Influence of diet enriched with conjugated linoleic acids on their distribution in tissues of rats with DMBA induced tumors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Backround</p> <p>Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are a group of positional and geometric isomers of linoleic acid with proven beneficial influence on health. They show e.g. anticarcinogenic, antiobesity, and antiatherogenic effect. Milk, dairy products and meat of poligastric animals are their most valuable dietary sources, with cis-9, trans-11 CLA (RA - rumenic acid) being the predominant isomer. Dietary supplements with CLA became very popular, mainly among the overweight and bodybuilders.</p> <p>The aim of this study was to examine the influence of the food supplements with conjugated linoleic acid on carcinogenesis in female Sprague-Dawley rats and evaluation of CLA and other fatty acids distribution in their bodies.</p> <p>Animals were divided into four groups depending on the diet supplementation (oil or Bio-C.L.A. (Pharma Nord Denmark) given intragastrically) and presence or absence of carcinogenic agent (7,12-dimethylbenz[a]antharcene). Animals were decapitated at 21st week of experiment and serum and microsomes were extracted.</p> <p>Results and conclusions</p> <p>The mammary tumours (adenocarcinoma) occurred in groups treated with DMBA. Diet enriched with CLA decreased the cancer morbidity (67% in Bio-C.L.A. compared to 88% in oil) and delayed the cancer induction (p = 0.0018). There were no differences in body and organs weight.</p> <p>The supplement used in the study was a mixture of several fatty acids with the greatest proportion of CLA isomers: trans-10, cis-12 (33%) and cis-9, trans-11 (31%). Both of them were present in tissues but the content of rumenic acid was greater. Dietary supplementation had also significant impact on other fatty acids content, both in serum and in microsomes.</p

Rozpowszechnienie palenia tytoniu oraz palenie bierne w populacyjnych badaniach polskiego programu cindi w latach 1991–2007 – analiza porównawcza

Prevalence of tobacco use and environmental tobacco smoke in polish population research. WHO-CINDI Programme in 1991–2007This article is a report from comparison surveys, carried out in connection with WHO-CINDI Programme during the years 1991–2007. The analysis was based on random sampling tests concerning big Polish cities’ inhabitants, all in all almost 11.5 thousand respondents. Taking everything into consideration, it has been established, that:1. Regular smoking frequency becomes smaller (the effect of implemented prophylactic programmes, a so-called ‘intervention variable’).2. Still, propagation of environmental smoking is an alarming   phenomenon, however it is definitely improving. Despite the fact, that more and more respondents are living in a free-smoking zone, each 5-6 adult city inhabitant spends over 5 hours a day in a room full of smoke.3. Within time passing, as a result of quitting an addiction, a belief concerning harmful smoking consequences grows. This tendency is not yet sufficiently justified. Becoming alarmed with the concerning phenomenon is definitely not enough when making an opinion in this matter

Are you confident enough to act? Individual differences in action control are associated with post-decisional metacognitive bias

The art of making good choices and being consistent in executing them is essential for having a successful and fulfilling life. Individual differences in action control are believed to have a crucial impact on how we make choices and whether we put them in action. Action-oriented people are more decisive, flexible and likely to implement their intentions in the face of adversity. In contrast, state-oriented people often struggle to commit to their choices and end up second-guessing themselves. Here, we employ a model-based computational approach to study the underlying cognitive differences between action and state-oriented people in simple binary-choice decision tasks. In Experiment 1 we show that there is little-to-no evidence that the two groups differ in terms of decision-related parameters and strong evidence for differences in metacognitive bias. Action-oriented people exhibit greater confidence in the correctness of their choices as well as slightly elevated judgement sensitivity, although no differences in performance are present. In Experiment 2 we replicate this effect and show that the confidence gap generalizes to value-based decisions, widens as a function of difficulty and is independent of deliberation interval. Furthermore, allowing more time for confidence deliberation indicated that state-oriented people focus more strongly on external features of choice. We propose that a positive confidence bias, coupled with appropriate metacognitive sensitivity, might be crucial for the successful realization of intentions in many real-life situations. More generally, our study provides an example of how modelling latent cognitive processes can bring meaningful insight into the study of individual differences

Socioeconomic and sex differences in health care utilisation, counselling on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, and CVD risk factors control in the Polish population : the WOBASZ II Study

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the causes of inequality in health care utilisation. There is no information whether differences in SES influence the frequency of counselling on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors or risk factors control. Aim: We sought to assess the relationship between SES and the frequency of medical consultations, hospitalisations, counselling on CVD risk factors, and successful CVD risk factors control. Methods: WOBASZ II was a cross-sectional study targeting a representative sample of the Polish population. Trained nurses interviewed participants using a standard questionnaire, collecting information on education, income, self-rated health, and health care utilisation. Blood samples were collected according to standardised methods. Results: A total of 2303 men and 2848 women were included in the analysis. Compared to those with low SES, men with medium or high SES were 68% and 46% more likely to use medical consultations, respectively. Women with medium and high SES used medical consultations 60% more often than those with low SES. Men with medium and high SES had blood pressure measured more often (by 31% and 43%, respectively), and more frequently received nutritional (by 45% and 59%, respectively) and physical activity counselling (by 92% and 122%, respectively). No differences in CVD risk factors control were found. Conclusions: High SES was associated with more frequent medical visits in both sexes. The associations of SES with counselling on CVD risk factors substantially differed between the sexes in favour of men with high SES. However, more complex consultations in high SES men were not followed by better CVD risk factors control

How does the risk of cardiovascular death and cardiovascular risk factor profiles differ between socioeconomic classes in Poland: A country in transition

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) is an important factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) development. A decline in death rate from CVD among subjects with high SES is observed in developed countries. The aim of this study was to assess differences in cardiovascular risk (CV) between socioeconomic classes in Poland, a country currently in transition. Methods: A sample of 15,200 people was drawn. A three stage selection was performed. Eventually, 6170 patients were examined (2013/2014). Data was collected using a questionnaire in face-to-face interviews, anthropometric data and blood tests were also obtained. Education was categorized asincomplete secondary, secondary and higher than secondary school. Monthly income per person was categorized as low (≤ 1000 PLN), medium (1001–2000 PLN) and high (≥ 2001 PLN). Education and income groups were analyzed by prevalence of CVD risk factors and high CVD risk (SCORE ≥ 5%). Results: Higher education was associated with lower prevalence of all analyzed CVD risk factors (p &lt; 0.001), having the highest income with lower prevalence of hypertension, currently smoking, obesity and lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Multivariable analysis showed that frequency of high CVD risk decreased with increasing education level (OR 0.61; 95% CI 0.49–0.76; p &lt; 0.01), a similar favorable impact of higher income on high CVD risk was demonstrated in the whole group (OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.67–0.99; p = 0.04). Conclusions: Socioeconomic status is an independent predictor of high CV risk of death. A favorable impact on the prevalence of high CV risk was demonstrated for education and partly for income in the whole group. It may reflect a transition being undergone in Poland, moreover, it predicts how socioeconomic factors may generate health inequalities in other transitioning countries