A Review on the Assessment of the Efficacy of Common Treatments in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome on Prevention of Diabetes Mellitus.

Objective: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common condition amongst women of reproductive age that can result in increased mortality and morbidity in women due to increased risk of diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of common treatments of PCOS on the predictors of diabetes in non-diabetic PCOS women. Materials and methods: An extensive search was performed on the publications in three medical databases including pubmed, scopus and google scholar from 1995 till 2017. The articles were screened based on their quality and included in this systematic review. A total of 25 articles including cohort, randomised controlled trial, review and meta-analysis were included in the review. Results: This systematic review revealed that the effect of lifestyle modification might be low in PCOS subjects due to high drop-out rate while the benefits of this intervention including weight and fat reduction may not be achieved by medical interventions. Metformin treatment may result in improvements in insulin sensitivity while its weight reduction effect is still not documented in PCOS subjects. Thiazolidendiones might be tolerated by the PCOS subjects and may result in similar effects as metformin but this effect should be documented by further studies. Conclusion: Combination of lifestyle modification with metformin or thiazolidinedions might improve the outcome of the prevention strategies. On the other hand this study revealed a different response to treatments in non-obese compared with obese PCOS subjects.

Effect of Nigella sativa on reproductive system in experimental menopause rat model.

OBJECTIVE: Menopause is the condition when regular menstrual periods cease and may be accompanied by psychological and physical symptoms. The purpose of current study was to determine Nigella sativa effects on reproductive system in experimental menopause animal models. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the effects of different dosages of N. sativa (first experiment), various extracts of N. sativa (second experiment) and some of its ingredients (third experiment) on selected menopausal parameters of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Forty different OVX rats were equally divided into 5 groups and administered with one of the following treatments for 21 days: conjugated equine estrogen (positive control), distilled water or olive oil (negative control), treatment groups (N. sativa300, 600 and 1200 mg/kg in the first experiment), (300mg/kg methanol, hexane and SFE extracts of N. sativa in the second experiment) and (linoleic acid 50 mg/kg, gamma linolenic acid 10mg/kg, and thymoquinone 15mg/kg in the third experiment). RESULTS: The results demonstrated that N.sativa exert estrogenic effect were exhibited through uterotrophic assay and vaginal cell cornification as well as blood estrogen level. Furthermore, low dose N. sativa, methanol extract and linoleic acid had prominent estrogenic like effects which were significantly different from those of control group (p<0.05) in different experiments. CONCLUSION: The finding indicated the probable beneficial role for N. sativa in the treatment of postmenopausal symptoms and possibility of using N. sativa as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for post menopause in human.

Alternative supplement for enhancement of reproductive health and metabolic profile among perimenopausal women: a novel role of Nigella sativa.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this open label crossover study was to investigate the effects of Nigella sativa on reproductive health and metabolic profile of perimenopausal women in Rawang, Malaysia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty nine perimenopausal women aged 45 to 65 were allocated into the experimental group treated orally with 1600mg/day of encapsulated pure powdered N. sativa compared to control groups treated with placebo for 12 weeks. At the end of study, participants underwent washout period for fourteen days before being crossed over and continued for another cycle of treatment. Participants were abstained from taking any other drugs, herbal preparations or food supplements throughout the study. Body weight, height, waist circumference, blood pressure, biochemical parameters and hormonal levels were measured at baseline and at the end of experiment for both cycles. Face to face interview was carried out at baseline and every week to check for compliance, minimize dropouts and to record reproductive health and quality of life indicators using Greene climacteric and SF-36 instruments. RESULTS: The treatment groups in both cycles showed significant improvement with reference to low density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood glucose (P<0.05). There were no significant differences between groups in total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein and triglyceride concentration. Treatment with N. sativa induced a significant reduction of prevalence and severity of menopausal symptomsas well as significant improvement in some components of quality of life (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggested that treatment with N. sativa exert a therapeutic and protective effect by modifying weight gain, improving lipid profile and blood glucose as well as hormonal level which is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome during menopause.

Toxicity effect of nigella sativa on the liver function of rats.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the toxic effect of Nigella sativa powder on the liver function which was evaluated by measuring liver enzymes and through histopathological examination of liver tissue. METHODS: Twenty four male Sprague Dawley rats were allotted randomly to four groups including: control (taking normal diet); low dose (supplemented with 0.01 g/kg/day Nigella sativa); normal dose (supplemented with 0.1 g/kg/day Nigella sativa) and high dose (supplemented with 1 g/kg/day Nigella sativa). All of supplements administered in powder form mixed with rats' pellet for 28 days. To assess liver toxicity, liver enzymes measurement and histological study were done at the end of supplementation. RESULTS: The finding revealed that there was no significant change in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) between treatment groups. Histopathological study showed very minimal and mild changes in fatty degeneration in normal and high doses of Nigella sativa treated group. Inflammation and necrosis were absent. CONCLUSION: The study showed that supplementation of Nigella sativa up to the dose of 1 g/kg supplemented for a period of 28 days resulted no changes in liver enzymes level and did not cause any toxicity effect on the liver function.

Thymoquinone prevents ß-amyloid neurotoxicity in primary cultured cerebellar granule neurons.

Thymoquinone (TQ), a bioactive constituent of Nigella sativa Linn (N. sativa) has demonstrated several neuropharmacological attributes. In the present study, the neuroprotective properties of TQ were investigated by studying its anti-apoptotic potential to diminish ß-amyloid peptide 1-40 sequence (Aß1-40)-induced neuronal cell death in primary cultured cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs). The effects of TQ against Aß1-40-induced neurotoxicity, morphological damages, DNA condensation, the generation of reactive oxygen species, and caspase-3, -8, and -9 activation were investigated. Pretreatment of CGNs with TQ (0.1 and 1 µM) and subsequent exposure to 10 µM Aß1-40 protected the CGNs against the neurotoxic effects of the latter. In addition, the CGNs were better preserved with intact cell bodies, extensive neurite networks, a loss of condensed chromatin and less free radical generation than those exposed to Aß1-40 alone. TQ pretreatment inhibited Aß1-40-induced apoptosis of CGNs via both extrinsic and intrinsic caspase pathways. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that TQ may prevent neurotoxicity and Aß1-40-induced apoptosis. TQ is, therefore, worth studying further for its potential to reduce the risks of developing Alzheimer's disease.

Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) and its prevention: a cross sectional study on patients' knowledge, attitude and practice among patients attending primary health care clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The World Health Organization confirmed that the novel influenza A, H1N1 as a pandemic on 11 June 2009. After less than three months, 182 countries were affected by the pandemic accounting for about 150,000 infected cases and 3000 mortality. Successful H1N1 pandemic management strategies' shaped by making changes in health behavior. The aim of this study was to document patients' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) regarding the pandemic influenza A (H1N1) and its prevention. We performed a cross-sectional study on knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) on preventive measures of Influenza A (H1N1) involving 322 patients attending Klinik Kesihatan Jinjang, a primary health care clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from May 10 to 26, 2010 using a face to face interview with a structured pre-tested questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were females (56.8%), Malays (43.2%) aged between 18-27 years old (28.9%). There were significant association between knowledge on the complication of H1N1, effectiveness of the treatment, preventive measures of Influenza A (H1N1) and race (p<0.001) and educational level (p<0.001). There were also significant associations between attitude scores of these patients and their gender (p=0.03), and educational level (p=0.001). Practice scores related to H1N1 were found to be significantly associated with race (p<0.001) and educational level (p<0.001). The significant associations were observed between knowledge and attitude (p<0.001), knowledge and practices (p<0.001), as well as attitude and practices related to H1N1 (p<0.001). Knowledge has a crucial effect on patients' attitude and practice particularly in a pandemic spread. So health policy makers should attempt to disseminate information about preventive measures to community in order to improve their preventive practices during pandemics.