The Effects of Lavandula Angustifolia Mill Infusion on Depression in Patients Using Citalopram: A comparison Study

Background: Many herbs have been used to treat psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression in traditional medicine. Objectives: This study was carried out to determine the effect of using Lavandula angustifilia infusion on depression in patients taking Citalopram. Patients and Methods: Among all patients referred to the Hajar Hospital psychiatric clinic, Shahrekord, Iran, 80 patients who met the criteria of major depression according to the structured interviews and the Hamilton questionnaire for Depression were included in the study. They were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental treatment group and standard treatment group at this study. In standard treatment group, the patients were given Citalopram 20 mg. In experimental treatment group, the patients took 2 cups of the infusion of 5 g dried Lavandula angustifilia in addition to tablet Citalopram 20 mg twice a day. The patients were followed up for four and eight weeks of the study onset using Hamilton Scale questionnaire and treatment side effects form. Data were analyzed using student t-test, pair t-test and chi square. Results: After four weeks of the trial onset, the mean depression score according to the Hamilton Scale for Depression was 17.5 +/- 3.5 in the standard treatment group and 15.2 +/- 3.6 in the experimental treatment group (P < 0.05). After eight weeks, it was 16.8 +/- 4.6 and 14.8 +/- 4 respectively (P < 0.01). In addition, the most commonly observed adverse effects were nausea (12.8 %) and confusion (10%). In terms of side effects, there were no significant differences between two groups. Conclusions: Considering the results of this study, Lavandula angustifilia infusion has some positive therapeutic effects on depressed patients most importantly decreases mean depression score and might be used alone or as an adjunct to other anti-depressant drugs

Comparative analysis of milt quality in the cultured and wild stocks of endangered Caspian brown trout, Salmo trutta caspius

The sperm motility characteristics (percentage of motile spermatozoa and duration of motility) and sperm production (spermatocrit, milt volume and sperm concentration) were measured in order to compare the milt quality between cultured and wild stocks of Caspian brown trout, Salmo trutta caspius. Our results showed that cultured brooders produce more dense milt than wild individuals. In contrast, the milt volume, percentage and duration of spermatozoa motility were higher in wild brooders than in cultured individuals. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of captivity condition on milt quality of cultured males of Caspian brown trout.Keywords: Sperm density, sperm motility, Caspian brown trou

Low density lipoprotein cholesterol control status among Canadians at risk for cardiovascular disease: findings from the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network Database

Background To determine the prevalence of uncontrolled LDL-C in patients with high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risks across Canada and to examine its related factors. Methods Non-pregnant adults >20 years-old, who had a lipid test completed between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011 and were included in the Canadian Primary Care Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) database were studied. The Framingham-Risk-Score was calculated to determine the risk levels. A serum LDL-C level of >2.0 mmol/L was considered as being poorly controlled. Patients with a previous record of a cerebrovascular accident, peripheral artery disease, or an ischemic heart disease were regarded as those under secondary prevention. Logistic regression modeling was performed to examine the factors associated with the LDL-C control. Results A total of 6,405 high-risk patients were included in the study and, of this population, 68 % had a suboptimal LDL-C, which was significantly associated with the female gender (OR: 3.26; 95 % CI: 2.63–4.05, p < 0.0001) and no medication therapy (OR: 6.31, 95 % CI: 5.21–7.65, p < 0.0001). Those with comorbidities of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and smokers had a better LDL-C control. Rural residents (OR: 0.64, 95 % CI: 0.52–0.78, p < 0.0001), and those under secondary prevention (OR: 0.42; 95 % CI: 0.35–0.51, p < 0.0001), were also more likely to have a better LDL-C control. Conclusion A high proportion of high-cardiac risk patients in Canadian primary care settings have suboptimal LDL-C control. A lack of medication therapy appears to be the major contributing factor to this situation

Evaluation of the Effect of Knowledge Concerning Healthy Nutrition and Nutrition Science on the Knowledge Development Approach

Background: Nutrition can be regarded as an important part of any preparation program, as well as an important part of life. It seems essential to develop nutritional science and improve eating habits with the purpose of developing a healthy diet and avoiding the outcomes that arise from a lack of nutrition. Proper nutrition is one of the important factors for the development of health. Lack of sufficient awareness about nutrition can result in improper eating habits. Objectives: The present study evaluated the effect of knowledge about healthy nutrition and nutrition science on the knowledge development approach. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, the statistical population consisted of 190 experts and other scholars in the area of nutritional science. A questionnaire based on demographic details, nutritional science, nutrition education, research, proper solutions to individuals’ nutritional problems, and a culture of nutrition was used for data collection. Results: A relatively strong positive correlation was found between the knowledge development approach, nutritional science, nutrition education and research, and proper solutions for individual nutritional problems and a culture of nutrition (P < 0.001). Conclusions: 1) Effective enhancement and participation in an academic community will be important in the future of food and nutrition security; however, major gaps and weaknesses also exist in this context; 2) The main weaknesses in relation to the lack of clear policies and procedures include focusing on only Tehran, Iran; the need to overcome bureaucracy; and problems related to motivation, capital, and international communications; 3) Qualitative and quantitative improvement of research is not possible without access to skilled experts and researchers; 4) To solve these problems, it will be beneficial to pay more attention to the role of universities, facilitate intellectual communication among professors in Tehran and other provinces, ensure that Iranian professors are employed abroad, develop educational and research cooperation with foreign countries, and ensure that facilities for international cooperation put in place by united nations (UN) agencies are used. Keywords: Nutritional Science, Knowledge Management, Foo

Effectiveness of a Community and School-Based Intervention to Control and Prevent of Tobacco Use in Adolescents: A Field Randomized Controlled Trial.

This article contains the authors' experience of a school and community-based intervention in Iran to prevent and reduce smoking in high school students. This has lessons for health school and community-based interventions. Adolescence is associated with several risky behaviors, such as increased use of tobacco (1). If the current trend continues, 250 million living children and adolescents who continue tobacco use into adulthood will die of health problems related to tobacco use (2). Given the global epidemiologic transition from poverty diseases to non-communicable diseases, the burden of disease and health risks among adolescents and young adults has changed significantly due to the undeniable role of substance use (3), including Iran (4). Therefore, a need for prevention and control programs of tobacco among adolescents and different implementation methods cannot be understated. Tobacco use prevention programs administered in schools are effective in reducing future smokers (5), although the interpretation of evidence for school-based prevention programs are affected by methodological issues. We conducted a field randomized controlled trial in East Azerbaijan, Iran, during the 2014–15 school year. Study subjects (n=4422) included high school students (intervention group=1965, control group=2457). Data were collected through self-reporting questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS ver. 23 (Chicago, IL, USA). The six-month intervention program consisted of training and environmental adaptations in cooperation with appropriate authorities. Training included teaching school staff about the health risks associated with tobacco use in adolescents and the health benefits of quitting. Physical education teachers were selected to train students about the health risks of tobacco use and how to resolve to say no to it and in 10 training sessions. In addition, students were asked to introduce their reliable peers as leader (15% of each school population) to contribute to the intervention program. The students participated in a one-hour orientation program, with question and answer time and two training videos shown in two sessions. These trained students (“peer leaders”) were requested to share their information and knowledge about tobacco use and challenge its use during the recess times. A campaign was also formed in the mosques and health centers to disseminate the message for communal effort to prevent and control tobacco access to the adolescents using leaflets and posters. Furthermore, measures were taken to ban tobacco use in public places, tobacco sale in proximity of schools, and sale to high school students. These measures were coordinated and implemented with assistance from school, trade, and police authorities. In the next step, the tobacco rehabilitation center phone number was publicized using placards in the town. The town committee on tobacco use met every two months and was updated on the progress of the program by different organizations and problems were addressed. There was no intervention in the control town (group). Once the intervention was completed, 1885 students in the intervention city and 2305 students in the control city responded to our questionnaire. The participants were high school student, 54.7% male and 45.3% female with a mean age of 15.81 (SD=1.15). The mean of cigarette start age was 12.4 (SD=3.42) and the mean for hookah smoking start age was 13.52 (SD=2.74). The proportions of students experimented with cigarette and hookah for at least one time were 10.7% and 19.7%, respectively. Age, gender, mother’s education, and locality were used as confounding variables and were controlled. The intervention led to an increased awareness of the side effects of tobacco (mean difference=0.36, CI.95= (0.12, 0.54)), prevention of negative changes in attitude towards tobacco (mean difference=1.59, CI.95= (−2.26, − 0.92)), and prevention of behavioral intention to tobacco use (mean difference = 0.43, CI = (0.06, 0.81), P<0.001). Post-intervention follow-up showed that initiating cigarette use after six months increased non-significantly in both groups but the changes within group were significant and higher in the control group. Hookah use increased significantly after six months in the control group and differed significantly from the baseline (P<0.02) and from the intervention group (P<0.001). Cigarette use increased in both groups in the past six months and 30 d but the increase in the past 30 d was higher in the intervention group (P<0.001). Quitting cigarette increased in the intervention group but decreased in the control group with a significant difference (P<0.001). In the past six months, the start of tobacco use, especially the hookah was significant in the control group, implying the need for urgent attention to smoking trend among the youth. Our results showed that intervention programs are effective in preventing tobacco use in nonsmokers than those who already smoke. Involving teachers in policies, and encouraging participation and cooperation among different authorities of community contribute to the control and prevention of tobacco use

Effectiveness of a Community and School-Based Intervention to Control and Prevent of Tobacco Use in Adolescents: A Field Randomized Controlled Trial

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The relationship between Work Engagement and Job Stress among Emergency Technicians of Markazi Province, Iran, in 2015

Several factors influence the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations, one of them is work engagement. Nowadays job stress has become one of the most costly and a common problem in the workplace. United Nations introduced job stress as wentieth-century disease. Emergency unit in hospitals is stressful environments with high working pressure. This study is a cross-sectional study to determine the most common stress factors and assess work engagement among emergency center technicians in Markazi Province in 2015. Data were collected by using three questionnaires containing demographic questionnaire, job stressors questionnaire and job engagement questionnaire (UWES-9 Scale. SPSS version 19 software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the patient care stressor had the maximum mean stress score (3.63±0.59) and physical stressors had the lowest mean stress score (3.26± 0.77). A significant relationship was observed between individual stressors and all aspects of work engagement and interpersonal stressors and vigour (P≤0.05). The results of this study showed that work engagement can have aneffect on job stress or job pressure. There was a negative association between work engagement and job stress

Dietary Regulation of miR-33b and miR-29a in Relationship to Metabolic Biomarkers of Glucose and Lipids in Obese Diabetic Women: A Randomized Clinical Controlled Study

Background: MicroRNAs have recently been introduced as epigenetic regulators of glucose and lipid metabolic pathways, which are impaired in obesity and diabetes. Objectives: We evaluated the effects of calorie-restricted diet therapy on the circulating levels of miR-33b and miR-29a in relationship to glucose and lipid metabolic parameters in obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: This randomized clinical controlled trial was performed on 30 eligible obese women with T2DM, randomly divided into two groups (control group, n = 15; diet therapy group, n = 15) for 10 weeks. Ten healthy women with normal weight were enrolled at the baseline of the study as controls. Demographic information, dietary intake, and anthropometric and biochemical indices were obtained before and after the study. Circulating miR-33b and miR-29a were assessed for all subjects using quantitative RT-PCR, and the fold change of each circulating miRNA was compared between groups. Results: The circulating levels of miR-29a and miR-33b in the diabetic women were higher (0.40-fold) and lower (1.43-fold), respectively, than normal levels. Diet therapy significantly increased the circulating level of miR-33b (P = 0.023, 0.97-fold upregulation) to normal levels. This increase was independently correlated with caloric restriction (95%CI: -0.004 to -0.0001, P = 0.022) and 2hPPBS (95%CI: -0.009 to -0.001, P = 0.035). No remarkable change was observed in circulating levels of miR-29a. Conclusions: Our findings introduced a novel therapeutic effect of diet therapy on circulating miRNAs in obese patients with T2DM. MiR-33b is an important therapeutic target in the treatment and prevention of T2DM and its complication

Six-year time-trend analysis of dyslipidemia among adults in Newfoundland and Labrador: findings from the laboratory information system between 2009 and 2014

Background: Dyslipidemia, an increased level of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and decreased level of high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. We examined the six-year trend of dyslipidemia in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), a Canadian province with a historically high prevalence of dyslipidemia. Methods: A serial cross-sectional study on all of the laboratory lipid tests available from 2009 to 2014 was performed. Dyslipidemia for every lipid component was defined using the Canadian Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyslipidemia. The annual dyslipidemia rates for each component of serum lipid was examined. A fixed and random effect model was applied to adjust for confounding variables (sex and age) and random effects (residual variation in dyslipidemia over the years and redundancies caused by individuals being tested multiple times during the study period). Results: Between 2009 and 2014, a total of 875,208 records (mean age: 56.9 ± 14.1, 47.6% males) containing a lipid profile were identified. The prevalence of HDL-C and LDL-C dyslipidemia significantly decreased during this period (HDL-C: 35.8% in 2009 [95% CI 35.5-36.1], to 29.0% in 2014 [95% CI: 28.8-29.2], P = 0.03, and LDL-C: 35.2% in 2009 [95% CI: 34.9-35.4] to 32.1% in 2014 [95% CI: 31.9-32.3], P = 0.02). A stratification by sex, revealed no significant trend for any lipid element in females; however, in men, the previously observed trends were intensified and a new decreasing trend in dyslipidemia of TC was appeared (TC: 34.1% [95% CI 33.7-34.5] to 32.3% [95%CI: 32.0-32.6], p < 0.02, HDL-C: 33.8% (95%CI: 33.3-34.2) to 24.0% (95% CI: 23.7-24.3)], P < 0.01, LDL-C: 32.9% (95%CI:32.5-33.3) to 28.6 (95%CI: 28.3-28.9), P < 0.001). Adjustment for confounding factors and removing the residual noise by modeling the random effects did not change the significance. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a significant downward trend in the prevalence of LDL-C, HDL-C, and TC dyslipidemia, exclusively in men. These trends could be the result of males being the primary target for cardiovascular risk management