Curcumin Offers No Additional Benefit to Lifestyle Intervention on Cardiometabolic Status in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Curcumin has been shown to exert glucose-lowering and anti-atherosclerotic effects in type 2 diabetes. Hence, we investigated curcumin's effects on atherogenesis markers, fatty liver, insulin resistance, and adipose tissue-related indicators in patients with NAFLD. In this secondary analysis of a 12-week randomized controlled trial, fifty-two patients with NAFLD received lifestyle modification. In addition, they were randomly allocated to either the curcumin group (1.5 g/day) or the matching placebo. Outcome variables (assessed before and after the study) were: the fatty liver index (FLI), hepatic steatosis index (HSI), fatty liver score (FLS), BMI, age, ALT, TG score (BAAT), triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, Castelli risk index-I (CRI-I), Castelli risk index-II (CRI-II), TG/HDL-C ratio, atherogenic coefficient (AC), atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), lipoprotein combine index (LCI), cholesterol index (CHOLINDEX), lipid accumulation product (LAP), body adiposity index (BAI), visceral adiposity index (VAI), metabolic score for visceral fat (METS-VF), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) values. The TyG index decreased in the curcumin group and increased in the placebo group, with a significant difference between the groups (p = 0.029). However, a between-group change was not significant after adjustment for multiple testing. Other indices were not significantly different between the groups either before or after multiple test correction. After the intervention, there was a lower number of patients with severe fatty liver (FLI ≥ 60) and metabolic syndrome in the curcumin group compared to the placebo (p = 0.021 and p = 0.012, respectively). In conclusion, curcumin offers no additional cardiometabolic benefits to lifestyle intervention in patients with NAFLD.

Dietary Total Antioxidant Capacity and Risk of Gall Stone: A Case-Control Study.

Background: Since the relation between dietary total antioxidant capacity (DTAC) and the occurrence of gallstone disease (GSD) remains unclear, we conducted, for the first time, a case-control study to clarify this association in the Iranian population. Methods: In the present case-control study, convenience Sampling was performed. A total of 600 participants (300 case and 300 control) were included. Anthropometric, demographic, physical activity, and nutrient intakes data were obtained from each subject. DTAC was calculated using the US Department of Agriculture's database. The odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results: The participants in the highest quartile of DTAC had a significantly lower OR for gallstone than the lowest quartile, which remained significant after further adjustment for age, sex, and education (model 2: OR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.16-0.71). In addition, after adjustment for age, sex, education, BMI, physical activity, and energy, the results revealed that participants with the highest quartile of DTAC had 71% lower odds of gallstone than those with the lowest quartile (model 3: OR, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.11-0.78). Conclusions: The results of the present study demonstrated that the DTAC had an inverse association with GSD incident. However, interventional approaches are needed to confirm the relation between DTAC and GSD prevention.