The nutrition and therapeutic potential of millets: an updated narrative review.

Millets are ancient small grains grown in arid and semiarid regions of the world. They are staple food for many people in Asia and Africa. They are abundant sources of minerals and vitamins, giving them the name Nutricereals. Moreover, millets contain valuable phytochemicals that impart therapeutic properties for various disorders and diseases, thus giving them nutraceutical value. A wide array of biochemical compounds are present in the plant parts as well as the grains. In the oldest texts of medicine in India and China, millets are mentioned for use for their medicinal value. There has been expanding interest and emerging facts about millets and their therapeutic uses. Ample evidence shows that consumption of millets amounts to correction of life style and metabolic disorders. Therapeutic properties of millets can be viewed in two ways, supplementary nutrition through minerals and vitamins, and therapeutic value through the presence of phytochemicals and specialty compounds that include flavonoids, phenolics, anthocyanidins and others that have antioxidant potential. Millets are gluten free, have low glycemic index and the phytochemicals aid in correction of lifestyle disorders and prevention of ailments like carcinogenesis. Supplementary benefits include treatment of anemia and calcium deficiency especially for pregnant women and young children. With the improvements in analytical methods for detection of various compounds, it is possible to identify the compound-specific genotypes in millets that can cater to the pharmacy industry. End-use specific genotypes can be bred to meet the demand. Millets being climate resilient, can contribute to a healthier life and better world through economic usage of natural resources.

Rapid onset of action of levodopa in restless legs syndrome: a double-blind, randomized, multicenter, crossover trial.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of levodopa plus benserazide in the treatment of restless legs syndrome (RLS), in terms of the frequency of periodic limb movements (PLMs), objective and subjective criteria of sleep, onset of action, and withdrawal effects. DESIGN: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, crossover trial, with two 4-week treatment periods. SETTING: Outpatient units of three specialist centers in Germany. PATIENTS: Eligible patients had to fulfill the diagnostic criteria of the International RLS Study Group and have sleep disturbances and PLMs during sleep shown on polysomnography at screening. Thirty-five patients were recruited, of whom 32 (13 men, 19 women) completed the study. INTERVENTIONS: Patients received a single dose of standard-release levodopa/benserazide 100/25 mg or placebo at bedtime each night for 4 weeks, before crossing over to receive the alternative treatment for a further 4 weeks; the dose could be doubled if required. The average dosages were 159 +/- 31 mg of levodopa and 1.56 +/- 0.29 capsules of placebo. RESULTS: Levodopa/benserazide significantly reduced the number of PLMs per hour (p<0.0001), increased the time in bed without limb movements (p<0.0001), and improved subjective quality of sleep (p=0.0004). The onset of action was rapid after the first dose, and full efficacy was achieved within the first few days of therapy; these improvements disappeared immediately when treatment was discontinued. Levodopa/benserazide treatment was well tolerated and safe. CONCLUSIONS: Levodopa/benserazide is effective and safe in the treatment of RLS. Objective and subjective measures of sleep improved rapidly after the first dose. RLS symptoms recurred immediately after treatment was discontinued.

[A psychophysiological analysis of the cognitive tempo by means of evoked potentials]. / Psikhofiziologicheskii analiz kognitivnogo tempa metodom vyzvannykh potentsialov.

A new approach to measure the speed of cognitive behaviour is introduced. The decomposition of reaction time allows to identify different stages: perception, comparison steps and motoric organization. For this reason the additive factor method and the analysis of event-related potentials is used. The results show specific decelerations in elderly subjects and alcoholics. The application of the method in clinical psychodiagnostic and psychopharmacology is discussed.

[Automatic sleep analysis. I. Scoring of parameters]. / Automatische Schlafanalyse--I. Messwerterfassung.

EEG, EOG, EMG and motility are recorded and preprocessed by hardware filtering of EEG and hardware detection of sigma spindles, rapid eye movements (REMs) and delta-waves (greater than 45 microV). After AD-conversion calculation of mean values and smoothing, the sleep-wake-process can be represented by the time-curves of 8 parameters: mean amplitudes per epoch (30 s) of EMG, motility and EEG (in the delta- alpha- and beta-band), delta-time (time/epoch of counted delta-waves) and presence or absence of spindles and REMs per epoch. These parameters can be presented graphically or stored for further analysis of sleep stages, sleep structure or sleep periodicity.

[Characteristics of sleep in abstinent alcoholics. A comparison of alcohol- and age-induced reduction of deep sleep]. / Besonderheiten des Schlafes bei abstinenten Alkoholikern Vergleich alkohol- und alterungsbedingter Tiefschlafreduktion.

Polygraphic sleep recordings were performed in 12 sober alcoholic patients, 8 young normals and 12 healthy elderly subjects. An automatic sleep analysis including two different methods (standard and adaptive) of SWS scoring was used. The standard method is based on amplitude dependent rules according to Rechtschaffen and Kales. The basis for classification of SWS in the adaptive method is the relative increase of the integrated delta-activity during NREM sleep. Whereas in young and elderly normal subjects the method used has no influence on the duration of SWS during the night, the amount of SWS in alcoholic patients is significantly higher when applying the adaptive sleep analysis compared with the results of the standard method. Alcoholics show the lowest level of integrated delta activity during NREM and also the shortest duration of SWS resulting from the standard sleep analysis. On the contrary the relative dynamic of EEG synchronization and the duration of SWS measured by the adaptive sleep analysis are comparable with the values of normal subjects. The general decrease of the delta activity during sleep in sober alcoholics is assumed to be not a reflection of the reduction of SWS.

[Automatic sleep analysis--II. Determination of sleep stages]. / Automatische Schlafanalyse--II. Schlafstadienbestimmung.

The presented automatic sleep analysis is based on the time courses of the mean amplitudes of EEG (delta, beta and alpha bands), EMG and motility and specific patterns (spindles, REMs, delta waves greater than 40 microV) detected automatically. The interindividual variability of the parameters is taken into consideration by interactively determining the threshold levels. Sleep stages are classified for every epoch using context free decision rules according to the manual of Rechtschaffen and Kales. The resulting cyclograms are smoothed and corrected using context sensitive rules which considers the successive epochs and the probability of stage transitions.