Routine laboratory parameters to support decision on parenteral nutrition in palliative care.

Introduction: Parenteral nutrition (PN) is widely used in palliative care (PC), but there is limited evidence to support its use at the end of life (EOL). This aim of this was to investigate the relationship between routine laboratory parameters and survival in patients receiving PN, and to develop a decision tree model to support clinicians decide whether to start or forgo PN.

Methods: The laboratory parameters of 113 patients with advanced diseases who were admitted to a specialized palliative care unit (PCU) were analyzed at two points in time: T0 = before PN, T1 = two weeks after initiation of PN.

The Association of Potassium Status with Parameters of Glucose Metabolism is influenced by Age in Adults.

Background: Potassium status has been found to affect glucose homeostasis.

Objective: This study therefore aimed at investigating relationships between potassium status or dietary intake and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) or glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) in a sample of Austrian adults (18-80 years, n = 421, 61% women) from the Austrian Study on Nutritional Status 2012.

Methods: Dietary potassium intake was obtained by two 24 h recalls.

The Role of the Status of Selected Micronutrients in Shaping the Immune Function.

Objective: This narrative review gives an overview on the essential role of adequate nutrition to an optimally functioning immune defence. Micronutrients act as regulators of the immune response, with the focus of this review on the immunomodulatory effects of the trace elements iron, zinc and selenium, and the vitamins A, D, E, C, B6 and B12 and folic acid.

Results: Iron deficiency especially impairs the Th1 cell-borne cellular immunity.

Zinc intake and status in Austria in the light of different reference values.

Zinc has been identified as a critical micronutrient also in high-income countries. There is still some uncertainty about the evaluation of zinc sufficiency due to divergent daily intake reference values. We wanted to exemplify this issue using data from the Austrian Study on Nutritional Status 2012.

Animal Proteins as Important Contributors to a Healthy Human Diet.

Adequate protein intake is critical for health and development. Generally, protein of animal origin is of higher quality for humans owing to its amino acid pattern and good digestibility. When administered in mixtures it can enhance the quality of plant proteins, but its availability is often low in low-income communities, especially in young children, the elderly, and pregnant and lactating women, who have increased requirements and in whom high-quality protein also stimulates (bone) growth and maintenance.

The role of dietary potassium in hypertension and diabetes.

Potassium is an essential mineral which plays major roles for the resting membrane potential and the intracellular osmolarity. In addition, for several years, it has been known that potassium also affects endothelial and vascular smooth muscle functions and it has been repeatedly shown that an increase in potassium intake shifts blood pressure to a more preferable level. Meanwhile, the blood pressure lowering effects of potassium were presented in several intervention trials and summarized in a handful of meta-analyses.

Patterns of drinking and eating across the European Union: implications for hydration status.

Appropriate hydration is essential for health and well-being. In Europe, water consumption patterns vary despite the unlimited availability of this resource. Water constitutes the largest proportion of total fluid intake in most countries.

Developing suitable methods of nutritional status assessment: a continuous challenge.

Reliable information about the nutritional status is essential to identify potential critical nutrients and the population groups at risk of deficiency, as well as to develop effective public health policies to counteract unfavorable nutrition patterns that contribute to morbidity and mortality. In this review, the important role of biomarkers in the assessment of nutritional status is outlined, major strengths and limitations of established and new biomarkers are described, and important criteria for biomarker selection and development are discussed. Indeed, biomarkers offer a more objective assessment tool than pure dietary approaches that suffer from inadequate data reporting in particular, although biomarkers are often only measured in subsamples because of the higher costs and proband burden they entail.

Vitamins for the first 1000 days: preparing for life.

Vitamins are essential nutrients for many body functions and particularly important during growth. Adequate supply in pregnancy and in early infancy is therefore crucial, but there is still a lack of knowledge about the needed amounts of vitamins of children older than six months and also during pregnancy. Recommendations for intake levels are generally derived by extrapolation from data for infants based in turn on the contents in breast milk and those for adults.

Diet quality, a term subject to change over time.

A high-quality diet is one of the foundations of health and well-being. For a long time in human history, diet was chiefly a source of energy and macronutrients meant to still hunger and give the strength for work and activities that were in general much harder than nowadays. Only few persons could afford to emphasize enjoyment.

Immune-stimulating effects of lactic acid bacteria in vivo and in vitro.

The health-promoting effects of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are well recognised, making them a popular functional food ingredient. Commercially available probiotic products are often promoted as capable of improving immune defences also in healthy subjects. However, while strain-specific differences exist in the effects of LAB, conventional yoghurt bacteria have proved beneficial as well.

Body composition, changing physiological functions and nutrient requirements of the elderly.

Age has an important impact on body composition. The decreases of lean body mass and total body water accompanied by an increase of body fat are the most relevant changes leading to a reduction of the basal metabolic rate. Due to this and the fact that elderly people are generally less physically active, energy needs are lower.

Daily intake of probiotic as well as conventional yogurt has a stimulating effect on cellular immunity in young healthy women.

Background/aims: The aim of this work was to study the effects of daily yogurt consumption on the cellular immunity of young healthy women and to compare a conventional with a probiotic product.

Methods: 33 young healthy women (22-29 years) consumed 100 g/day of either probiotic or conventional commercially available yogurt for 2 weeks and 200 g/day for another 2 weeks followed by a 2-week washout period with no fermented food at all. Before the intervention and after each phase, a complete white blood count was done, the percentage of activated CD69+ T lymphocytes after stimulation of whole blood with pokeweed mitogen was determined as well as the natural cytotoxicity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells against a human erythroleukemic target cell line (K562).