Nutritional Advice El Mondo

Chronic diseases

Chronic diseases

Scientific studies (review articles) on the relationship between diet/nutrients and chronic diseases:
One swallow does not make a summer. A famous Dutch saying that could not be any more obvious. Just because one single scientific study about a certain topic makes certain claims, it does not necessarily mean it is true. On the other hand, a review article (a collection of scientific studies on a certain topic) of randomized, placebo-controlled double blind clinical trials (RCTs) will answer the following question:

Marine oil supplements alleviate pain in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Objectives:
Arthritis patients often take fish oil supplements to alleviate symptoms, but limited evidence exists regarding their efficacy. Therefore, this meta-analysis (systematic review) has been conducted.

Do taking marine oil supplements alleviate pain in arthritis patients?

Study design:
This review article included 42 randomized trials; 30 trials reported complete data on pain.

Lower serum zinc levels increase Parkinson's disease

Objectives:
Recent studies have found that the serum zinc levels were associated with the risk of Parkinson's disease (PD), but the results were inconsistent. Therefore, this meta-analysis (review article) has been conducted.

Is there an association between serum zinc levels and Parkinson's disease risk?

Study design:
This review article included 11 articles involving 822 Parkinson's disease patients and 777 healthy controls (subjects without Parkinson's disease).

No publication bias was found.

Decreased vitamin D levels and increased BMI increase pediatric-onset MS

Objectives:
Is there a causal association between low serum vitamin D concentrations, increased body mass index (BMI) and pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis (MS) using genetic risk scores (GRS)?

Study design:
This review article included participants of non-Hispanic white individuals recruited from over 15 sites across the United States (n = 394 cases, 10,875 controls) and Sweden (n = 175 cases, 5,376 controls; total n = 16,820).

Ultrasound can detect active Crohn’s disease in adults

Objectives:
The aim of this review article was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in assessing active Crohn’s disease (CD) in adults.

Study design:
This meta-analysis included 15 studies involving 1558 adults with active Crohn’s disease.

Results and conclusions:
The investigators found overall, the pooled sensitivity (0.88) and LR- (0.14) were not heterogeneous, whereas the pooled specificity [0.97, I2 = 72.9%] and LR + [15.10, I2 = 71.8 %] were.

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