Assessment of Nutritional and Depression Status in Free-Living Elderly in Tabriz, Northwest Iran

Background: Malnutrition and depression are the common health problems in elderly population. Poor nutrition might have a strong effect on the incidence of depression. The aims of this study were to assess the nutritional and depression status and the possibly relationship between these variables in the urban freeliving elderly in Tabriz, northwestern Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 184 elderly people (male=97; female=87) with age 60 years or elder in 2012. All subjects entered to the study voluntarily from those attending to daily care centers for elderly people. Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) tool and Geriatric Depression Score (GDS) were used to evaluate nutritional status and depression scores, respectively. Continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD) and qualitative data were presented as frequency (percent). Spearman’s correlation was employed to determine the relationship between variables. Results: Up to 50% of subjects had poor nutrition status. About 14% of elderly people had serve depression and 28.3% had mild depression. There was a positive significant correlation between MNA and GDS tests in both gender (r=0.416; P<0.001). Conclusion: There was no acceptable level of nutritional status and mental health in the elderly people. Further studies are needed to evaluate the other factors that can effect on the quality of life in this population

Effects of Zinc Supplementation on the Anthropometric Measurements, Lipid Profiles and Fasting Blood Glucose in the Healthy Obese Adults

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of zinc supplementation on anthropometric measures, improving lipid profile biomarkers, and fasting blood glucose level in obese people. Methods: This randomized, double- blind clinical trial was carried out on 60 obese participants in the 18-45 age range for one month. The participants were randomly divided into the intervention group, who received 30 mg/d zinc gluconate, and the placebo group who received 30mg/d starch. Anthropometric measurements (body mass index (BMI), weight and waist circumference) were recorded before and at the end of study. Lipid profile biomarkers and fasting blood glucose were determined using enzymatic procedure. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) test was run to compare the post-treatment values of the two groups, and t-test was conducted to compare within group changes. Results: Serum zinc concentration was increased significantly in intervention group (p=0.024). BMI and body weight was significantly decreased (p=0.030 and p=0.020, respectively). Lipid profile biomarkers and fating blood glucose did not change significantly but triglyceride level was significantly decreased (p=0.006) in the intervention group. Conclusion: The obtained results indicate that zinc supplementation improves BMI, body weight, and triglyceride concentration without considerable effects on lipid profile and glucose level. Zinc can be suggested as a suitable supplementation therapy for obese people, but more studies are needed to verify the results

The review of the relationship between UCP2 and obesity: Focusing on inflammatory-obesity

Understanding the obesity-related genes may provide future therapeutic strategies to modulate disease progression. UCP2 separates oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) from ATP production in the inner mitochondria. Figure 1 shows the differences among UCP1, 2, 3. The main role of UCP2 is controlling the metabolism of energy in the cells [1-3]. Besides that, the expression of UCP2 is associated with chronic inflammation due to reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this regard, in injured cells and tissues, ROS could be decreased by reducing the proton motor force by the anti-inflammatory effect of UCP2 [4]