[The effect of cardamom supplementation on anthropometric measurements in overweight and obese prediabetic women]

Introduction: Spice consumption has been considered for treatment of diseases complications because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory contents. One of these spices that contains a great variety of antioxidant compounds is cardamom. However since the effect of this spice on anthropometric measurements has not been investigated, this study was designed to determine the effect of cardamom supplementation on anthropometric measurements in overweight and obese prediabetic women

Materials and Methods: Eighty prediabetic women were randomly allocated to 2 groups, with the intervention group receiving 3 g of green cardamom and the placebo group, 3 g of rusk powder for two months. Physical activity, dietary information and anthropometric measurement including weight, height and waist circumference were recorded before and after intervention. Body mass index [BMI] was calculated by dividing weight by height squared

Results: Mean weight and BMI decreased significantly in the intervention group after the study [p<0.05]. After adjustment of initial measurement of waist circumference, at the end of intervention, waist circumference in the intervention group was significantly lower than the placebo group [p<0.05]. In the placebo group, changes in means of weight, BMI and waist circumference were not significant at the end of study. There were no significant differences between the two groups in other terms of anthropometric measurements

Conclusion: Cardamom supplementation may reduce the waist circumference and abdominal obesity in prediabetic groups

[Relationship of conicity index, waist circumference, body mass index and physical activity with lipid profile in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus]

Cardiovascular diseases are the main causes of death in diabetic patients and lipid disorders are among the main risk factors for these diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of Conicity index [CI], body mass index [BMI], waist circumference [WC] and physical activity [PA] with lipid levels and to determine the best anthropometric measurement predictor of lipid profiles in patients with type 2 diabetes. A cross sectional study was conducted on 700 patients with type 2 diabetes. Measurements including weight, height, WC, BMI, CI and PA were obtained for each subject and fasting serum triglycerides [TG], total cholesterol [TC], HDL-cholesterol [HDL-C] and LDL-cholesterol [LDL-C] were documented. Overall, 97% of men and 95% women had abnormal CI. About 84.5% of participants had BMI over 25 [kg/m2]. In addition, 55.3% of men and 88.5% of women had abdominal obesity based on WC. There was significant increases in TG, TC and LDL-C and reduction of HDL-C with increasing CI quartiles. BMI showed significant and positive correlation to LDL-C. The correlation between WC and TG and LDL/HDL were also significant. PA showed a positive and significant correlation to HDL-C and negative correlation to BMI, WC, CI, and LDL / HDL in all subjects. CI, BMI, WC and PA have significant correlations to blood lipid disorders in type 2 diabetic patients and can be used in screening and predicting the risk of lipid disorders in type 2 diabetic patients. None of the measurements however showed a stronger relationship to these disorders in patients with type 2 diabetes

[ effect of tomato juice on serum concentrations of IL-6, IL-8, CRP and TNF-alpha of over-weight or obese girl students of Tehran University of Medical Science]

Tomatoes are the richest source of lycopene, a potent antioxidant. Tomato products improve antioxidant defenses and reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases, at least partly due to the presence of lycopene. Lycopene, as an anti-inflammatory agent, prevents the production of inflammatory cytokines. Obesity is a chronic inflammatory condition in which the increased level of body fat leads to an increase in circulating inflammatory mediators. We hypothesized that the consumption of a lycopene-rich food would reduce inflammation in people with overweight or obesity. One hundred and six overweight or obese female students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were enrolled and randomly allocated to an intervention group [n=53] or a control group [n=53], consuming 330 ml/day of tomato juice or water respectively, for 20 days. At baseline and day 20, serum concentrations of interleukin-6, interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and high sensitivity C-reactive protein were analyzed by ELISA and compared between groups. Serum concentrations of interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha decreased significantly in the intervention group compared to the control group and compared to the baseline. Subgroup analysis indicated that this effect was confined to subjects who were overweight. Among obese subjects, serum interleukin-6 concentration was decreased in the intervention group compared to the control group, with no observed differences in interleukin-8 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Tomato juice reduces inflammation in overweight and obese females. Thus, increasing tomato intake may provide a useful approach for reducing the risk of inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, associated with obesity

Female carpet weavers' visual acuity and effective factors: Fordu rural area of Qom

Healthy vision of workers is one of the important elements in carpet weaving industry which has essential role in improving of the job quality and efficiency. Visual acuity is the primary outcome measure in most studies involving eye diseases. The aim of this study was determination of visual acuity and its effective factors in women carpet weaver in fordu rural area of Qom has been investigated. Methods: In a cross-sectional [descriptive-analytical] study visual acuity of 177 women carpet weaver has been determined. Job hours per day, job history, age, literacy, trauma history, diabetes history, family history of eye diseases, eye diseases history and family size of subjects were determined. The results of study indicated that the right eyes visual acuity of 72.4% of women were desirable [0 - 0.8] and 27.6% were undesirable [0.9-1.2]. These results for the left eyes were 69.5% and 30.5% respectively. In addition, the result showed that with increasing the job hours and history and age, percent of women with undesirable both eyes visual acuity were increased. With higher literacy levels, percent of women with undesirable both eyes visual acuity decreased. In subjects with truma history, the undesirable visual acuity was higher. In this study the relation between visual acuity and job history, age, literacy, truma history and eye diseases history were statistically significant [in all cases P < 0.05]. High percentage of women carpet weaver were in undesirable visual acuity and in this study the relation between visual acuity and job history, age, literacy, trauma history and eye diseases history were statistically significant [in all cases P < 0.05]