Impact of diet on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in a tertiary care hospital of Rawalpindi

Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disorder of children that affects almost all aspects of the life. The role of diet in the management of the ADHD is understudied in Pakistan. This study aimed to assess the impact of different types of diet on the symptoms of ADHD among the children with ADHD. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 58 children with ADHD in Rawalpindi. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained. Patients’ recruitment was done via developed criteria and Convenient sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were used to determine the difference of ADHD severity among various frequencies of different included foods via Conner Parent rating scale-revised short form. Data analysis was performed by SPSS version 25.0. Results: The difference in hyperactivity index, impulsivity, and learning problems score on CPR-RS among various frequencies of carbohydrate, protein rich and fat foods, was statistically significant and with the increase intake of carbohydrate and protein rich foods, the score on CPR-RS of hyperactivity index, impulsivity, and learning problems also goes up. Whereas, with the increase intake of fat rich foods, the score of hyperactivity index, impulsivity, and learning problems goes down. Conclusions: In short, the high intake of carbohydrate and protein rich foods, increase the severity of the symptoms of ADHD, while, high intake of fat rich foods decreases the severity of the symptoms of ADHD among children.

Oxidative preconditioning of medical ozone

Cardiac ischemic reperfusion injury is gaining importance due to rising of cardiac intervention procedures invoking transient ischemia, which requires trials of preconditioning strategies, A possible beneficial one could be the use of medical ozone, which is known to play a vital role in our well -being Therefore, the effect of small dose medical ozone on heart muscle and its possible protective effect on subsequent ischemia/ reperfusion injury was evaluated. Animals included in the present study were allocated into three groups: unconditioned control rats [group I], two months-ozonepreconditioned rats [group II], and three months-ozone-preconditioned rats [group III]. Rats were injected i.p. with small doses of ozone twice weekly. At the end of the experimental period, half the rats in each group were injected with heparin, a blood sample was taken for determination of plasma malondialdehyde [MDA] and the heart excised and used for isolated heart study. A blood sample was collected from the other half in each group for determination of serum glucose and the heart excised and sent for histological examination. Isolated heart study was carried out according to modified Langendorff technique. After recording basal cardiac activity, global ischemia was induced by stoppage of perfusion for 30 minutes followed by resumption of flow for another 30 minutes, and cardiac activity then recorded. The results revealed signifcant reduction in intrinsic inotropy of hearts isolated from unconditioned control rats after ischemia/ reperfusion [I/R], evidenced by significant decrease in tension generation per unit time [PT/t] after I/R in these rats, together with prolongation, of half relaxation time, insignificant change of intrinsic chronotropic activity and myocardial flow rate after I/R. Two months-medical ozone-preconditioning resulted in correction of the impaired intrinsic inotropy after I/R seen in unconditioned control rats, with enhancement of diastolic function. However, three months- medical-ozone preconditioning did not protect the hearts isolated from these rats from systolic dysfunction after I/R, though the diastolic function was significantly improved after I/R compared to unconditioned control rats. Serum glucose was decreased and plasma malondialdehyde was significantly increased in both the two-and three-months ozone-preconditioned rats. Histological examination of heart muscle revealed increased mitochondria! density in ozone preconditioned rats which was more marked in the two months-ozone-treated rats