Care for your Core: Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease by Nutrition

A wealth of information linking diet to heart health is available in the literature. While poor nutritional practices and improper diets exert an adverse effect on the heart, specific foods and dietary interventions are cardioprotective and maintain a healthy heart. The public has become much more aware and knowledgeable on the benefits of nutrition for health, and thus it is important that such available information is backed by credible science. In this brief article, we provide a dietitian and nutritionist perspective on the importance of food and nutrition in the prevention of cardiovascular disease as well as associated risk factors such as obesity and diabetes. Furthermore, we discuss how to best utilize foods to gain health benefits, specifically for heart health as part of an overall healthy lifestyle regimen.

Treatment of Infectious Mononucleosis with High Dose Vitamin D3 in Three Cases

Infectious mononucleosis often results in significant morbidity and disability lasting up to six months. It is known that vitamin D induces cathelicidin production that can rapidly responds to some viral, bacterial and fungal infections. The Epstein Barr virus is able to block the vitamin D receptor thus blocking the ability to fight this infection. This article presents three cases, which responded quickly to loading doses of vitamin D (150,000-200,000 IU) followed by a month of 10,000IU daily.

Prevalence of Sickle Cell Anemia in Association of Plasmodium falciparum from Rajnandgaon, India

Sickle cell anemia is a blood disorder resulting from the inheritance of abnormal genes from parents. It is caused due to mutation in the β-globulin gene. Sickle cell anemia is widespread across the world and in Central India. The present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of the disorder in the Rajnandgaon district of Central India. A random sampling of 6088 people was done to test the sickle cell anemia problem by slide test method and a total of 249 (4.09%) people were found sickled positive. Further electrophoresis test was performed for all 249 of which 67 were found homozygous (HbSS) and 182 were found heterozygous (HbAS) positive. Besides the above analysis, chloroquine prophylaxis associated with a high prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum Pfcrt K76T mutation in people (n=26) with sickle cell anemia was also analyzed. The genotype of the subject was screened using the hemoglobin electrophoresis system and the P. falciparum Pfcrt genotyping was carried out using PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). The prevalence rate of Pfcrt K76T mutant gene was proportionately found higher in the hemoglobin SS (n=40, m=32, r=0.67) genotype individuals than the hemoglobin AS (n=52, m= 27, r=0.519) and AA (n=182, m= 68, r= 0.37).