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Poor Diet (poor + diet)
Selected AbstractsAssociations between self-reported dental status and dietJOURNAL OF ORAL REHABILITATION, Issue 10 2003R. M. Daly summary, The purpose of this study was to develop a battery of dental, nutritional and psychological health survey measures and to use this survey instrument to explore links between age, tooth loss and dietary risk. The survey was undertaken in a dental school and hospital. Forty-nine consecutive patients (age range 25,74 years) participated in this pilot study and completed the health survey instrument. A quarter of the patients reported changing dietary habits due to dental problems, 56% reported difficulty in chewing as a result of problems with their teeth or dentures, and 36% reported having to interrupt meals due to dental difficulties. Tooth number was associated with MNA scores (0·35, P = 0·03, Pearson's correlation coefficient) and reported number of foods eaten (0·33, P = 0·04, Pearson's correlation coefficient) from the questionnaire checklist. Lower MNA scores were associated with age (F = 6·54; d.f. = 1, 46; P < 0·01) indicating that older adults were more at risk of poor nutritional status. Overall health was not rated as an important factor influencing food choice, and only 14% of the sample felt that they had nutritional problems. Poor diet and impaired food choice was associated with declining numbers of teeth and increasing age. Older adults may require dietary advice to increase awareness of the importance of a healthy diet. [source] Schizophrenia and physical health problemsACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2009Y. Von Hausswolff-Juhlin Objective:, To estimate the prevalence of physical health problems in patients with schizophrenia, and to appraise the impact on mortality rates and quality of life (QoL) in such patients. Method:, A selective review of clinical articles relating to physical health such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and QoL. In addition, current guidelines and recommendations for the monitoring of physical health in schizophrenia were reviewed. Results:, Cardiovascular events contribute most strongly to the excess mortality observed in schizophrenia. Other factors that contribute significantly include obesity, metabolic aberrations, smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise and poor diet , all of which might be targets for health promoting activities. Conclusion:, Physical health problems in patients with schizophrenia are common, and contribute to the excess mortality rate, as well as decreasing QoL. Many adverse physical factors are malleable in such patients, and physical benefit may be gained by following practical guidelines for their monitoring and improvement. [source] Survival and oviposition of a western corn rootworm variant feeding on soybeanENTOMOLOGIA EXPERIMENTALIS ET APPLICATA, Issue 2 2003Timothy R. Mabry Abstract The role of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merril (Fabaceae), in the circumvention of crop rotation was evaluated by observing the effects of soybean herbivory on western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) survival and oviposition. Field collected D. virgifera adults resistant to annual rotation of corn, Zea mays (L.) (Poaceae), and soybean were given the opportunity to feed on a soybean pre-treatment diet prior to diet combinations of corn, soybean, and/or water. The number of days that the adults survived after removal of the diet combinations was used as a measure of insect vigor and diet quality. Willingness to feed on a soybean foliage pre-treatment did not indicate greater ability to benefit nutritionally from soybean herbivory. Adult D. virgifera previously feeding on corn, soybean, or water survived starvation for 8.3 ± 0.15 days, 5.1 ± 0.13 days, and 3.9 ± 0.14 days, respectively. Diabrotica virgifera recover from 2 days of starvation or poor diet if subsequently given access to corn tissues for 2 days. Eggs were laid within 1 day of access to poor diet or starvation. Other D. virgifera, captured as they flew from a cornfield into a soybean field, were maintained on soybean foliage or only water until they died. Of the beetles with access to soybean foliage, 24% fed within 24 h after capture and survived 1 day longer than insects given only water. Only 20% of these D. virgifera were able to lay eggs without consuming additional corn prior to death. Few D. virgifera enter soybean fields capable of immediate oviposition. Female reproductive status and diet quality influence the likelihood of oviposition following exposure to stress. The effects of soybean herbivory may contribute to the proximate mechanism of resistance to crop rotation. [source] How environmental stress affects density dependence and carrying capacity in a marine copepodJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2000Richard M. Sibly Summary 1.,Management of the effects of stress on populations , for instance in ecotoxicology , requires understanding of the effects of stressors on populations and communities. Attention to date has too rarely been directed to relevant ecological endpoints, such as carrying capacity and density dependence. Established procedures are instead based on measuring the Life Tables of individual organisms exposed to differing concentrations of a pollutant at low population density, but this approach does not take into account population effects that may occur through interactions between individuals. Here we introduce an approach that allows direct measurement of the effects of stressors on carrying capacity and density dependence. 2.,Using the marine copepod Tisbe battagliai Volkmann-Rocco, we report replicated experiments establishing the effects of 100 µg L,1 pentachlorophenol (PCP) in combination with varying diet and food concentrations. Population density was measured as population biomass in 10 mL volumes. Diet was either the alga Isochrysis galbana Parke (here designated ,poor diet') or a mix of two algal species (I. galbana and Rhodomonas reticulata Novarino: ,good diet'). Each was given at three food concentrations (520, 1300 and 3250 µgC L,1), selected on the basis that at low population density these cover the range between limited and maximal population growth. 3.,Carrying capacity increased linearly with food concentration. On the poor diet the increase was 1·2 ,g L,1 for each ,gC L,1 increase in food concentration. On the good diet the increase was 2·3 ,g L,1/,gC L,1 in the absence of PCP, and 1·9 ,g L,1/,gC L,1 with PCP. Maximum carrying capacity was in the region of 60,80 ,g per 10 mL volume. Population growth rate (pgr) decreased linearly with population biomass when the latter was plotted on a logarithmic scale. Increasing biomass reduced pgr by 1·70 week,1 for each unit increase in log10 biomass. Increasing food concentration and improving diet both increased pgr, but did not affect the slope of the density-dependent relationship. Presence or absence of PCP had no effect except that at some higher food concentrations non-PCP populations initially increased faster than PCP populations, and at high concentration on the good diet the effect of density-dependence was decreased in PCP populations. 4.,The results show that a stressor's effects at high population density may differ from its effects at low density, and emphasizes the importance of finding new protocols, such as those introduced here, with which to study the joint effects of a stressor and population density. Managers and researchers of threatened species, harvested species and pest species need to know the joint effects of stressors and population density, in order to be able to predict the effects of stressors on carrying capacity and on the course of recovery from environmental perturbations. [source] Size compensation in moth larvae: attention to larval instarsPHYSIOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 3 2010TOOMAS ESPERK Environmental perturbations such as starvation and poor diet often prevent animals from attaining their optimal sizes. When the perturbation has a transient character, compensatory responses are expected in terms of faster growth or a prolonged developmental period. In the case of insect larvae, details of such responses are insufficiently known at the proximate level. Attention to responses at the level of particular larval instars should promote an understanding of insect developmental plasticity also in a more general context. To provide an instar-specific analysis of compensatory growth, larvae of the moth Orgyia antiqua (L.) are reared on inferior diet during one larval instar. Responses in growth parameters are recorded in the course of the manipulated instars, as well as at the level of the entire larval period. The negative relationship between development time and size in response to the inferior food quality, typical of the entire larval periods, is also observed within the manipulated instars taken separately. The manipulated larvae remain smaller than the larvae of the control group (significant in males only), even by the end of the subsequent instar during which all individuals are provided with superior host. In males, close to full size compensation by the time of pupation is achieved only by means of adding an extra larval instar. The inability of larvae to fully compensate during one and even two instars is considered as an indication of the presence of constraints on the within-instar growth pattern. An alternative, adaptational explanation for the incomplete compensation could be based on the cost of prolonged development period. Given the ecological context of the species' life history, such an explanation appears less likely. [source] Pycnogenol® reduces talc-induced neoplastic transformation in human ovarian cell culturesPHYTOTHERAPY RESEARCH, Issue 6 2007Amber R. Buz'Zard Abstract Talc and poor diet have been suggested to increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer; which can be reduced by a diet rich in fruit and vegetables. Talc is ubiquitous despite concern about its safety, role as a possible carcinogen and known ability to cause irritation and inflammation. It was recently shown that Pycnogenol® (Pyc; a proprietary mixture of water-soluble bioflavonoids extracted from French maritime pine bark) was selectively toxic to established malignant ovarian germ cells. This study investigated talc-induced carcinogenesis and Pyc-induced chemoprevention. Normal human epithelial and granulosa ovarian cell lines and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) were treated with talc, or pretreated with Pyc then talc. Cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and neoplastic transformation by soft agar assay were measured. Talc increased proliferation, induced neoplastic transformation and increased ROS generation time-dependently in the ovarian cells and dose-dependently in the PMN. Pretreatment with Pyc inhibited the talc-induced increase in proliferation, decreased the number of transformed colonies and decreased the ROS generation in the ovarian cells. The data suggest that talc may contribute to ovarian neoplastic transformation and Pyc reduced the talc-induced transformation. Taken together, Pyc may prove to be a potent chemopreventative agent against ovarian carcinogenesis. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Not-so-Dark Ages: Ecology for human growth in medieval and early Twentieth Century Portugal as inferred from skeletal growth profilesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Hugo F.V. Cardoso Abstract This study attempts to address the issue of relative living standards in Portuguese medieval and early 20th century periods. Since the growth of children provides a good measure of environmental quality for the overall population, the skeletal growth profiles of medieval Leiria and early 20th century Lisbon were compared. Results show that growth in femur length of medieval children did not differ significantly from that of early 20th century children, but after puberty medieval adolescents seem to have recovered, as they have significantly longer femora as adults. This is suggestive of greater potential for catch-up growth in medieval adolescents. We suggest that this results from distinct child labor practices, which impact differentially on the growth of Leiria and Lisbon adolescents. Work for medieval children and adolescents were related to family activities, and care and attention were provided by family members. Conversely, in early 20th century Lisbon children were more often sent to factories at around 12 years of age as an extra source of family income, where they were exploited for their labor. Since medieval and early 20th century children were stunted at an early age, greater potential for catch-up growth in medieval adolescents results from exhausting work being added to modern adolescent's burdens of disease and poor diet, when they entered the labor market. Although early 20th century Lisbon did not differ in overall unfavorable living conditions from medieval Leiria, after puberty different child labor practices may have placed modern adolescents at greater risk of undernutrition and poor growth. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] How environmental stress affects density dependence and carrying capacity in a marine copepodJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2000Richard M. Sibly Summary 1.,Management of the effects of stress on populations , for instance in ecotoxicology , requires understanding of the effects of stressors on populations and communities. Attention to date has too rarely been directed to relevant ecological endpoints, such as carrying capacity and density dependence. Established procedures are instead based on measuring the Life Tables of individual organisms exposed to differing concentrations of a pollutant at low population density, but this approach does not take into account population effects that may occur through interactions between individuals. Here we introduce an approach that allows direct measurement of the effects of stressors on carrying capacity and density dependence. 2.,Using the marine copepod Tisbe battagliai Volkmann-Rocco, we report replicated experiments establishing the effects of 100 µg L,1 pentachlorophenol (PCP) in combination with varying diet and food concentrations. Population density was measured as population biomass in 10 mL volumes. Diet was either the alga Isochrysis galbana Parke (here designated ,poor diet') or a mix of two algal species (I. galbana and Rhodomonas reticulata Novarino: ,good diet'). Each was given at three food concentrations (520, 1300 and 3250 µgC L,1), selected on the basis that at low population density these cover the range between limited and maximal population growth. 3.,Carrying capacity increased linearly with food concentration. On the poor diet the increase was 1·2 ,g L,1 for each ,gC L,1 increase in food concentration. On the good diet the increase was 2·3 ,g L,1/,gC L,1 in the absence of PCP, and 1·9 ,g L,1/,gC L,1 with PCP. Maximum carrying capacity was in the region of 60,80 ,g per 10 mL volume. Population growth rate (pgr) decreased linearly with population biomass when the latter was plotted on a logarithmic scale. Increasing biomass reduced pgr by 1·70 week,1 for each unit increase in log10 biomass. Increasing food concentration and improving diet both increased pgr, but did not affect the slope of the density-dependent relationship. Presence or absence of PCP had no effect except that at some higher food concentrations non-PCP populations initially increased faster than PCP populations, and at high concentration on the good diet the effect of density-dependence was decreased in PCP populations. 4.,The results show that a stressor's effects at high population density may differ from its effects at low density, and emphasizes the importance of finding new protocols, such as those introduced here, with which to study the joint effects of a stressor and population density. Managers and researchers of threatened species, harvested species and pest species need to know the joint effects of stressors and population density, in order to be able to predict the effects of stressors on carrying capacity and on the course of recovery from environmental perturbations. [source] The Nutrition Transition: An Overview of World Patterns of ChangeNUTRITION REVIEWS, Issue 2004Barry M. Popkin Ph.D. This paper examines the speed of change in diet, activity, and obesity in the developing world, and notes potential exacerbating biological relationships that contribute to differences in the rates of change. The focus is on lower- and middle-income countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. These dietary, physical activity, and body composition changes are occurring at great speed and at earlier stages of these countries' economic and social development. There are some unique issues that relate to body composition and potential genetic factors that are also explored, including potential differences in body mass index (BMI),disease relationships and added risks posed by high levels of poor fetal and infant growth patterns. In addition there is an important dynamic occurring,the shift in the burden of poor diets, inactivity and obesity from the rich to the poor. The developing world needs to give far greater emphasis to addressing the prevention of the adverse health consequences of this shift to the nutrition transition stage of the degenerative diseases [source] Food selection and nutritional ecology of woodlice in Central ChilePHYSIOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 1 2008TAMARA P. CATALÁN Abstract Phenotypic flexibility in food selection and digestive efficiency in response is examined in relation to variations in food quality in a detritivorous species of Mediterranean ecosystems, the woodlouse Porcellio laevis Latreille (Isopoda: Oniscidea). It is hypothesized that diet selection should show a positive correlation between diet quality and digestive efficiency. The studied plants are isocaloric but exhibit significant differences in terms of nitrogen, carbon and fibre content. The observations appear to support the hypothesis that these isopods show compensatory feeding behaviour when feeding on poor diets. Contrary to expectation, a dietary effect on relative growth rate is not observed. It is concluded that behavioural skills associated with diet selection and physiological flexibility may allow P.laevis to satisfy and maintain equivalent nutritional levels during exposure to different diet qualities. In general, it appears that physiological flexibility plays an important role in determining nutritional balance in P.laevis, which can be of great benefit in the highly seasonal environment that it inhabits. [source] | |||||||||||||