The meaning of the social support network for women in situations of violence and breastfeeding.

Objective: to understand the meanings attributed to the social support network of women breastfeeding and in situations of violence by an intimate partner.

Method: a qualitative study, carried out with 21 women, through semi-structured interviews and data analyzed by the Method of Interpretation of the Senses in the light of the conceptual framework of Social Support Network.

Results: all women suffered violence by the partner in the puerperium and only one of them maintained exclusive breastfeeding until 180 days postpartum.

Eating Well While Dining Out: Collaborating with Local Restaurants to Promote Heart Healthy Menu Items.

Background: As Americans commonly consume restaurant foods with poor dietary quality, effective interventions are needed to improve food choices at restaurants.

Purpose: To design and evaluate a restaurant-based intervention to help customers select and restaurants promote heart healthy menu items with healthful fats and high quality carbohydrates.

Methods: The intervention included table tents outlining 10 heart healthy eating tips, coupons promoting healthy menu items, an information brochure, and link to study website.

Diabetes-Related Cognitive Decline, a Global Health Issue, and New Treatments Approaches.

The epidemic of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is spreading around the globe and challenging the unprecedented success of health sciences in increasing longevity. T2DM has been linked to accelerated brain aging, functional decline in older adults and dementia. Brain insulin resistance and glycemic variability are potential mechanisms underlying T2DM-related brain damage and cognitive decline.

Cognitive decline in metabolic syndrome is linked to microstructural white matter abnormalities.

Subjects with metabolic syndrome (MetS) often show worse cognitive performance compared with the healthy population. We investigated whether microstructural white matter abnormalities are associated with cognitive performance in adults with MetS using diffusion tensor MR imaging. A total of 32 subjects with MetS (age 64.

Association of Statins with Sensory and Autonomic Ganglionopathy.

Objective: To examine if statins have an effect on small nerve fibers.

Methods: This retrospective study evaluated the effect of statins in pure small-fiber neuropathy (SFN). Outcome measures were symptom scales (numbness, tingling, and autonomic symptoms), skin biopsies assessing epidermal nerve fiber density (ENFD), sweat gland nerve fiber density (SGNFD), and quantitative autonomic testing.

Inflammation-associated declines in cerebral vasoreactivity and cognition in type 2 diabetes.

Objective: The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the relationships between inflammation, cerebral vasoregulation, and cognitive decline in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) over a 2-year span.

Methods: Sixty-five participants (aged 66 ± 9.2 years, 35 with T2DM, 33 women) were enrolled for this 2-year prospective study.

Intranasal Insulin and Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 as Neuroprotectants in Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Treatment options for stroke remain limited. Neuroprotective therapies, in particular, have invariably failed to yield the expected benefit in stroke patients, despite robust theoretical and mechanistic background and promising animal data. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) play a pivotal role in critical brain functions, such as energy homeostasis, neuronal growth, and differentiation.

Subclinical albuminuria is linked to gray matter atrophy in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: Microalbuminuria (MA), a marker of renal microvascular disease, is associated with brain atrophy and neurovascular changes in older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). We evaluated the relationship between urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) and regional brain volumes to determine whether subclinical albuminuria may indicate early structural brain changes in type 2 DM.

Materials/methods: We studied UACR and brain volumes in 85 type 2 DM patients (64.