Health-oriented knowledge and behaviour in proper nutrition on the basis of high school youth examinations

Wstęp. W rozwoju człowieka ogromny wpływ odgrywa sposób odżywiania. Żywienie wpływa na rozwój biologiczny, budowę, skład i rozmiary ciała, stan zdrowia, występowanie chorób i jakość życia. Dlatego tak dużą rolę przypisuje się znajomości i przestrzeganiu zasad prawidłowego żywienia. Młodzież, nieprawidłowo odżywiając się, stwarza zagrożenie dla swojego właściwego rozwoju, zarówno w okresie dojrzewania, jak i późniejszych etapach życia. Celem badań była ocena stanu wiedzy młodzieży szkół ponadgimnazjalnych na temat zasad prawidłowego odżywiania oraz wpływu mediów i środowiska na kształtowanie zachowań prozdrowotnych badanej młodzieży. Materiał i metody. Badaniom ankietowym poddano 50 osobową grupę młodzieży z drugich klas licealnych szkół powiatu żyrardowskie-go. W ankiecie pytano zarówno o stan wiedzy młodzieży na temat prawidłowego odżywiania, jak również źródła tej wiedzy i efekty jej wykorzystania w dostępnych programach prozdrowotnych. Ponadto badano wpływ środowiska domowego i rówieśników na sposób odżywiania. Wyniki i wnioski. Wyniki badań wskazują, że młodzież w okresie pokwitania nie posiada wystarczającej wiedzy na temat zasad prawidłowego odżywiania, a środowisko rodzinne nie kształtuje właściwych nawyków żywieniowych i kultury spożywania posiłków. Ponadto stwierdzono, że na błędy żywieniowe młodzieży duży wpływ mają media i środowisko rówieśników.Introduction. Nutrition has an important impact on human development. Nourishment affects biological development, the anatomy, contents and size of the body, the person’s condition as well as the occurrence of diseases and the quality of life. That is the reason why knowing the rules of proper nourishment and abiding by them is considered so essential. Youth, if subject to inappropriate nutrition, may risk their proper development during adolescence and later on in their lives. The purpose of the study was to assess the high school youths’ level of knowledge on the rules of proper nutrition as well as the influence of media and society on the health-oriented behaviour of the youth under research. The material and methods.50 youths of high school second grade in Żyrardów district were subjected to a questionnaire. The survey in-quired about both the level of knowledge on proper nourishment as well as the sources of it and the effects of putting it to use in available health-oriented programs. Moreover, the influence of the home environment and peers on nutrition was investigated. The results and conclusions.The study results indicate that youth in puberty has no sufficient knowledge on proper nutrition and their family environment fails to shape proper dietary habits and eating culture. Moreover, it has been observed that improper nutrition of youth is largely affected by media and peer environment

Dolichol: A Component of the Cellular Antioxidant Machinery

Dolichol, an end product of the mevalonate pathway, has been proposed a biomarker of aging, but its biological role, not to mention its catabolism, has not been fully understood. UV-B radiation was used to induce oxidative stress in isolated rat hepatocytes by the collagenase method. Effects on dolichol, phospholipids-bound polyunsaturated fatty acids (PL PUFA) and known lipid soluble antioxidants [coenzyme Q (CoQ) and α-tocopherol] were studied. The increase in oxidative stress was detected by a probe sensitive to reactive oxygen species (ROS). Peroxidation of lipids was assessed by measuring the release of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Dolichol, CoQ and α-tocopherol were assessed by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), PL PUFA by gas-liquid chromatography (GC). UV-B radiation caused an immediate increase in ROS as well as lipid peroxidation and a simultaneous decrease in the levels of dolichol and lipid soluble antioxidants. Decrease in dolichol paralleled changes in CoQ levels and was smaller than that in α-tocopherol. The addition of mevinolin, a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase (HMG-CoAR), magnified the loss of dolichol and was associated with an increase in TBARS production. Changes in PL PUFA were minor. These findings highlight that oxidative stress has very early and similar effects on dolichol and lipid soluble antioxidants. Lower levels of dolichol are associated with enhanced peroxidation of lipids, which suggest that dolichol may have a protective role in the antioxidant machinery of cell membranes and perhaps be a key to understanding some adverse effects of statin therapy

Double Bond Stereochemistry Influences the Susceptibility of Short‑Chain Isoprenoids and Polyprenols to Decomposition by Thermo‑Oxidation

Alcohols are common constituents of living cells. They are usually assigned a role in the adaptation of the cell to environmental stimuli, and this process might give rise to their oxidation by reactive oxygen species. Moreover, cellular isoprenoids may also undergo various chemical modifications resulting from the physicochemical treatment of the tissues, e.g., heating during food processing. Susceptibility of isoprenoid alcohols to heat treatment has not been studied in detail so far. In this study, isoprenoid alcohols differing in the number of isoprene units and geometry of the double bonds, β-citronellol, geraniol, nerol, farnesol, solanesol and Pren-9, were subjected to thermo-oxidation at 80 °C. Thermo-oxidation resulted in the decomposition of the tested short-chain isoprenoids as well as medium-chain polyprenols with simultaneous formation of oxidized derivatives, such as hydroperoxides, monoepoxides,diepoxides and aldehydes, and possible formation of oligomeric derivatives. Oxidation products were monitored by GC-FID, GC-MS, ESI-MS and spectrophotometric methods. Interestingly, nerol, a short-chain isoprenoid with a double bond in the cis (Z) configuration, was more oxidatively stable than its trans (E) isomer, geraniol. However, the opposite effect was observed for medium-chain polyprenols, since Pren-9 (di-trans-poly-cis-prenol) was more susceptible to thermo-oxidation than its all-trans isomer, solanesol. Taken together, these results experimentally confirm that both short- and long-chain polyisoprenoid alcohols are prone to thermo-oxidation