The role of nutrition-related clinical trials in informing dietary recommendations for health and treatment of diseases.

Dietary guidance is based on a robust evidence base that includes high-quality clinical trials, of which some have been designed to establish causal relationships between dietary interventions and ASCVD risk reduction. However, the complexity associated with conducting these trials has resulted in criticism of nutrition and dietary recommendations because the strength and quality of evidence falls short of that for some pharmaceutical interventions. In this paper, we aim to promote greater awareness of the nutrition-related clinical trials that have been conducted showing ASCVD benefits and how this evidence has contributed to dietary recommendations.

Models of Diabetes: Focus on Diabetic Retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy is a major eye complication in patients with diabetes mellitus, and it is the leading cause of blindness and visual impairment in the world. Chronic hyperglycemia induces endothelial damage with consequent vascular lesions, resulting in global vasculitis, which affects the small vessels of the retina. These vascular lesions cause ischemic conditions in certain areas of the retina, with a consequent increase in the release of pro-angiogenic mediators.

Strategic Training Executive Program 2.0: A Leadership and Change Management Program for Health Supply Chains in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

People that Deliver's vision is "a world where health supply chain workforces are empowered and equipped to optimize health outcomes by improving access to health commodities." However, health supply chain management (HSCM) is not a recognized profession in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). HSCM professionalization efforts are essential if health outcomes are to be significantly improved in these countries; this means transforming supply chain management into a recognized profession of the highest integrity.

Is There an Ideal Diet? Some Insights from the POUNDS Lost Study.

Diets for weight loss have a long history but an ideal one has not yet been clearly identified. To compare low-fat and lower carbohydrate diets, we designed The Preventing Overweight by Novel Dietary Strategies (POUNDS) Lost study. This is a 2 × 2 factorial study with diets of 20% or 40% fat and 15% or 25% protein with a graded carbohydrate intake of 35, 45, 55 and 65%.