Can Oral Tolerance Explain the Inconsistencies Associated with Total Dietary Diversity and Colon Cancer? A Mechanistic Systematic Review.

Among the gastrointestinal tract cancers, the risk of colon cancer is strongly dependent on dietary factors. For the first time in the current review, all the original case-control studies, associated with the correlation between total dietary diversity score and colon cancer risk, were evaluated. In this regard, three databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Sciences, were investigated to retrieve the related citations from 1990 until 2019. Among the included citations, three studies were finally included. In these included studies, the dietary diversity score was evaluated with 129-item and 800-item FFQs. Findings reveal that total dietary diversity can increase the risk of colon cancer in men, but not women; while, one study using 57-item FFQ reported the beneficial association of total dietary diversity with colon cancer among men. Significant demand for conducting more research to investigate the real mechanistic effects of dietary diversity on the risk of colon cancer development was demonstrated due to the inconsistent, questionable, and incomplete findings associated with the included studies.

Dietary Total Antioxidant Capacity and Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND: Dietary total antioxidant capacity (DTAC) has been proposed as a tool for assessing the intake of antioxidants. This study aimed to assess whether a relationship exists between dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and the odds of NAFLD. STUDY DESIGN: A case-control study. METHODS: In this age-and sex-matched case-control study in 2019, patients with NAFLD and healthy controls were recruited from a hospital clinic. All participants completed a validated 168-item food frequency questionnaire, the results of which were subsequently used to generate dietary TAC. Oxygen radical absorbance capacity values were used to calculate dietary TAC. RESULTS: Altogether, 225 patients with NAFLD and 450 healthy controls were enrolled. Participants with NAFLD had a higher mean weight, BMI, energy (P<0.050), and lower physical activity and DTAC scores (P<0.050) than the control group. In an adjusted model, participants who were in the highest quartile of dietary TAC had a lower risk of NAFLD (odds ratio 0.78, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.91). CONCLUSION: A high DTAC was related to a decreased risk of NAFLD. Suggest the intake of a diet with high antioxidant capacity is significant at preventing NAFLD. Increasingly itemized investigations in design of randomized control trials require to reveal more insight into these results.

Collagen supplementation for skin health: A mechanistic systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Over the last decade, many researchers tried to evaluate the effects of collagen supplements on skin aging and surprisingly revealed that the interventions improved skin aging parameters without any inconsistency. AIM: This systematic review assesses the literature regarding the effects of collagen supplements on skin health parameters in healthy and patient subjects, focusing on mechanisms of action. METHODS: At the first step of search in the databases, 9057 items were obtained. After removal of duplicate items, 6531 publications remained. Further screening by title and/or abstract resulted in removal of 6500 items. Finally, full texts of the 31 remained items were assessed for eligibility and 10 publications were included in this review. RESULTS: The evidences obtained from these systematic reviews indicated that oral administration of intact or hydrolyzed collagen improves clinical manifestation of skin health. Almost all of the included studies reported the beneficial effects of collagen supplementation, and no inconsistencies have been seen in this regard between studies. CONCLUSIONS: In this systematic review, three different mechanisms of action were clarified for the intervention. Direct effects of collagen peptides on fibroblasts, M2-like macrophages, and oral tolerance-related mechanisms are the possible mechanisms for the beneficial effects of collagen supplementation.

The students' intentions and satisfaction with the field of study and university.

INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to find an appropriate method to inform senior high school students to correctly select their academic field of study and their intentions. METHODS: This is a descriptive-analytic and cross-sectional study. A verified questionnaire was given to a total of 2600 students selected by stratified random sampling method (ten different colleges and entrance year from the 1(st) to 4(th) are considered as the strata). The position of the present field of study (major) among the list of the fields in the entrance exam was asked. The students' methods of familiarity with different fields of study in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS), the reasons for their selection, the students' motivation and insistence on studying in the same field and university were asked in the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using independent two samples t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Chi-Square test. RESULTS: The most significant references for university field selection were high school teachers, the students' parents and the adjacency of university to one's living place. Also, the results revealed the good reputation of SUMS in the first year and its downward trend during the following years. 59.4% of the 1(st) year students were satisfied with their field of study and SUMS. 31.8% were satisfied with the university but not with their fields of study. 6.4% were dissatisfied with the university but not with their fields of study. 2% of the students were dissatisfied with both their fields of study and university. Dissatisfaction with SUMS and field of study increased little by little so that the results obtained among the students who had entered the university earlier (in the 4(th) year of their study) showed nearly 16.3% dissatisfaction with both the university and the study fields.   CONCLUSION: The methods for introducing the university are recommended to be revised.