Perspectives on telemedicine across urban, rural and remote areas in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: This study explored attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control of participants across urban, rural and remote settings and examined intention-to-use telemedicine (defined in this study as remote patient-clinician consultations) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. 12 focus group discussions were conducted with 60 diverse telemedicine user and non-user participants across 3 study settings.

Promoting equitable and patient-centred care: an analysis of patient satisfaction in urban, rural and remote primary care sites in the Philippines.

Objectives: This study measured changes in patient satisfaction levels before and after the introduction of primary care system strengthening interventions in urban, rural, and remote sites in the Philippines.

Methods: A previously validated 16-item questionnaire was distributed to 200 patients per site before implementation of interventions and to a different set of 200 patients 1 year after implementation. We compared the percentage change in highly satisfied patients per site before and after implementing interventions using a two-proportion Z-test.

Feasibility, acceptability and impact of a clinical decision support tool among primary care providers in an urban, rural and remote site in the Philippines.

Introduction: Strengthening primary care helps address health inequities that continue to persist in the Philippines. The Philippine Primary Care Studies pilot-tested interventions to improve the primary care system. One intervention was the provision of a free subscription to an electronic decision support application called UpToDate (UTD) for primary care providers (PCPs), including doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers (CHWs).

Hispanics Coming to the US Adopt US Cultural Behaviors and Eat Less Healthy: Implications for Development of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Introduction: The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) among US Hispanics is rising. Adoption of an American diet and/or US acculturation may help explain this rise.

Aims: To measure changes in diet occurring with immigration to the USA in IBD patients and controls, and to compare US acculturation between Hispanics with versus without IBD.

A double-blind, randomized trial on the effect of a broad-spectrum dietary supplement on key biomarkers of cellular aging including inflammation, oxidative stress, and DNA damage in healthy adults.

Nutritional approaches that ameliorate cellular senescence may have the potential to counteract the effects of chronic disease. This study will investigate the effect of the Healthycell dietary supplement on markers of inflammation, oxidative stress, and DNA damage. Thirty adults between the ages of 18 and 55 were enrolled and randomly assigned to one of the two study conditions (n = 15 Healthycell and n = 15 placebo).

Double-blind, randomized crossover study of intravenous infusion of magnesium sulfate versus 5% dextrose on depressive symptoms in adults with treatment-resistant depression.

Aim: Treatment-resistant depression patients are more likely to suffer from comorbid physical and mental disorders, experience marked and protracted functional impairment, and incur higher health-care costs than non-affected individuals. Magnesium sulfate is a treatment option that may offer great potential for patients with treatment-resistant depression based on prior work in animals and humans.

Methods: Twelve subjects with mild or moderate treatment-resistant depression were randomized into a double-blind crossover trial to receive an infusion of 4 g of magnesium sulfate in 5% dextrose or placebo infusion of 5% dextrose with a 5-day washout in between the 8-day intervention period.

High-intensity, but not moderate-intensity, exercise increases post-exercise rate of fat oxidation in type 2 diabetics.

Background: Aerobic exercise is recommended for glycemic and weight control in type 2 diabetes (T2D), but exercise intensity that increase post-exercise fat oxidation has not been established yet. It is expected that high-intensity exercise induce higher absolute oxidations and rates of oxidation of CHO (during) and fat (after) in normoglycemic, but in hyperglycemic it is unclear.

Aim: To compare the effects of exercise intensity on CHO and fat oxidation during and after exercise in individuals with T2D.

The effect of exercise training on disease progression, fitness, quality of life, and mental health in people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy: a systematic review.

Background: Exercise has been associated with improvements in adverse physiological and psychological effects of long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART) in people living with HIV (PLWH).

Aim: To summarizes the findings on the effects of aerobic or resistance training alone or combined aerobic and resistance exercise training (CARET) on disease progression, fitness, physical functioning, mental health, and quality of life (QOL) in PLWH receiving ART. A systematic search of articles was performed in several databases, and 20 articles that met inclusion criteria were summarized.

A cross-sectional assessment of metabolic syndrome in HIV-infected people of low socio-economic status receiving antiretroviral therapy.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of symptoms used as a measure to identify patients at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and all-cause mortality. The results of prolonged life expectancy and cumulative toxic effects of antiretroviral therapy increase the chance that HIV can cause clinical abnormalities, including MetS.

Methods: We evaluated 89 people living with HIV (PLWH; mean age 48 ± 7 years; mean duration of HIV infection 17 ± 12 years; 47% men; 66% African-American, 22% Hispanic, and 10% non-Hispanic white; and 84% unemployed) enrolled in a community-based exercise training and nutrition education program targeting individuals of low socio-economic status (SES).

A cross-sectional assessment to detect type 2 diabetes with endothelial and autonomic nervous system markers using a novel system.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is frequently unrecognized until complications appear. Diabetic autonomic neuropathy is one of the early complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus, resulting in autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction. The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of ANS function indicators to screen for type 2 diabetes mellitus, as measured by the TM-Oxi and SudoPath system.

The mAKAPbeta scaffold regulates cardiac myocyte hypertrophy via recruitment of activated calcineurin.

mAKAPbeta is the scaffold for a multimolecular signaling complex in cardiac myocytes that is required for the induction of neonatal myocyte hypertrophy. We now show that the pro-hypertrophic phosphatase calcineurin binds directly to a single site on mAKAPbeta that does not conform to any of the previously reported consensus binding sites. Calcineurin-mAKAPbeta complex formation is increased in the presence of Ca(2+)/calmodulin and in norepinephrine-stimulated primary cardiac myocytes.