Aims: This review evaluates the mechanisms underlying red blood cell (RBC) membrane fluidity changes in diabetes mellitus (DM) and explores strategies to assess and address these alterations. Emphasis is placed on developing a comprehensive index for membrane fluidity to improve monitoring and management in diabetic patients.
Materials And Methods: We reviewed current literature on RBC membrane fluidity, focussing on lipid composition, glycation, oxidative stress, and lipid transport alterations in diabetic patients.
Recent studies have shown a growing interest in the complex relationship between the human gut microbiota, metabolism, and overall health. This review aims to explore the gut microbiota-host association, focusing on its implications for precision nutrition and personalized medicine. The objective is to highlight how gut microbiota modulate metabolic and immune functions, contributing to disease susceptibility and wellbeing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rising obesity epidemic requires effective and sustainable weight loss intervention strategies that take into account both of individual preferences and environmental impact. This study aims to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative digital biohacking approach for dietary modifications in promoting sustainable weight loss and reducing carbon footprint impact. A pilot study was conducted involving four participants who monitored their weight, diet, and activities over the course of a year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Maintaining plasma glucose homeostasis is vital for mammalian survival, but the masticatory function, which influences glucose regulation, has, to our knowledge, been overlooked.
Research Methods And Procedures: In this study, we investigated the relationship between the glycemic response curve and chewing performance in a group of 8 individuals who consumed 80 g of apple. A device called "Chewing" utilizing electromyographic (EMG) technology quantitatively assesses chewing pattern, while glycemic response is analyzed using continuous glucose monitoring.
The objective of this review was to critically examine existing digital applications, tailored for use by citizens and professionals, to provide diet monitoring, diet planning, and precision nutrition. We sought to identify the strengths and weaknesses of such digital applications, while exploring their potential contributions to enhancing public health, and discussed potential developmental pathways. Nutrition is a critical aspect of maintaining good health, with an unhealthy diet being one of the primary risk factors for chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe human gut microbiome, an intricate ecosystem housing trillions of microorganisms within the gastrointestinal tract, holds significant importance in human health and the development of diseases. Recent advances in technology have allowed for an in-depth exploration of the gut microbiome, shedding light on its composition and functions. Of particular interest is the role of diet in shaping the gut microbiome, influencing its diversity, population size, and metabolic functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNutrition is a cross-cutting sector in medicine, with a huge impact on health, from cardiovascular disease to cancer. Employment of digital medicine in nutrition relies on digital twins: digital replicas of human physiology representing an emergent solution for prevention and treatment of many diseases. In this context, we have already developed a data-driven model of metabolism, called a "Personalized Metabolic Avatar" (PMA), using gated recurrent unit (GRU) neural networks for weight forecasting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetes-induced oxidative stress induces the development of vascular complications, which are significant causes of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. Among these, diabetic retinopathy (DR) is often caused by functional changes in the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) due to harmful oxidative stress events in lipids, proteins, and DNA. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has a potential therapeutic effect against hyperglycemia-induced oxidative damage and apoptotic pathways in the main constituents of BRB, retinal pigment epithelium cells (ARPE-19).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDuring exercise with increasing intensity, the human body transforms energy with mechanisms dependent upon actual requirements. Three phases of the body's energy utilization are recognized, characterized by different metabolic processes, and separated by two threshold points, called aerobic (AerT) and anaerobic threshold (AnT). These thresholds occur at determined values of exercise intensity(workload) and can change among individuals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this work, we will investigate if red blood cell (RBC) membrane fluidity, influenced by several hyperglycemia-induced pathways, could provide a complementary index of HbA1c to monitor the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)-related macroangiopathic complications such as Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD). The contextual liquid crystalline (LC) domain spatial organization in the membrane was analysed to investigate the phase dynamics of the transition. Twenty-seven patients with long-duration T2DM were recruited and classified in DM, including 12 non-PAD patients, and DM + PAD, including 15 patients in any stage of PAD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
October 2022
Heart rate time series are widely used to characterize physiological states and athletic performance. Among the main indicators of metabolic and physiological states, the detection of metabolic thresholds is an important tool in establishing training protocols in both sport and clinical fields. This paper reviews the most common methods, applied to heart rate (HR) time series, aiming to detect metabolic thresholds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDevelopment of predictive computational models of metabolism through mechanistic models is complex and resource demanding, and their personalization remains challenging. Data-driven models of human metabolism would constitute a reliable, fast, and continuously updating model for predictive analytics. Wearable devices, such as smart bands and impedance balances, allow the real time and remote monitoring of physiological parameters, providing for a flux of data carrying information on user metabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetes-induced oxidative stress leads to the onset of vascular complications, which are major causes of disability and death in diabetic patients. Among these, diabetic retinopathy (DR) often arises from functional alterations of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) due to damaging oxidative stress reactions in lipids, proteins, and DNA. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the ω3-polyunsaturated docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on the regulation of redox homeostasis in the human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell line (ARPE-19) under hyperglycemic-like conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFindex has a significant impact on overall health. Its estimation through wearables notifies the user of his level of fitness but cannot provide a detailed analysis of the time intervals in which heartbeat dynamics are changed and/or fatigue is emerging. Here, we developed a multiple modality biosignal processing method to investigate running sessions to characterize in real time heartbeat dynamics in response to external energy demand.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSelf-monitoring of weight, diet and physical activity is a valuable component of behavioral weight loss treatment. The validation and user-friendliness of this approach is not optimal since users are selected from homogeneous pools and rely on different applications, increasing the burden and achieving partial, generic and/or unrelated information about their metabolic state. Moreover, studies establishing type, time, duration, and adherence criteria for self-monitoring are lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale, Aims And Objectives: Early reperfusion is the key to therapeutic success in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The duration of the process is influenced by various factors which in most of the cases are not easily modifiable. The aim of this study is to analyse AMI treatment process duration to identify determining factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Treatment delay is a powerful predictor of survival in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We investigated effectiveness of pre-hospital diagnosis of STEMI with direct referral to PCI, alongside more conventional referral strategies.
Methods And Results: From January 2003 to December 2004, 658 STEMI patients were referred for primary PCI at our intervention laboratory.
The collagen, elastin and total sugar content was evaluated in 32 samples of saphenous varicose veins and in 34 controls. A significantly lower collagen and elastin content was found in the varicose samples. In addition, the total sugars and the soluble non-scleroproteins were found to be increased in varicose samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effect of highly selective vagotomy on the gastric emptying time of a food-barium meal and antral myoelectrical and manometrical activities was studied in two groups of duodenal ulcer patients: one with and another without delay in gastric emptying. Controls performed 1 and 3 months after operation showed that the group of patients with non-delayed preoperative gastric emptying kept a good emptying, only with sporadic, slight and transient disturbances of the gastric myoelectric activity. Conversely, the group of patients with delayed preoperative gastric emptying showed an increase in emptying time together with marked alterations in myoelectric and manometric activities.
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