific mortality.
To examine the associations of dietary scores for 4 healthy eating patterns with risk of total and cause-specific mortality.
This prospective cohort study included initially healthy women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS; 1984-2020) and men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS; 1986-2020).
Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI-2015), Alternate Mediterranean Diet (AMED) score, Healthful Plant-based Diet Index (HPDI), and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI).
The main outcomes were total and cause-specific mortality overall and stratified by race and ethnicity and other potential risk factors.
The final study sample included 75 230 women from the NHS (mean SD baseline age, 50.2 7.2 years) and 44 085 men from the HPFS (mean SD baseline age, 53.3 9.6 years). During a total of 3 559 056 person-years of follow-up, 31 263 women and 22 900 men died. When comparing the highest with the lowest quintiles, the pooled multivariable-adjusted HRs of total mortality were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.79-0.84) for HEI-2015, 0.82 (95% CI, 0.79-0.84) for AMED score, 0.86 (95% CI, 0.83-0.89) for HPDI, and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.77-0.82) for AHEI (P < .001 for trend for all). All dietary scores were significantly inversely associated with death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory disease. The AMED score and AHEI were inversely associated with mortality from neurodegenerative disease. The inverse associations between these scores and risk of mortality were consistent in different racial and ethnic groups, including Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White individuals.
In this cohort study of 2 large prospective cohorts with up to 36 years of follow-up, greater adherence to various healthy eating patterns was consistently associated with lower risk of total and cause-specific mortality. These findings support the recommendations of Dietary Guidelines for Americans that multiple healthy eating patterns can be adapted to individual food traditions and preferences.
Marine-derived n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) may have a beneficial effect on inflammation via lowering pro-inflammatory eicosanoid concentrations. We aimed to assess the effect of ...marine-derived n-3 PUFA on prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), thromboxane B2 (TXB2), and leukotriene B4 (LTB4) through systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
A structured search strategy on PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane up to November 2015 was undertaken in this meta-analysis. Standard mean difference was used to calculate the effect size of marine-derived n-3 PUFA on PGE2, TXB2 and LTB4 in a random-effect model. A total of 18 RCTs with 826 subjects were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Supplementation of marine-derived n-3 PUFA significantly decreased concentrations of TXB2 in serum/plasma in subjects with high risk of cardiovascular diseases (SMD:-1.26; 95% CI: -1.65, -0.86) and LTB4 in neutrophils in unhealthy subjects (subjects with non-autoimmune chronic diseases or auto-immune diseases) (SMD:-0.59: 95% CI: -1.02, -0.16). Subgroup analyses showed a significant reduction of LTB4 in subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (SMD: -0.83; 95% CI: -1.37, -0.29), but not in non-autoimmune chronic disease patients (SMD: -0.33; 95% CI: -0.97, 0.31). No significant publication bias was shown in the meta-analysis.
Marine-derived n-3 PUFA had a beneficial effect on reducing the concentration of TXB2 in blood of subjects with high risk of CVD as well as LTB4 in neutrophils in unhealthy subjects, and that subjects with RA showed lower LTB4 content with supplementation of marine-derived n-3 PUFA.
ABSTRACTDeep learning has been extensively utilized in the assessment of building damage after disasters. However, the field of building damage segmentation faces challenges, such as misjudged ...regions, high network complexity, and long running times. Hence, this paper proposes a two-stage building damage assessment network called the Efficient Channel Attention and Depthwise Separable Convolutional Neural Network (ECADS-CNN). It aims to quickly detect the types of disaster damage in buildings. Deep object segmentation and deep damage classification networks were integrated into a unified building damage detection network. In this study, the efficient channel attention (ECA) module was used to enhance the performance of building semantic segmentation, and a depthwise separable (DS) module was added to the dimension upscaling process. Finally, untrained disaster dataset images were used to test the robustness of the proposed model by comparing the evaluation results of each disaster. The experiments involve testing a total of five common deep learning models, and the results indicate that the ECADS-CNN model improves the speed by 7.4% and the overall F1 score by 5.2% compared with the baseline model. The comprehensive performance is better than that of mainstream deep learning models.
Excessive maternal gestational weight gain (GWG) contributes to generational obesity. Our aim was to explore efficacy and intervention characteristics (trimester, duration, frequency, intensity, and ...delivery method) of interventions to prevent excessive GWG. CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, LILACS, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched up to May 2018 (no date or language restrictions). Keywords and MeSH terms for diet, GWG, intervention, lifestyle, maternal, physical activity, and pregnancy were used to locate randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing risk of bias was applied. Eighty-nine RCTs were included. Meta-analysis (60 trials) estimated that women in diet only (WMD: -3.27; 95% CI: -4.96, -1.58,
< 0.01), physical activity (PA) (WMD: -1.02; 95% CI: -1.56, -0.49,
< 0.01), and lifestyle interventions (combining diet and PA) (WMD: -0.84; 95% CI: -1.29, -0.39,
< 0.01) gained significantly less weight than controls. The three eHealth interventions favored neither intervention nor control (WMD: -1.06; 95% CI: -4.13, 2.00,
= 0.50). Meta-regression demonstrated no optimal duration, frequency, intensity, setting, or diet type. Traditional face to face delivery of weight management interventions during pregnancy can be successful. Delivery via eHealth has potential to extend its reach to younger women but needs further evaluation of its success.
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•NJSP significantly helped mice to prevent the decrease of immunity.•NJSP improved specific cellular immune function and humoral immune function in vivo.•NJSP can potentially act as a ...promising immunomodulator.
In this study, a low molecular weight peptides fraction (<3 kDa, named NJSP) was isolated and purified from the skin protein hydrolysate of Nibea japonica by ultrafiltration. The in vivo immunomodulatory effects of NJSP were investigated in cyclophosphamide (CY)-induced immunosuppressed mice. The intragastric administration of NJSP (100, 200, 400 mg/kg/d) upregulated the immune organ indexes, restored the pathological histomorphology of immune organs, and improved the body weight of CY-treated mice in a time and dose-dependent manner. NJSP treatment also remarkably promoted the proliferation of splenocyte, enhanced phagocytosis of macrophages, restored delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH). Moreover, NJSP administration dramatically improved hemolysin, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), immunoglobulin (Ig) A, IgG and IgM levels in blood serum in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, NJSP also significantly increased the activities of superoxidase dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), improved the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), and decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in blood serum. These findings confirm that NJSP can protect the immune system against oxidative damage to maintain homeostasis. Finally, NJSP can serve as a promising immunomodulator with potential application in functional food and nutraceutical industry.
Abstract
Background
The spatial position of the lens in patients with cortical age-related cataract (CARC) is unclear. We investigated a basis for the assessment of visual quality after cataract ...surgery by analysing the ultrasound biomicroscopic characteristics of the biological parameters of the lens in patients with CARC.
Methods
In this retrospective study, 119 patients (50 males and 69 females, totalling 238 eyes) with CARC who underwent simple cataract surgery were selected. The lens thickness (LT), axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens vault (LV), trabecular-iris angle (TIA), iris-lens angle (ILA), iris-lens contact distance (ILCD) were measured by A-scan ultrasound and ultrasound biomicroscopy. The corresponding lens position (LP) and relative lens position (RLP) were calculated.
Results
LP was greater in men than in women (
P
< 0.05), LV was smaller in men than in women (
P
= 0.002), ILA and ILCD were not statistically significant (
P
= 0.072 and P = 0.854, respectively). There were significant differences in TIA, ILA, and ILCD in the four quadrants (all
P
< 0.05), with a trend in the distribution of TIA: superior < inferior < nasal < temporal, ILA: nasal < inferior < temporal < superior, and ILCD: superior < temporal < inferior < nasal.
Conclusions
The lens protrudes more obviously in females than in males and the lens tilts to a certain extent with the increase of age and tends to be more upward and temporal in the supine position. Therefore, trends in lens-related parameters in patients with CARC should be taken seriously.
Obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in both developed and developing counties in a state of nutrition transition are often related to diet, which also play a major role in shaping human gut ...microbiota. The human gut harbors diverse microbes that play an essential role in the well-being of their host. Complex interactions between diet and microorganisms may lead to beneficial or detrimental outcomes to host cardiometabolic health. Despite numerous studies using rodent models indicated that high-fat diet may disrupt protective functions of the intestinal barrier and contribute to inflammatory processes, evidence from population-based study is still limited. In our recent study of a 6-month randomized controlled-feeding trial, we showed that high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet was associated with unfavorable changes in gut microbiota, fecal microbial metabolites, and plasma proinflammatory factors in healthy young adults. Here, we provide an overview and extended discussion of our key findings, and outline important future directions.
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