Oral nutritional supplement prevents weight loss and reduces side effects in patients in advanced lung cancer chemotherapy.

Weight loss in patients with cancer is caused by cancer cachexia and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Recent developments in antiemetic drugs have substantially improved nausea and vomiting, but this intervention did not reduce weight loss and other more severe side effects of chemotherapy, like anorexia, weakness, cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, and pain. This study aimed to investigate the effects of nutrition intervention with a food supplement, during chemotherapy in patients with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients received individualized nutrition counseling by a registered dietitian and were provided with oral supplements of Texidrofolico® for 90 days. Bodyweight and the mentioned other side effects were evaluated at baseline and after 90 days of intervention. To assess the effects of this dietary supplement, a total of 30 patients were retrospectively enrolled as controls, and the bodyweight and change in side effects of chemotherapy were compared with those observed in 30 Texidrofolico®-treated patients. After 90-day intervention, by oral supplement of Texidrofolico®, the patients, during the course of cytotoxic chemotherapy, showed an improved quality of life and not significant weight and BMI loss respect the control group. Furthermore, the number of patients, treated with Texidrofolico® who maintained or increased their body weight, after 90 days of treatment was significantly higher than in the control group. The effects of treatment with the food supplement have also been studied from a metabolic point of view. It was possible to find that one of the known markers of tumor growth, plasma polyamines, was reduced after the treatment. A possible relationship between these biogenic amines and the folate cycle is discussed. In conclusion, early intensive nutrition intervention with oral supplements of Texidrofolico® during chemotherapy of NSCLC patients prevents weight loss and it is beneficial for their quality of life.

Therapeutic Potential of a Biodynamic Supplement on Skin Pressure Ulcers: A Randomized Clinical Study.

Pressure ulcers (PUs) are a debilitating and often painful condition. They are localized lesions on the skin and/or underlying tissues and are common in the elderly, people with mobility difficulties, diabetics, and vascular disease or malnutrition, as well as in those requiring intensive or palliative care. The prevention and treatment of PUs involve strategies to optimize hydration, circulation, and nutrition. Nutrition plays a key role in pressure ulcer care because wounds require macronutrients and micronutrients to heal. Reports relating to the effectiveness of "Complementary Enzyme Therapy" also in the vulnological field led us to this study, the aim of which was to test the activity of a biodynamic food supplement (Citozym®) rich in carbohydrates, vitamins, and amylase and lactase and characterized by marked antioxidant activity. Citozym® administered topically and/or systemically, and in particular in both administrations, in patients suffering from Pus, has shown a marked reduction in bedsores and, in many cases, complete healing. Furthermore, it was possible to observe a lower incidence of side effects compared to conventional therapies. The results obtained, confirmed by various tests and recognized by the scientific community, allow us to conclude that treatment with Citozym® could represent a new and effective strategy for the treatment of PUs.

Telerehabilitation in response to constrained physical distance: an opportunity to rethink neurorehabilitative routines.

Ensuring proper dosage of treatment and repetition over time is a major challenge in neurorehabilitation. However, a requirement of physical distancing to date compromises their achievement. While mostly associated to COVID-19, physical distancing is not only required in a pandemic scenario, but also advised for several clinical conditions (e.g. immunocompromised individuals) or forced for specific social contexts (e.g. people living in remote areas worldwide). All these contexts advocate for the implementation of alternative healthcare models. The objective of this perspective is to highlight the benefits of remote administration of rehabilitative treatment, namely telerehabilitation, in counteracting physical distancing barriers in neurorehabilitation. Sustaining boosters of treatment outcome, such as compliance, sustainability, as well as motivation, telerehabilitation may adapt to multiple neurological conditions, with the further advantage of a high potential for individualization to patient's or pathology's specificities. The effectiveness of telerehabilitation can be potentiated by several technologies available to date: virtual reality can recreate realistic environments in which patients may bodily operate, wearable sensors allow to quantitatively monitor the patient's performance, and signal processing may contribute to the prediction of long-term dynamics of patient recovery. Telerehabilitation might spark its advantages far beyond the mere limitation of physical distancing effects, mitigating criticalities of daily neurorehabilitative practice, and thus paving the way to the envision of mixed models of care, where hospital-based procedures are complementarily integrated with telerehabilitative ones.

Reduction in Fatigue Symptoms Following the Administration of Nutritional Supplements in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

Despite recent advances in immune-modulatory drugs, pharmacological therapies have been proven ineffective in severe presentations of multiple sclerosis (MS), including secondary progressive MS. At present, therapeutic interventions' performance is primarily focused on ameliorating symptoms to improve the patient's quality of life (QOL). Among complementary treatments, nutrition has been considered a decisive factor to control symptoms and enhance the wellness of MS patients. Although no special diets are associated with MS, the impact of diet and dietary supplements on the course of progressive forms of the disease has been studied during the last few years. Fatigue is among the most common and disabling symptoms reported by MS patients. Fatigue has been defined in the Multiple Sclerosis Council for Clinical Practice Guidelines (MSCCPG, 1998) as a "subjective lack of physical and/or mental energy that the individual perceives as an interference with habitual and desired activities". This study aimed to compare the psychometric functioning of the "Fatigue Severity Scale" (FSS) and the "Modified Fatigue Impact Scale" (MFIS) in our sample of people with MS. Specifically, during chronic treatment, the change in these two parameters with two vitamin-rich dietary supplements (Citozym® and Ergozym®) was evaluated. The impact of these nutritional supplements revealed differences in antioxidant and anti-inflammatory parameters among the volunteers in the treatment group, with a subsequent improvement in fatigue. In conclusion, the results obtained have confirmed the effectiveness of complementary nutritional therapies, evaluated essentially based on hematological biomarkers, through which it is possible to act on disability to improve the QOL of MS patients.