Association between coffee or tea drinking and Barrett's esophagus or esophagitis: an Italian study.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Only a few papers have treated of the relationship between Barrett's esophagus (BE) or erosive esophagitis (E) and coffee or tea intake. We evaluated the role of these beverages in BE and E occurrence. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Patients with BE (339), E (462) and controls (619) were recruited. Data on coffee and tea and other individual characteristics were collected using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: BE risk was higher in former coffee drinkers, irrespective of levels of exposure (cup per day; ⩽1: OR=3.76, 95% CI 1.33-10.6; >1: OR=3.79, 95% CI 1.31-11.0; test for linear trend (TLT) P=0.006) and was higher with duration (>30 years: OR=4.18, 95% CI 1.43-12.3; TLT P=0.004) and for late quitters, respectively (⩽3 years from cessation: OR=5.95, 95% CI 2.19-16.2; TLT P<0.001). The risk of BE was also higher in subjects who started drinking coffee later (age >18 years: OR=6.10, 95% CI 2.15-17.3). No association was found in current drinkers, but for an increased risk of E in light drinkers (<1 cup per day OR =1.85, 95% CI 1.00-3.43).A discernible risk reduction of E (about 20%, not significant) and BE (about 30%, P<0.05) was observed in tea drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Our data were suggestive of a reduced risk of BE and E with tea intake. An adverse effect of coffee was found among BE patients who had stopped drinking coffee. Coffee or tea intakes could be indicative of other lifestyle habits with protective or adverse impact on esophageal mucosa.

Mindfulness trait, eating behaviours and body uneasiness: a case-control study of binge eating disorder.

BACKGROUND: Binge eating disorder (BED) is a complex and multifaceted eating disorder, and the literature indicates that BED patients show greater difficulty in identifying and making sense of emotional states, and that they have limited access to emotion regulation strategies. Findings show many links between mindfulness and emotional regulation, however there has been no previous research on mindfulness traits in BED patients. METHOD: One hundred fifty BED patients (N=150: women=98, men=52; age 49.3±4.1) were matched for gender, age, marital status and educational level with 150 non-bingeing obese and 150 normal-weight subjects. All were assessed with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Binge Eating Scale (BES), Objective bulimic episodes (EDE-OBEs) and Body Uneasiness Test (BUT). For all the participants past or current meditation experience was an exclusion criteria. RESULTS: Findings showed that Mindfulness-global, Non reactivity to experience, Acting with awareness, Describing with words and Observation of experience scores were significantly lower in BED than control groups (p<0.05). However, on the mindfulness measures, the obese control group did not differ from the normal weight control group. Moreover, correlations showed that mindfulness was more widely negatively correlated with the BED's OBEs, BES and BUT-GSI scores. Meanwhile, binge eating behaviours, frequency and severity (OBEs and BES) were more negatively correlated with action (Nonreactivity- to-experience and Acting-with-awareness scores). Body Uneasiness was more negatively correlated with mental processes (Describing-with-words and Observation-ofexperience) and mindfulness features. CONCLUSION: Implications on understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of problematic eating in BED were considered. Moreover, clinical considerations on treatment targets of mindfulnessbased eating awareness training were discussed.

Fire-eater's pneumonitis.

The authors report a case of acute respiratory failure that fulfils the diagnostic criteria for fire-eater's pneumonitis; pathological features, usually described only in experimental works on animals, are also discussed.

Immunostimulating effect of oral glutamine.

Glutamine represents the principal metabolic substrate for all rapidly proliferating cells. Since part of the glutamine efficacy could be related to immunoregulating properties, we assessed the effects of orally administered glutamine on serum interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels and intestinal T-cell populations in 48 athymic (nude) mice. Twenty-four mice received a standard diet enriched by glutamine (added to drinking water at a 4% concentration), while the other 24 served as the control group and received the same diet without glutamine. In glutamine-fed animals, we observed a marked increase in IL-2 concentrations after 10 days of treatment in comparison with control group and a modest but significant increase in intestinal T-cell counts. These results suggest that oral glutamine is able to exert local and systemic immunostimulating activity that could be of relevance in the prevention of gut integrity and immune defense loss associated, for example, with trauma, surgery, and starvation.

Low folate levels in the cognitive decline of elderly patients and the efficacy of folate as a treatment for improving memory deficits.

The relevance of low folate levels as determinants of cognitive deficits and the usefulness of folate supplementation in the treatment of cognitive deficits was reviewed from the literature. Over 40 papers and book chapters published in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish were examined. This represents those papers published in the international literature in the last 10 years which were identified by various key words including folate, cognition and aging (or ageing). Among these papers, only 13 articles specifically addressed issues relevant to the criteria adopted for this review. The remaining papers were principally concerned with depression and or with other pathologies of the aged associated with folate deficiency. Although the specific role of low folate levels in the physiopathology of dementia is still under debate, a growing consensus is emerging in the literature where low folate as well as cobalamin levels in aged patients with cognitive deficits are being considered as a sign of functional problems in the absorption and utilization of vitamins, and not merely as a sign of bad eating habits. In studies where folate compounds were evaluated for treatment effects, the results of a majority of investigations indicated that folate treatment was effective in lessening cognitive deficits. Treatment efficacy, however, has not yet been sufficiently demonstrated by these results because there were no controlled studies and the methodology was heterogeneous for the evaluation of cognitive characteristics. An ad hoc double-blind, controlled versus placebo pilot study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of folic acid in 30 aged patients with abnormal cognitive decline and folate level below 3 ng/ml to better understand the value of this type of intervention. Our results from this preliminary study demonstrated that patients treated with folic acid for 60 days showed a significant improvement on both memory and attention efficiency when compared with a placebo group. The intensity of memory improvement was positively correlated with initial severity of folate deficiency. On the contrary, the severity of initial cognitive decline was unrelated to the degree of folate deficiency.

Role of amino acids and enhancement cardioplegia in routine myocardial protection. Experimental results.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the addition of amino acids to blood cardioplegic solution and the value of terminal cardioplegia enhancement techniques in routine myocardial protection. Forty-five open-chest adult dogs were instrumented with sonomicrometry crystals to measure left ventricular long axis, midequatorial short axis, and wall thickness. The aorta was clamped for 120 minutes of cardiopulmonary bypass. Animals were randomly separated into four myocardial protection groups: (1) blood cardioplegic solution with amino acids and no terminal cardioplegia (n = 12); (2) blood cardioplegic solution with amino acids and warm amino acid terminal cardioplegia (n = 11); (3) blood cardioplegic solution with amino acids and cold amino acid terminal cardioplegia (n = 12); and (4) blood cardioplegic solution plus cold terminal cardioplegia (no amino acids, n = 10). Data for preload recruitable stroke work were obtained by inflow occlusion before bypass (baseline) and at 30 and 60 minutes after reperfusion and analyzed for changes in x-intercept and slope. A significant rightward shift in x-intercept did not occur in any group. When cardiac function was expressed as a percentage of baseline preload recruitable stroke work slope, improved functional recovery was seen at both 30 and 60 minutes in groups 2 (88.6% and 91.8%), 3 (85.8% and 86.9%), and 4 (88.6% and 92.6%) compared with group 1 (77.3% and 79.2%, p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in the degree of functional recovery among groups 2, 3, and 4. These results suggest that for myocardial protection of 2 hours in nonischemic hearts, a terminal dose of blood cardioplegic solution before unclamping is beneficial, but this positive effect is independent of amino acid supplementation and temperature.

Ionization with diclofenac sodium in rheumatic disorders: a double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

A double-blind randomized study was performed to compare ionization with diclofenac sodium (150 mg) and ionization with saline solution in two groups of patients with scapulo-humeral periarthritis or elbow epicondylitis. The subjects of both groups were treated with 20 ionization sessions each lasting 30 minutes during a 1-month period. There was a significantly greater improvement in pain at rest, pain on pressure, pain on movement and joint swelling in the eleven patients treated with diclofenac compared with the thirteen placebo-treated patients, but no significant differences between the two treatments as regards functional impairment. However, placebo treatment produced a slight but significant improvement in pain on pressure, pain on movement and functional impairment. Further studies are needed to assess the relative role of the current and of autosuggestion in saline ionization response since both have well-known therapeutic effects on chronic rheumatic pain.