Role of Technology Innovation in Telemedicine: Focus on Sport Nutrition

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant transformation in the field of telehealth and telemedicine, as systems have been improved to meet the increased demand for remote healthcare services. Many ordinary technologies have been equipped to facilitate the normal relationship between patients and specialists. These technologies were put into action in a short period of time, creating a gap between the limits of common technologies and the special needs of telemedicine patients. Furthermore, focusing the lens on the special needs of sports in terms of nutrition, we see that research demonstrates the possibility of improving athletic performance by introducing technological diet support. This review aims to provide an overview of the technologies successfully implemented in telemedicine systems, a look at new modeling approaches, and a study on the roles of new enabling technologies in the process. It aims to highlight the results of the employment of telemedicine in sports dietary support and present open research challenges and recommendations for future research on a new application of technologies in telemedicine, for both the industrial and academic sectors. Literature was identified through intensive research work, reviewing articles related to the topics of new technologies in telemedicine and sports dietary support systems. The review concludes that it is possible to envisage the design of future models in the eHealth sector related to nutrition and sports, confirming the important role of telemedicine in a healthy lifestyle.

Lifestyle in Obese Individuals during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Stay-at-home orders in response to the Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic have forced abrupt changes to daily routines. The aim of this study is to describe the behavior of lifestyles of individuals with obesity on the waiting list for bariatric surgery in the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences of University of Foggia during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From June 2020 to December 2020 an online survey format was administered to all the patients (n = 52) enrolled for bariatric surgery subjects with obesity, to obtain information about the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on patients with obesity starting 9 March 2020 until 18 May 2020. RESULTS: Our data showed that 58% of patients stated that the pandemic negatively affected their mood, 60% of patients confirmed that they changed their dietary behaviors during the stay-at-home period, as they consumed more unhealthy foods or spent less time cooking home cooked meals. In addition, 71% of patients stated that the closure of the gyms worsened their obesity condition and their mental well-being with an increase of a feeling of anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on health behaviors, including quality of life, mental health physical activity, weight maintenance, and consumption of sweets in obese patients.

COVID-19: Role of Nutrition and Supplementation.

At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus (COVID-19) appeared on the world scene, which mainly affects the respiratory system, causing pneumonia and multi-organ failure, and, although it starts with common symptoms such as shortness of breath and fever, in about 2-3% of cases it leads to death. Unfortunately, to date, no specific treatments have been found for the cure of this virus and, therefore, it is advisable to implement all possible strategies in order to prevent infection. In this context, it is important to better define the role of all behaviors, in particular nutrition, in order to establish whether these can both prevent infection and improve the outcome of the disease in patients with COVID-19. In the literature, it is widely shown that states of malnutrition, overweight, and obesity negatively affect the immune system, leading to viral infections, and several studies have shown that nutritional interventions can act as immunostimulators, helping to prevent viral infections. Even if several measures, such as the assumption of a specific diet regimen, the use of dietary supplements, and other similar interventions, are promising for the prevention, management, and recovery of COVID-19 patients, it is important to highlight that strong data from randomized clinical trials are needed to support any such assumption. Considering this particular scenario, we present a literature review addressing several important aspects related to diet and SARS-CoV-2 infection, in order to highlight the importance of diet and supplementation in prevention and management of, as well as recovery from COVID-19.

The Social Brain and Emotional Contagion: COVID-19 Effects.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious infectious disease, responsible for a global pandemic that began in January 2020. Human/COVID-19 interactions cause different outcomes ranging from minor health consequences to death. Since social interaction is the default mode by which individuals communicate with their surroundings, different modes of contagion can play a role in determining the long-term consequences for mental health and emotional well-being. We examined some basic aspects of human social interaction, emphasizing some particular features of the emotional contagion. Moreover, we analyzed the main report that described brain damage related to the COVID-19 infection. Indeed, the goal of this review is to suggest a possible explanation for the relationships among emotionally impaired people, brain damage, and COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: COVID-19 can cause several significant neurological disorders and the pandemic has been linked to a rise in people reporting mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. Neurocognitive symptoms associated with COVID-19 include delirium, both acute and chronic attention and memory impairment related to hippocampal and cortical damage, as well as learning deficits in both adults and children. CONCLUSIONS: Although our knowledge on the biology and long-term clinical outcomes of the COVID-19 infection is largely limited, approaching the pandemic based on lessons learnt from previous outbreaks of infectious diseases and the biology of other coronaviruses will provide a suitable pathway for developing public mental health strategies, which could be positively translated into therapeutic approaches, attempting to improve stress coping responses, thus contributing to alleviate the burden driven by the pandemic.

Functional Role of Dietary Intervention to Improve the Outcome of COVID-19: A Hypothesis of Work.

BACKGROUND: On the 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The infection spread first in China and then in the rest of the world, and on the 11th of March, the WHO declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Taking into consideration the mortality rate of COVID-19, about 5-7%, and the percentage of positive patients admitted to intensive care units being 9-11%, it should be mandatory to consider and take all necessary measures to contain the COVID-19 infection. Moreover, given the recent evidence in different hospitals suggesting IL-6 and TNF-α inhibitor drugs as a possible therapy for COVID-19, we aimed to highlight that a dietary intervention could be useful to prevent the infection and/or to ameliorate the outcomes during therapy. Considering that the COVID-19 infection can generate a mild or highly acute respiratory syndrome with a consequent release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-6 and TNF-α, a dietary regimen modification in order to improve the levels of adiponectin could be very useful both to prevent the infection and to take care of patients, improving their outcomes.