Boost your diet with Vitamin C and Zinc

The Coronavirus outbreak has seen a huge spike in people buying vitamin supplements, with Vitamin C and Zinc emerging two of the top supplements in demand.

Typically, in any viral infection, the body's defence mechanism is to produce white blood cells (WBCs) to fight against the infection.

Zinc and Vitamin C reduces the level of chemicals called cytokines that are harmful to the body and are produced in the body during infections. Zinc helps increase the production of these infection-fighting WBCs and T cells.

Vitamin C, while providing overall immunity, is the most effective against respiratory based illnesses. Lack of Vitamin C is also the most common nutritional deficiency.

"It has been seen that older people are more at risk from the Coronavirus. Ensuring adequate intake of vitamin C via supplements, especially among elderly or individuals with risk factors owing to insufficient vitamin C, is important for the immune system to function properly and resist infections. With age, the body loses its strength to fight viruses, and when combined with existing medical conditions, it places elderly people at risk. But immunity is important at all ages and it can be increased at any stage by keeping oneself fit," says a Dr.

"There have been reports of people believing in Vitamin C to be a cure for Coronavirus, which is certainly not true. While Vitamin C helps boost immunity, it is basic hygiene, good food habits and physical activities that help build immunity, rather than just the supplements. Pre-existing medical conditions like uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled High BP, uncontrolled cholesterol, etc too result in low immunity and these supplements should be seen as agents that help the body withstand or fight infections and not Coronavirus itself," notes the Dr.

The natural sources of Zinc are legumes like chickpeas, lentils and beans along with seeds, nuts, and whole grains. Citrus fruits like orange, kiwi, lemon, guava and grapefruit are high in Vitamin C, along with vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, capsicums and Brussel sprouts.

The over-the-counter zinc supplements are available as Zinc acetate and Zinc gluconate, with the former being more readily available and accessible. The quantity of Zinc needed by the human body to achieve optimal immunity is between 8 -11 mg and for Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) it is 500 mg. These two immunity supplements are available individually for consumption but there are supplements available that combine these two into one, which can also be considered by people, adds the Dr.

Traditionally, natural foods are the best source of vitamins and nutrients, it is advisable to combine these natural foods along with supplements. But in case of unavailability or other reasons, supplements are quite effective and it is critical to combine them with physical activities and exercises. Supplements, apart from giving the desired immunity, come with the benefit of reducing risk of heart diseases, due to certain other important components present in them.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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Plant-rich diet protects against foodborne pathogens, mice study shows

Mice fed a plant-rich diet are less susceptible to gastrointestinal (GI) infection from a pathogen such as the one currently under investigation for a widespread E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce, UT Southwestern researchers report. A strain of E. coli known as EHEC, which causes debilitating and potentially deadly inflammation in the colon with symptoms such as bloody diarrhea and vomiting, is implicated in several foodborne outbreaks worldwide each year.

There has been a lot of hearsay about whether a plant-based diet is better for intestinal health than a typical Western diet, which is higher in oils and protein but relatively low in fruits and vegetables. So we decided to test it." Vanessa Sperandio, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and biochemistry at UT Southwestern

Her study on a mouse model of EHEC is published this week in Nature Microbiology.

"Plant-rich diets are high in pectin, a gel-like substance found in many fruits and vegetables. Pectin is digested by the gut microbiota into galacturonic acid, which we find can inhibit the virulence of EHEC," she adds.

"This is relevant to public health because EHEC outbreaks lead to hemorrhagic colitis, which is debilitating and sometimes causes death, particularly in the very young and the elderly," she says.

Intestinal pathogens like EHEC sense the complex chemistry inside the GI tract to compete with the gut's resident microbiota to establish a foothold, Sperandio says. Over centuries, the pathogens have developed different strategies to compete against the so-called good, or commensal, microbes that normally line the gut.

Those commensals include harmless strains of E. coli living in the colons of humans and other mammals, where they help the host's normal digestion process, she adds. The word commensal means "eating at the same table" and that is what the symbiotic bacteria that make up the gut's microbiota do.

The commensals that line the gut present a significant barrier to intestinal pathogens, Sperandio explains. EHEC and similar gram-negative bugs overcome that barrier by deploying a secretion system called T3SS.

T3SSs act like molecular syringes to inject a mix of virulence proteins into the cells lining the host's colon, setting off inflammation and symptoms of infection. Because mice are unaffected by EHEC, researchers use a similar pathogen, Citrobacter rodentium, in mouse studies, Sperandio explains.
"Our study finds first that the good E. coli and the pathogenic ones like EHEC use different sugars as nutrients," she says, adding that the two types of E. coli may have evolved to avoid competing for the same energy sources. "Second, we find that dietary pectin protects against the pathway the pathogenic EHEC uses to become more virulent."

Another type of commensal gut bacteria breaks down dietary pectin from fruit and vegetables, creating galacturonic acid, a sugar acid that the EHEC and C. rodentium use in two ways. Initially, the pathogen uses that sugar acid as an energy source to expand in the gut, Sperandio says.

"Once the sugar acid becomes depleted, the pathogen changes its survival strategy, almost like flipping a switch," she says. Instead of using the galacturonic acid for nourishment, the infectious bacteria employs it in a signaling pathway that increases the EHEC's and similar bacteria's virulence using the syringe-like T3SS.

In the study, mice fed pectin for about a week withstood infection. Comparing the colons of six mice fed a chow diet with 5 percent extra pectin from citrus peel with four mice on a typical diet, the researchers found a much lower rate of infection in the pectin-eating mice, Sperandio says.

The amount of bacteria in the mouse gut was measured by daily stool checks and by analysis of the amount of bacteria in a pouch at the juncture of the small and large intestines, called the cecum, at the experiment's end.

The researchers found that mice on the pectin-enriched chow had about 10,000 bacteria in the cecum compared to 1 million bacteria in mice on the typical diet. The pectin group also had fewer symptoms, she says, adding that a pectin level of 5 percent appears to prevent the pathogen from activating its virulence repertoire.

She stresses that the research is one step in a journey to define the molecular mechanisms that govern how the commensal species in the gut impact the virulence of intestinal pathogens.

"This is not translatable to humans yet. We hope a better understanding of how intestinal disease develops will lead to strategies to reduce the incidence or, at least, the symptoms caused by these gram-negative pathogens, possibly through new vaccines or drugs," she says.

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 source- newsmedical

This 'smart shirt' can accurately monitor lung disease

Scientists have developed a "smart shirt" that can accurately measure breathing and could be used to monitor lung disease by sensing movements in the chest and abdomen.
Researchers  used the smart shirts, together with a mobile app, to reliably measure breathing in healthy people while carrying out a range of everyday activities.
"Smart shirts are already available, but they tend to be used by professional or amateur sportsmen and women. We wanted to see whether a smart shirt could provide an accurate and more practical alternative for measuring lung function," said a Dr.
 
The researchers can now test out the smart shirts with patients who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
COPD is a growing problem with around 64 million people suffering with the condition worldwide.
The smart shirt, called the "Hexoskin", senses how the fabric stretches when the wearer's chest expands and contracts and uses these measurements to gauge the volume of air inhaled and exhaled.
It also records heart rate and movement.
During the study, the team asked a group of 15 healthy volunteers to wear a smart shirt while doing everyday activities including lying down, sitting, standing, climbing stairs and vacuuming.
Participants said the smart shirts were comfortable and could be worn underneath their normal clothes.
At the same time, the volunteers also wore the equipment traditionally used to measure breathing that includes a face mask and bulky backpack.
Researchers compared the measurements recorded using the two techniques for each person doing each activity on the two occasions.
In general, they found that the measurements were very similar. When lying, the difference between measurements taken by the two pieces of equipment was just 0.2 per cent on average, which only represents a few millilitres of air.
In more strenuous activities there were slightly greater differences, for example with vacuuming the difference was 3.1 per cent on average, or around 40ml.
"These results are important because they indicate that the smart shirt can be worn by patients while they go about their daily lives to accurately measure their lung function," said the researcher.
The researchers now plan to repeat tests on the smart shirts with COPD patients.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement