Changes in Waveguiding Cone Photoreceptors and Color Vision in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus.

Purpose: Although it is well known that photoreceptor damage and color vision loss occur in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR), the relationship between structural and functional changes in diabetes mellitus (DM) remains unclear. Using highly sensitive measures of photoreceptor structure and function, we aim to determine whether early loss of color sensitivity in DM is also accompanied by decreased cone density.

Methods: Monocular data from 26 patients with DM and 25 healthy controls were examined to assess cone photoreceptor metrics, using confocal adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy, and red/green (RG) and yellow/blue (YB) color vision thresholds, using the Colour Assessment and Diagnosis test.

Contextual awareness, response and evaluation (CARE) of diabetes in poor urban communities in Ghana: the CARE diabetes project qualitative study protocol.

Diabetes remains a major, global clinical and public health threat with consistent rises in prevalence around the world over the past four decades. Two-thirds of the projected increases in global diabetes prevalence to 2045 are expected to come from low- and middle-income countries, including those in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana is typical of this trend.

Ocular effects of exposure to low-humidity environment with contact lens wear: A pilot study.

Purpose: To compare the ocular effects of exposure to a low-humidity environment with and without contact lens (CL) wear using various non-invasive tests.

Methods: Fourteen habitual soft CL wearers were exposed to controlled low humidity (5% relative humidity [RH]) in an environmental chamber for 90 min on two separate occasions. First, when wearing their habitual spectacles and then, on a separate visit, when wearing silicone hydrogel CLs that were fitted specifically for this purpose.

Are artificial intelligence chatbots a reliable source of information about contact lenses?

Introduction: Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots are able to explain complex concepts using plain language. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of three AI chatbots answering common questions related to contact lens (CL) wear.

Methods: Three open access AI chatbots were compared: Perplexity, Open Assistant and ChatGPT 3.

Misunderstood and underappreciated: a critical review of mental health advocacy and activism in low- and middle-income countries.

Mental health advocacy and activism have been highlighted as important in the effort towards creating environments for better mental health. However, relevant research in low- and middle-income country settings remains limited and lacks critical exploration. We seek to contribute to filling this gap by exploring driving factors behind mental health advocacy and activism efforts in low- and middle-income country settings.

Advantages of Short-Segment Fusion in the Surgical Management of Thoracolumbar Traumatic Fractures: A Case Series and Review of the Literature.

Introduction: Spine trauma is a common pathology that frequently requires neurosurgical intervention. Few studies have examined short-segment, 360-degree stabilization of traumatic thoracolumbar fractures.

Methods: A retrospective review was completed of adult and pediatric patients who underwent surgical correction for thoracolumbar fractures between December 2011 and December 2021.

Daily running enhances molecular and physiological circadian rhythms in skeletal muscle.

Objective: Exercise is a critical component of a healthy lifestyle and a key strategy for the prevention and management of metabolic disease. Identifying molecular mechanisms underlying adaptation in response to chronic physical activity is of critical interest in metabolic physiology. Circadian rhythms broadly modulate metabolism, including muscle substrate utilization and exercise capacity.

Changes in 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels post-vitamin D supplementation in people of Black and Asian ethnicities and its implications during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review.

Background: People of Black and Asian ethnicities have a higher infection rate and mortality as a result of COVID-19. It has also been reported that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in this, possibly because of the multi-gene regulatory function of the vitamin D receptor. As a result, increased dietary intake and/or supplementation to attain adequate 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels could benefit people in these ethnicities.

The Risk of COVID-19 Related Hospitalsation, Intensive Care Unit Admission and Mortality in People With Underlying Asthma or COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Several underlying diseases have been associated with unfavorable COVID-19 related outcomes including asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), however few studies have reported risks that are adjusted for confounding variables. This study aimed to examine the adjusted risk of COVID-19 related hospitalsation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality in patients with vs. without asthma or COPD.

Sore eyes as the most significant ocular symptom experienced by people with COVID-19: a comparison between pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 states.

Objective: Conjunctivitis has been reported in people suffering from COVID-19. However, many ocular symptoms are associated with the term 'conjunctivitis' which may be misleading. It is also unknown whether ocular symptoms were different in chronic sufferers of anterior eye diseases, when they were experienced or how long they lasted for compared with other COVID-19 symptoms.

Cryptochromes Suppress HIF1α in Muscles.

Muscles preferentially utilize glycolytic or oxidative metabolism depending on the intensity of physical activity. Transcripts required for carbohydrate and lipid metabolism undergo circadian oscillations of expression in muscles, and both exercise capacity and the metabolic response to exercise are influenced by time of day. The circadian repressors CRY1 and CRY2 repress peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARδ), a major driver of oxidative metabolism and exercise endurance.

Vulnerability to helpless behavior is regulated by the circadian clock component CRYPTOCHROME in the mouse nucleus accumbens.

The nucleus accumbens (NAc), a central component of the midbrain dopamine reward circuit, exhibits disturbed circadian rhythms in the postmortem brains of depressed patients. We hypothesized that normal mood regulation requires proper circadian timing in the NAc, and that mood disorders are associated with dysfunctions of the NAc cellular circadian clock. In mice exhibiting stress-induced depression-like behavior (helplessness), we found altered circadian clock function and high nighttime expression of the core circadian clock component CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) in the NAc.

Conceptualising metabolic disorder in Southern Africa: Biology, history and global health.

This paper traces the history of the concept of metabolic disorder in global health and its application to the collection of health metrics relating to the 'epidemic' of non-communicable diseases in Southern Africa, with a focus on Malawi. Although the contemporary science of metabolism points to complexity and contingency, the application of a simplified version of 'metabolic disorder' or 'metabolic syndrome' as the supposed central driver of non-communicable disease in low- and middle-income countries runs the risk of obscuring the ways in which local circumstances and histories interact with global forces to produce epidemiological change. The paper discusses health data collection and its interpretation in Malawi to demonstrate how the use of this concept has led to a narrowing of the category of non-communicable disease and a neglect of the role of infectious disease in producing chronic conditions.

Isolation and Differentiation of Primary Myoblasts from Mouse Skeletal Muscle Explants.

Primary myoblasts are undifferentiated proliferating precursors of skeletal muscle. They can be cultured and studied as muscle precursors or induced to differentiate into later stages of muscle development. The protocol provided here describes a robust method for the isolation and culture of a highly proliferative population of myoblast cells from young adult mouse skeletal muscle explants.

Reframing NCDs? An analysis of current debates.

There have been many debates in recent years as to whether the communicable disease versus non-communicable disease (NCD) division is a meaningful one in disease classification. Several critiques have been raised about the framing of NCDs, regarding not only the prominent role that infections play in the aetiology of NCDs, but also the communicability of many social determinants of NCDs and the individualistic, 'lifestyle' framing of NCDs that tends to focus on health behaviours to the neglect of socio-political, environmental, and structural determinants of health. In this paper, we give a historical overview of the usage of the NCD terminology and analyse some of the recent debates regarding the naming and framing of NCDs.

Phosphorylation of CRY1 Serine 71 Alters Voluntary Activity but Not Circadian Rhythms In Vivo.

Circadian clocks allow organisms to anticipate repetitive changes in their environment such as food availability, temperature, and predation. While they most clearly manifest at the behavioral level, driving sleep-wake cycles, for example, they also provide critical temporal regulation at the level of individual tissues. Circadian clocks within organs act to ensure that each tissue is functioning in a coordinated manner to anticipate the needs of the organism as a whole but also allow for adaptation of organs to their local environment.

Dietary change, noncommunicable disease and local knowledge: results of a small-scale study of the views of older Malawians.

Interviews were conducted with a small group of Malawians over the age of 60 in rural Karonga district and in Area 25 of the capital, Lilongwe. We asked their views on the changes in diet that had taken place over their lifetimes and also on the causes of 'noncommunicable' diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and hypertension in their communities. Their answers generally confirmed research showing that dietary diversity is decreasing in Malawi, but many of our interviewees also recalled that hunger was more frequently experienced in the past.

A Research Enclave in 1940s Nigeria: The Rockefeller Foundation Yellow Fever Research Institute at Yaba, Lagos, 1943-49.

This article examines the history of yellow fever research carried out in West Africa in the 1940s by Rockefeller Foundation scientists. It engages with a number of debates in the history of medical research in colonial Africa, including experimentation, the construction of the "field," and biosecurity.

Use of Acupuncture in the United States Military Healthcare System.

The Military Healthcare System (MHS) shows increasing interest in acupuncture as an alternative to opioids for pain control. However, specific factors associated with this procedure in the MHS are not well-described in literature. This study examines usage within the MHS to determine patterns among the diagnoses, provider types, and facilities associated with acupuncture.

The Liver Circadian Clock Modulates Biochemical and Physiological Responses to Metformin.

Metformin is widely used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes to lower blood glucose. Although metformin is a relatively safe and effective drug, its clinical efficacy is variable and under certain circumstances it may contribute to life-threatening lactic acidosis. Thus, additional understanding of metformin pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics could provide important information regarding therapeutic use of this widely prescribed drug.

Circadian repressors CRY1 and CRY2 broadly interact with nuclear receptors and modulate transcriptional activity.

Nuclear hormone receptors (NRs) regulate physiology by sensing lipophilic ligands and adapting cellular transcription appropriately. A growing understanding of the impact of circadian clocks on mammalian transcription has sparked interest in the interregulation of transcriptional programs. Mammalian clocks are based on a transcriptional feedback loop featuring the transcriptional activators circadian locomotor output cycles kaput (CLOCK) and brain and muscle ARNT-like 1 (BMAL1), and transcriptional repressors cryptochrome (CRY) and period (PER).

Use of Integrative Medicine in the United States Military Health System.

Integrative medicine (IM) is a model of care which uses both conventional and nonconventional therapies in a "whole person" approach to achieve optimum mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental health, and is increasingly popular among patients and providers seeking to relieve chronic or multifactorial conditions. The US Department of Defense (DoD) shows particular interest in and usage of IM for managing chronic conditions including the signature "polytrauma triad" of chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among its beneficiaries in the Military Health System (MHS). These modalities range from conventional nondrug, nonsurgical options such as cognitive-behavioral therapy to nonconventional options such as acupuncture, chiropractic, and mind-body techniques.