Improving Cognitive Function with Nutritional Supplements in Aging: A Comprehensive Narrative Review of Clinical Studies Investigating the Effects of Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants, and Other Dietary Supplements.

Cognitive impairment and dementia are burgeoning public health concerns, especially given the increasing longevity of the global population. These conditions not only affect the quality of life of individuals and their families, but also pose significant economic burdens on healthcare systems. In this context, our comprehensive narrative review critically examines the role of nutritional supplements in mitigating cognitive decline. Amidst growing interest in non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive enhancement, this review delves into the efficacy of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other dietary supplements. Through a systematic evaluation of randomized controlled trials, observational studies, and meta-analysis, this review focuses on outcomes such as memory enhancement, attention improvement, executive function support, and neuroprotection. The findings suggest a complex interplay between nutritional supplementation and cognitive health, with some supplements showing promising results and others displaying limited or context-dependent effectiveness. The review highlights the importance of dosage, bioavailability, and individual differences in response to supplementation. Additionally, it addresses safety concerns and potential interactions with conventional treatments. By providing a clear overview of current scientific knowledge, this review aims to guide healthcare professionals and researchers in making informed decisions about the use of nutritional supplements for cognitive health.

The Effectiveness of Supplementation with Key Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants and Specific Nutritional Supplements in COPD-A Review.

Currently, an increasing amount of evidence supports the notion that vitamins C, D and E, carotenoids, and omega-3 fatty acids may protect against the progression of chronic respiratory diseases. Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) primarily affects the lung, it is often accompanied by extrapulmonary manifestations such as weight loss and malnutrition, skeletal muscle dysfunction, and an excess of harmful oxidants, which can lead to a decline in quality of life and possible death. Recently, the role of various vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in mitigating the effects of environmental pollution and smoking has received significant attention. Therefore, this review evaluates the most relevant and up-to-date evidence on this topic. We conducted a literature review between 15 May 2018 and 15 May 2023, using the electronic database PubMed. Our search keywords included COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, FEV1, supplementation: vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin B, omega-3, minerals, antioxidants, specific nutrient supplementations, clinical trials, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We focused on studies that measured the serum levels of vitamins, as these are a more objective measure than patient self-reports. Our findings suggest that the role of appropriate dietary supplements needs to be reconsidered for individuals who are predisposed to or at risk of these conditions.

Effectiveness and quality of life in lung cancer, pre-, post- and perioperative rehabilitation - A review.

Functional conditions like lung function and exercise capacity are important limiting factors of chest surgery in lung cancer with co-morbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other chronic respiratory diseases). Pulmonary rehabilitation has a favourable effect on the cardiovascular system, metabolism, respiratory and peripheral muscles and lung mechanics. Our aim was to assess the role of pre-, post- and peri-operative pulmonary rehabilitation in lung cancer in this review. We sought to size up the importance of pulmonary rehabilitation in patients undergoing surgery with or without (neo)adjuvant treatment, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, chemoradiotherapy, major physiological impairments and complications. Searches were performed in PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov databases using the terms "exercise", "rehabilitation", "small cell lung cancer", "non-small cell lung cancer", "exercise capacity", "chest surgery" and "quality of life" from inception to February 7th, 2022. Pulmonary rehabilitation has been recognized as an effective intervention to reduce lung cancer related symptoms and improve the pulmonary function, lung mechanics, chest kinematics, respiratory- and peripheral muscle function, physical activity and quality of life (QoL) of the patients. In conclusion, this review shows positive, highly encouraging and effective results of pulmonary rehabilitation in terms of the patients' lung function, functional mobility and quality of life. The tools for complex pulmonary rehabilitation have evolved considerably over the past two decades, thus this research has been conducted on a variety of studies about this subject and serves as a synthesis of the systematic and meta-analytic reviews.

Effects of omega-3 supplementation on quality of life, nutritional status, inflammatory parameters, lipid profile, exercise tolerance and inhaled medications in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: The omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have an anti-inflammatory effect, beneficial for allergies, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels and blood inflammatory parameters [C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)]. The aim of our cross-sectional study was to monitor omega-3 supplementation in patients with severe COPD and assess its association with quality of life, nutritional status, inflammatory parameters, lipid profile, comorbidities, exercise tolerance and inhaled medications. METHODS: Our questionnaire on dietary supplement habits and our validated self-completion questionnaires were filled in by 400 patients with COPD at the National Koranyi Institute of Pulmonology, Hungary, mean age 67 [61-73] years; forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) (ref%): 46 [34-58]; 47.5% male, 52.5% female. We used the disease-specific COPD Assessment Test (CAT) questionnaire to measure quality of life. RESULTS: More than half of the study participants (61%) did not consume fish or oilseeds at all. Nineteen patients (4.75%) took omega-3 supplementation regularly, mainly on medical advice (0.5 g/day). We observed significantly lower serum CRP levels [6.0 (1-7.3) vs. 9.7 (7.4-14.4); P=0.044], more favourable lipid profile [triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol] with higher mean body mass index (BMI) [28.1 (22.0-35.3) vs. 24.7 (24.5-30.1); P=0.118], better quality of life {CAT: 25 [21-30.5] vs. 26 [20-31]; P=0.519}, lower inhaled short-acting bronchodilators use [short-acting beta-agonists (SABAs): 6 (31.58) vs. 209 (54.86); P=0.047], lower number of exacerbations in the previous half year [0 (0-1) vs. 1 (0-2); P=0.023], and higher 6-minute walking distance (6MWD) {300 [177-387] vs. 251 [150-345]; P=0.120} in the group with omega-3 supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: PUFAs are anti-inflammatory and affect the immune system. Our study shows that omega-3 intake of COPD patients is insufficient, and there is an urgent need to develop new anti-inflammatory strategies because only one drug (such as corticosteroids) cannot ease the chronically progressive inflammatory process of COPD.

Metabolic consequences of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease / A krónikus obstruktív tüdobetegség metabolikus következményei.

Összefoglaló. Bevezetés: Krónikus obstruktív tüdobetegségben (COPD) az obesitas mellett a csökkent fizikai aktivitás nagymértékben fokozza a metabolikus szindróma kialakulásának valószínuségét. Célkituzés: Kutatásunk célja volt felmérni a metabolikus szindróma prevalenciáját COPD-ben, valamint azt, hogy milyen mértékben függ össze az életkorral, a nemmel, a társbetegségekkel, a tüdofunkció károsodásának mértékével, a tápláltsági állapottal, a fizikai terhelhetoséggel és az életminoséggel. Módszer: Keresztmetszeti vizsgálatot végeztünk az Országos Korányi Pulmonológiai Intézet Légzésrehabilitációs Osztályán fekvo betegek körében 2019. július 1. és december 31. között. A véletlenszeruen kiválasztott 300, 40 év feletti betegnek ismertük az antropometriai, légzésfunkciós vizsgálati eredményét és laboratóriumi paramétereit. Adatokat gyujtöttünk a dohányzási szokásokról, az elozo évi exacerbatiók számáról és a kortikoszteroidok használatáról is. Az életminoség mérésére a betegségspecifikus Szent György-féle Légzési Kérdoív magyar nyelvre validált változatát használtuk. A metabolikus szindrómát a Nemzetközi Diabetes Szövetség kritériumai alapján határoztuk meg. Eredmények: A metabolikus szindróma a betegek 72%-ánál fordult elo, férfi: 65,9% no: 77,2% (p = 0,031). A metabolikus szindrómás betegek esetében rövidebb 6 perces sétatávolságot mértünk ([m] 250 [150-330] vs. 295 [162-360]; p = 0,384), és szignifikánsan több volt az elozo évi exacerbatiók száma (3 [0-6] vs. 1 [1-2]; p<0,001) a nem metabolikus szindrómás betegekhez képest. A BMI-re történo stratifikáció után a metabolikus szindróma jelenléte nagyobb volt BMI≥25 kg/m2 esetén. A hasi elhízás, a magas vérnyomás, a hyperlipidaemia és a hyperglykaemia szignifikánsan gyakoribb volt BMI≥25 kg/m2 esetén (p<0,001). Következtetés: Eredményeink azt sugallják, hogy a metabolikus szindrómás betegekben megno az együttes morbiditási index, különösen azok körében, akik túlsúlyosak vagy elhízottak. Ezért a COPD-s betegekben nagyon fontos idoben felismerni és megfeleloen kezelni a metabolikus szindrómát. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(5): 185-191. INTRODUCTION: Both obesity and the lack of physical activity among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. OBJECTIVE: The goal of our study was to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among COPD patients and to examine its correlation with age, gender, comorbidities, lung function values, nutritional status, exercise capacity, and quality of life. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was performed at the Department of Pulmonary Rehabilitation of the Hungarian National Korányi Institute for Pulmonology between July 1st and December 31st, 2019. A total of 300 patients aged over 40 were selected at random. Anthropometric data were collected along with lung function values, laboratory parameters, smoking status, the number of exacerbations in the previous year, and the use of corticosteroids. Quality of life was measured by the validated Hungarian, COPD-specific Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation criteria. RESULTS: Metabolic syndrome affected 72% of COPD patients (male: 65.9%, female 77.2%; p = 0.031). In patients with metabolic syndrome, shorter 6-minute walking distance was measured ([m] 250 [150-330] vs. 295 [162-360]; p = 0.384) and the number of exacerbations in the previous year was significantly higher (3 [0-6] vs. 1 [1-2]; p<0.001) compared to patients with no metabolic syndrome. After stratification for BMI, metabolic syndrome was more frequent in the case of BMI≥25 kg/m2. Central adiposity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia were also significantly more frequent among patients with BMI≥25 kg/m2 (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the co-morbidity index increases in patients with metabolic syndrome, especially in overweight or obese patients. Therefore, early detection and appropriate treatment of metabolic syndrome in patients with COPD is very important. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(5): 185-191.

[Indications and perioperative results of completion pneumonectomy]. / A komplettáló pneumonectomia javallatai és perioperatív eredményei.

Introduction: Completion pneumonectomy (CP) means the removal of the entire residual lung tissue after previously performed lung resection. Mortality and morbidity of CP are higher when compared to those of standard pneumonectomy. In this article, we give an overview on indications and perioperative results of CP. Method: We analysed the perioperative results of CP performed during a period of 15 years in a retrospective manner, based on the patients' medical records, descriptions of surgeries and histological findings. We divided the indications into three groups: rescue surgery for complications in the early postoperative period (rescue: rCP), incomplete resection verified by histological results (pathological: pCP) and conventional surgeries performed in the late postoperative period (conventional: cCP). We classified the complications according to an international scale. Results: The overall surgery-related morbidity of 102 patients was 70.5% (minor: 36.27%, major: 34.23%), the mortality was 16.6%. There were no lethal complications during the surgical procedures. rCP: 24 patients (18 men, 6 women, 46-77 years, average 61.7 years). Intervals between operations: 10.87 days (0-32 days). Indications: necrosis or abscess formation (8 cases), bronchial fistula (5 cases), insufficient or blocked anastomosis (3 cases), massive haemoptysis (3 cases), intrathoracic bleeding (2 cases), non-expanding lung (3 cases). Overall morbidity: 79.19%. Nine patients died (37.5%). pCP: 7 patients (5 men, 2 women), 45-66 years (average: 56.3 years). Primary surgery: 6 lobectomies, 1 bilobectomy. Intervals between operations: 1-5 months (average: 2.84 months). Three patients did not develop complications, four had anaemia requiring blood transfusion, one empyema requiring fenestration, one died (14.28%) due to intrathoracic bleeding. There were no tumours in the removed lung tissues in cases of four patients. cCP: 71 patients (22 women, 44 men, 29-79 years (average: 60.3 years). Intervals between operations: 34 days - 40 years (average: 6.7 years). Histological findings of the previous surgeries: primary lung tumour (64 patients), metastases of tumours in other organs (1 patient), bronchiectasia (1 patient) and tuberculosis (5 patients). Indications of cCP: late bronchial fistula (2 patients), verified or suspected tumour (65 patients), other (4 patients). Histological findings with primary lung tumour in the patient's history: 32 new tumours, 15 local recurrences, 9 metastases, 2 metastases or recurrences, 7 non-malignant. Histological findings without malignancy in the patient's history: 3 new tumours, 1 tuberculosis and 2 chronic inflammations. Overall morbidity was 76.2%, mortality within 30 days or in the hospital 9.8%. Conclusions: Morbidity and mortality are the highest after rCP, but these patients usually do not have any other chance for healing. We have not performed repeat surgery for incomplete tumour resection in the last 10 years. Comparing our results to the international data, the morbidity after cCP is high, the mortality is similar.

[Relationship of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and nutritional status - clinical observations]. / Krónikus légzoszervi betegek tápláltsági állapotának vizsgálata ­ klinikai megfigyelések.

Introduction: The increased metabolism of nutrients and the low energy intake may lead to malnutrition among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Aim: The goal of our study was to examine the nutritional status of our population aged over 40, and its relationship with the severity of the disease. Method: We conducted a retrospective study at the National Korányi Institute of Pulmonology in 2017. Pulmonary function and anthropometric data were obtained from the electronic health record system. Inclusion criteria were age over 40 and the diagnosis of COPD. Severity of disease was assessed by forced expiration volume and categorized according to GOLD stages. We used SPSS Statistics V22.0 for data analysis. Results: The mean age of participants was 66; 49.3% were men, 50.7% were women. Average BMI was 27.14 kg/m², with values comprising cachexia and severe obesity. According to the FEV1%pred results of the 3236 patients, 30% fell in the GOLD I, 40% in the GOLD II, 23% in the GOLD III, and 7% in the GOLD IV categories. Pearson coefficient found positive correlation between FEV1 and nutritional status (H = 0.2297, r = 0.1401), specifically between severity of cachexia and severity of disease. The analysis of variance showed significant correlation between severity of disease and nutritional status; patients with higher BMI had better pulmonary function. Conclusion: Malnutrition had an adverse effect on pulmonary functions and performance of respiratory muscles, whereas higher BMI had a positive effect on FEV1. Our results suggest that BMI could be used as a lung function prognostic indicator for COPD patients. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(23): 908-913.

[Risk stratification before thoracic surgery, perioperative pulmonary rehabilitation]. / A mellkassebészeti mutéti teherbíró képesség megítélése, perioperatív légzésrehabilitáció.

INTRODUCTION: Besides the oncology and operative surgical technics, functional aspects influence the operability of lung cancer. Preoperative risk stratification, evaluation of postoperative complications needs to be considered. AIM: To review international literature and experiences of our institute. METHOD: We focused the literature of risk stratification of thoracic surgery. Lung function, lung mechanics, chest kinematics, exercise physiology were considered. Effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation for cardiovascular system, lung mechanics, muscles, exercise capacity and quality of life were evaluated. Laboratory parameters, comorbidities, obesity, cachexia, smoking cessation were considered. RESULTS: Elevated blood sugar, kidney function, reduced albumin level increased the risk. COPD, sleep apnoea, heart failure, obesity and cachexia influences the outcome. Smoking cessation may reduce postoperative complications. Controlled breathing technics, chest wall mobilization, training have favourable effects. Psychosocial support and dietetics are important. CONCLUSIONS: Risk stratification is supported by laboratory parameters, lung function, oxygen uptake and comorbidities. Pulmonary rehabilitation can improve functionality and quality of life. Orv Hetil. 2017; 158(50): 1989-1997.