A blog for Biomedical Laboratory Science, Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Medical Laboratory Technology with relevant news, abstracts, articles, publications and pictures for lab medicine professionals, students and others
The essential macronutrients are water, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals.
In developed countries, vitamin deficiencies result mainly from poverty, food fads, drugs, or alcoholism. Vitamin toxicity (hypervitaminosis) usually results from taking megadoses of Vitamin A, D, B6, or niacin. In general, excess amounts of water-soluble vitamins are excreted via the Kidneys.
Vitamins may be Fat soluble (vitamins A, D, E, and K) or Water soluble (B vitamins and vitamin C). The B vitamins include biotin, Folate, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, thiamine, pyridoxine, and B12. After digestion and absorption, which circulatory system carries fat and fat-soluble vitamins?
“Vitamins are the essential nutrients that our body needs in small amounts. More specifically, an organic compound is defined as a vitamin when an organism requires it, but not synthesized by that organism in the required amounts (or at all). There are thirteen recognized vitamins.”
Vegans may develop vitamin B12 deficiency unless they consume yeast extracts or Asian style fermented foods. Strictly, vegetarian diets also tend to be low in calcium, iron, and zinc.
Human microbiota are distinct communities of microorganisms that resides at different body niches. Exploration of the human microbiome has become a reality due to the availability of powerful metagenomics and metatranscriptomic analysis technologies. Recent advances in sequencing and bioinformatics over the past decade help provide a deep insight into the nature of the host-microbial interactions and identification of potential deriver genes and pathways associated with human health, well-being, and predisposition to different diseases. In the present review, we outline recent studies devoted to elucidate the possible link between the microbiota and various type of diseases. The present review also highlights the potential utilization of microbiota as a potential therapeutic option to treat a wide array of human diseases.
Humans are viewed as composites of human and microbial cells. Human microbiota are complex and dynamic microbial communities composed mainly of bacteria, but also includes protozoa, archaea, viruses, and fungi that resides in and on different body niches such as oral cavity, throat, esophagus, stomach, colon, urogenital tract, respiratory tract, and skin. The number of microbial cells inhabiting human body is estimated to exceed the H.sapiens cells by 10-fold and estimated at 350 trillion microbial cells.
Microbiome-host interactions. Schematic representation showing the perplexed microbial-host interactions due to different triggering factors on microbiota and their genetic material constitute; the human microbiome.
Androgen-deprivation therapy, which is a common treatment for prostate cancer, has been tentatively linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. A new study solidifies these concerns.
Prostate cancer needs testosterone to grow and thrive, so androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) is designed to reduce the amount of testosterone in the body to close to zero, thereby helping to slow cancer's growth.
Although the findings are controversial, some studies have shown that ADT combined with radiation therapy is more successful at treating prostate cancer than just radiation alone.
Currently, ADT is recommended for advanced prostate cancer. But it is increasingly being used to treat localized prostate cancer, despite minimal evidence for its efficacy.
At the same time, the number of localized prostate cancer cases has increased dramatically over recent years, due in part to the more widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing.
Side effects of ADT — including erectile dysfunction, diabetes, bone loss, and swollen breast tissue, or gynecomastia — can be fairly substantial. Added to this, there is growing evidence to suggest that low testosterone levels might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
A common prostate cancer treatment comes under scrutiny in a new study.
Troponin is a widely used biomarker in patients with cardiac disease. The use of troponin is well established in patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but troponin measurement is also used in other acute and nonacute settings. In patients with suspected AMI, early decision-making is crucial to allow rapid treatment and further diagnostic evaluation. Current guidelines recommend serial measurements of troponin with a cut-off concentration at the 99th percentile to triage patients in the emergency department.
Newer, high-sensitivity assays for troponin enable the detection of distinctly lower concentrations. Using these assays and very low cut-off concentrations, several rapid diagnostic strategies have been reported to improve diagnosis in acute cardiac care. Furthermore, noncoronary and non-acute applications of troponin assays — for example as a biomarker in patients with heart failure, pulmonary embolism, or stable coronary artery disease — are on the horizon and might improve individual risk stratification.
In this Review, we provide an overview on the development of high-sensitivity assays for troponin, and their application in patients with cardiac disease.
Pathophysiological background of troponin and troponin release
in different settings.A schematic overview of myocardial structure
related to troponin (inset), as well as the plasma troponin concentrations
in different clinical settings (young and healthy, elderly or chronic diseases,
In the present era, medical scientists have been confounded by the increasing incidence of multiple diseases across the world, beginning first in developed countries, and gradually spreading to other areas as they develop. These include the rises in cases of obesity, asthma, hay fever, food allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile (type 1) diabetes and autism, among many others. Are these diseases, which affect different body systems, unrelated or can a unified theory explain the increased incidence of all of these?
I believe that the latter possibility is true, and that the central theory to explain why these diseases have arisen and by what mechanism is based on modern changes in early life events that are related to the human microbiome. According to this theory, the microbiome of humans and of other animals is not accidental, but has been selected over long time periods to optimize host reproductive success through interactions between the microbiota and host physiology. Early life is the crucial period during which the adult microbiome becomes established, and development of the host and of the microbiota occur together in a conjoined manner through a dynamic equilibrium that follows a well-choreographed path. In early life, the context is set for the important developmental decisions that are required for the immune system to distinguish between what is self and what is not self, for metabolic organs to partition how much energy to expend or to save, and for the brain to determine how to respond socially to a person who might be either a friend or a foe.
Gene editing techniques developed in the last five years could help in the battle against cancer and inherited diseases, a University of Exeter scientist says.
"There is always a risk with this kind of technology and fears about designer babies and we have started having discussions about that so we can understand the consequences and long-term risks," said Dr Westra, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall. "I think in the coming decades gene editing will become super important, and I think we will see it being used to cure some inherited diseases, to cure cancers, to restore sight to people by transplanting genes. I think it will definitely have massive importance."
On Tuesday, two highly influential academic bodies in the US shook up the scientific world with a report that, for the first time, acknowledged the medical potential of editing inherited genes. The National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine ruled that gene editing of the human "germline"—eggs, sperm and embryos—should not be seen as a red line in medical research.
Subclinical hypothyroidism is defined as serum levels of TSH above the upper limit of the reference range, in the presence of normal concentrations of total T4 or free T4. This biochemical profile might be an indication of mild hypothyroidism, with a potential increased risk of metabolic abnormalities and cardiovascular disease recorded among adults. Whether subclinical hypothyroidism results in adverse health outcomes among children is a matter of debate and so management of this condition remains challenging. Mild forms of untreated subclinical hypothyroidism do not seem to be associated with impairments in growth, bone health or neurocognitive outcome. However, ongoing scientific investigations have highlighted the presence of subtle proatherogenic abnormalities among children with modest elevations in their TSH levels. Although current findings are insufficient to recommend levothyroxine treatment for all children with mild asymptomatic forms of subclinical hypothyroidism, they highlight the potential need for assessment of cardiovascular risk among children with this condition. Increased understanding of the early metabolic risk factors associated with subclinical hypothyroidism in childhood will help to improve the management of affected individuals.
Key points
Subclinical hypothyroidism among children is often a benign and remitting condition, for which risk of progression to overt hypothyroidism depends on the underlying cause (for example, autoimmune disease)
The optimum management of children with subclinical hypothyroidism depends on the aetiology and degree of TSH elevation and should be individually tailored
The benefits of levothyroxine therapy are clear for the severe forms of subclinical hypothyroidism; however, uncertainty about this approach still exists for the mild forms of the condition
In the absence of therapeutic intervention, clinical evaluation and thyroid function tests should be regularly performed to ensure early identification of children who might benefit from treatment
Growth and neurocognitive outcomes do not seem to be affected in mild subclinical hypothyroidism; however, subtle proatherogenic abnormalities have been detected among children with modest elevations of TSH concentration
Cardiovascular risk assessment among children and adolescents with subclinical hypothyroidism could help to prevent cardiovascular disease in adulthood
Most people don't pay much attention to their gallbladder until it starts causing trouble. However, when the gallbladder starts acting up, it can be quite painful and require immediate action.
This article will look at what the gallbladder does, the symptoms of a problem with the gallbladder, treatment options, and long-term outlook.
What is the gallbladder?
The gallbladder is a 4-inch-long pear-shaped organ found under the liver in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen. It stores the bile the liver makes to digest fat.
Vitamin D is a precursor of the steroid hormone calcitriol that is crucial for bone and mineral metabolism. Both the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the general population and the identification of the vitamin D receptor in the heart and blood vessels raised interest in the potential cardiovascular effects of vitamin D. Experimental studies have demonstrated various cardiovascular protective actions of vitamin D, but vitamin D intoxication in animals is known to induce vascular calcification. In meta-analyses of epidemiological studies, vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. Findings from Mendelian randomization studies and randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) do not indicate significant effects of a general vitamin D supplementation on cardiovascular outcomes. Previous RCTs, however, were not adequately designed to address extra skeletal events, and did not focus on vitamin D-deficient individuals. Therefore, currently available evidence does not support cardiovascular benefits or harms of vitamin D supplementation with the commonly used doses, and whether vitamin D has cardiovascular effects in individuals with overt vitamin D deficiency remains to be evaluated. Here, we provide an update on clinical studies on vitamin D and cardiovascular risk, discuss ongoing vitamin D research, and consider the management of vitamin D deficiency from a cardiovascular health perspective.
Key points
The vitamin D receptor (VDR) and enzymes for vitamin D metabolism are expressed throughout the cardiovascular system
VDR and 1α-hydroxylase knockout mice have hypertension with myocardial hypertrophy and increased activity of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system
The molecular effects of VDR activation indicate various anti-atherosclerotic and protective effects on the heart and on common cardiovascular risk factors
Observational studies have shown that low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are associated with an adverse cardiovascular risk profile and significantly increased risk of cardiovascular events
Mendelian randomization studies and randomized clinical trials have not shown significant effects of vitamin D on cardiovascular events, but these trials were not designed to investigate cardiovascular outcomes in vitamin D-deficient individuals
Vitamin D supplementation is currently not indicated for the purpose of cardiovascular disease prevention, but treatment of vitamin D deficiency is critical for skeletal health
Introduction
The critical involvement of vitamin D in bone and mineral metabolism is historically known. The identification of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in almost all human organs including the heart and the blood vessels, and observations that individuals deficient in vitamin D are at increased risk of various extraskeletal diseases, stimulated research on the role of vitamin D for overall and cardiovascular health. In this Review, we summarize the existing knowledge on the effects of vitamin D on cardiovascular diseases and associated risk factors, with a particular focus on meta-analyses of large, epidemiological studies and randomized, controlled trials (RCTs). First, we provide a short summary of vitamin D metabolism and current vitamin D guidelines, a historical perspective on vitamin D and cardiovascular diseases, and a brief overview on the mechanistic effects of VDR activation on cardiovascular risk factors, the blood vessels, and the heart. The principal aspect of this Review is an update on observational studies, Mendelian randomization studies, and RCTs on vitamin D and cardiovascular risk. Finally, we outline and discuss ongoing vitamin D research, including large RCTs, and present our conclusions on how to deal with the management of vitamin D deficiency from a public health and cardiovascular health perspective.
Intestinal microbiome of children born to obese mothers significantly different from those born to mothers of healthy weight
A new study finds that hormones in breast milk may impact the development of healthy bacteria in infants' guts, potentially protecting them from intestinal inflammation, obesity and other diseases later in life.
The study, published Monday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, examines the role of human milk hormones in the development of infants' microbiome, a bacterial ecosystem in the digestive system that contributes to multiple facets of health.
"This is the first study of its kind to suggest that hormones in human milk may play an important role in shaping a healthy infant microbiome," said Bridget Young, co-first author and assistant professor of pediatric nutrition at CU Anschutz. "We've known for a long time that breast milk contributes to infant intestinal maturation and healthy growth. This study suggests that hormones in milk may be partly responsible for this positive impact through interactions with the infant's developing microbiome."
Researchers found that levels of insulin and leptin in the breast milk were positively associated with greater microbial diversity and families of bacteria in the infants' stool.
