UWOMJ Volume 79, Issue 1, Spring 2010

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistryhttps://ir.lib.uwo.ca/uwomj/1016/thumbnail.jp

Nutritional Habits and Interventions in Childhood

The objective of this book is to present nutritional and educational interventions for children and their families. The creation of healthy preferences is a key determinant of food choices and therefore diet quality. Food choices have important implications for health, particularly for food-related diseases, such as feeding difficulties and the development of non-communicable diseases. The first years of a child's life are fundamental for the creation of tastes, eating habits and the relationship with food. Preferences for certain foods are neither innate nor unchangeable. Eating behaviour is the result of experience and learning, and, through the repeated offering of food by parents, especially those less accepted, it is possible to promote good nutrition. Behaviour depends on the interaction of environmental factors, genetics, sex, and age. The environment in which the child is immersed, and which influences them, includes family, other children, society, media and the supply of food. Achieving an adequate intake of macro and micro-nutrients is an important objective for all ages of life and, particularly, for those of pediatric age, since it is crucial for cognitive development. Nutrition has also a therapeutic effect. Nutritional interventions tailored to specific pathologies are needed to prevent nutritional deficiencies and maintain an adequate nutritional status, since children and adolescents with chronic or inflammatory diseases are particularly vulnerable and at major risk of developing malnutrition

Nutrition, Exercise, and End-of-Life Discussion in the Cardiovascular Field

Unhealthy food intake and insufficient physical activities are related to obesity or lifestyle diseases, which can cause cardiovascular diseases, ultimately leading to death. However, many people are not aware of the importance of these factors, especially before cardiovascular development, although there are several good food habits that can be adopted. After the development of obesity or lifestyle diseases, nutrition and exercise control with appropriate medical therapies are required. Still, many patients do not recognize the importance of these habits. After cardiovascular disease development, nutrition and exercise with optimal medical and/or interventional therapies are required. However, some patients are not able to control their food intake and physical activities. At the advanced stage of heart failure, many things are restricted, including food intake and quality of life issues. At the end of life, nutritional care should be discussed. This book, Nutrition, Exercise, and End-of-Life Discussion in the Cardiovascular Field, addresses the importance of nutrition control before and after cardiovascular disease development, which consists of 14 peer-reviewed papers that cover the general population and patients with end-stage cardiovascular diseases

Is increased antidepressant exposure a contributory factor to the obesity pandemic?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Major depressive disorder (MDD) and obesity are both common heterogeneous disorders with complex aetiology, with a major impact on public health. Antidepressant prescribing has risen nearly 400% since 1988, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In parallel, adult obesity rates have doubled since 1980, from 15 to 30 percent, while childhood obesity rates have more than tripled. Rising obesity rates have significant health consequences, contributing to increased rates of more than thirty serious diseases. Despite the concomitant rise of antidepressant use and of the obesity rates in Western societies, the association between the two, as well as the mechanisms underlying antidepressant-induced weight gain, remain under explored. In this review, we highlight the complex relationship between antidepressant use, MDD and weight gain. Clinical findings have suggested that obesity may increase the risk of developing MDD, and vice versa. Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activation occurs in the state of stress; concurrently, the HPA axis is also dysregulated in obesity and metabolic syndrome, making it the most well-understood shared common pathophysiological pathway with MDD. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of different classes of antidepressants on body weight. Previous clinical studies suggest that the tricyclics amitriptyline, nortriptyline and imipramine, and the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor mirtazapine are associated with weight gain. Despite the fact that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use has been associated with weight loss during acute treatment, a number of studies have shown that SSRIs may be associated with long-term risk of weight gain; however, because of high variability and multiple confounds in clinical studies, the long-term effect of SSRI treatment and SSRI exposure on body weight remains unclear. A recently developed animal paradigm shows that the combination of stress and antidepressants followed by long-term high-fat diet results, long after discontinuation of antidepressant treatment, in markedly increased weight, in excess of what is caused by high-fat diet alone. On the basis of existing epidemiological, clinical and preclinical data, we have generated the testable hypothesis that escalatin

Is increased antidepressant exposure a contributory factor to the obesity pandemic?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Major depressive disorder (MDD) and obesity are both common heterogeneous disorders with complex aetiology, with a major impact on public health. Antidepressant prescribing has risen nearly 400% since 1988, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In parallel, adult obesity rates have doubled since 1980, from 15 to 30 percent, while childhood obesity rates have more than tripled. Rising obesity rates have significant health consequences, contributing to increased rates of more than thirty serious diseases. Despite the concomitant rise of antidepressant use and of the obesity rates in Western societies, the association between the two, as well as the mechanisms underlying antidepressant-induced weight gain, remain under explored. In this review, we highlight the complex relationship between antidepressant use, MDD and weight gain. Clinical findings have suggested that obesity may increase the risk of developing MDD, and vice versa. Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activation occurs in the state of stress; concurrently, the HPA axis is also dysregulated in obesity and metabolic syndrome, making it the most well-understood shared common pathophysiological pathway with MDD. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of different classes of antidepressants on body weight. Previous clinical studies suggest that the tricyclics amitriptyline, nortriptyline and imipramine, and the serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor mirtazapine are associated with weight gain. Despite the fact that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use has been associated with weight loss during acute treatment, a number of studies have shown that SSRIs may be associated with long-term risk of weight gain; however, because of high variability and multiple confounds in clinical studies, the long-term effect of SSRI treatment and SSRI exposure on body weight remains unclear. A recently developed animal paradigm shows that the combination of stress and antidepressants followed by long-term high-fat diet results, long after discontinuation of antidepressant treatment, in markedly increased weight, in excess of what is caused by high-fat diet alone. On the basis of existing epidemiological, clinical and preclinical data, we have generated the testable hypothesis that escalatin