The consumption of alanerv® nutritional supplement and the dynamic of some inflammatory markers in post-acute stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation.

OBJECTIVES: Stroke is followed by an inflammatory response lasting up to several months. Moreover, many of the stroke-related comorbidities (i.e., diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and atherosclerosis) are characterized by an pro-inflammatory status. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We designed this pilot study to evaluate the relation between the consumption of a nutritional supplement (ALAnerv®) and the dynamic of the inflammatory status in post-acute stroke patients undergoing rehabilitation. The study population comprised 28 patients which were assigned into two study groups, named (-) ALA and (+) ALA. All subjects followed the same rehabilitation program. There were no significant differences in respect to the standard medication between the groups. Moreover, patients from the (+) ALA group received ALAnerv® for two weeks (2 pills/day). We assessed IL-1α, IL-6, TNF-α, sICAM-1, and myeloperoxidase in blood samples taken at the beginning and at the end of the study period. OUTCOMES: In the (+) ALA group only IL-1α (- 9.9% ± 3.7, P = 0.013) and IL-6 (- 26.5% ± 8.2, P = 0.003) significantly decreased during the study period. The multiple regression analysis indicated that the ALAnerv® treatment was responsible for the significant decrease of IL-6 level (P = 0.008). Moreover, the percentage of IL-6 variation between the study groups reached statistical significance (8.4% ± 11.5 vs. - 26.5% ± 8.2, P = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that ALAnerv® could be beneficial for the correction of the inflammatory status in post-acute stroke patients and underline the need of a longer treatment period with a higher dose.

Disability in COPD and Chronic Heart Failure Is the Skeletal Muscle the Final Common Pathway?

ABSTRACT: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and Chronic Heart Failure (CHF), two major causes of worldwide morbidity and mortality have important systemic components, affecting additional tissues, other than the lung or the heart, such as the skeletal muscle. Muscle function (or dysfunction) may not only influence the symptoms that limit exercise, but may contribute directly to the poor exercise performance, health status and increased healthcare utilization.The present review tries to summarize the muscular abnormalities in COPD and CHF and the mechanisms underlying these alterations, which are strikingly similar, despite the obvious differences concerning the primary impairment in these two chronic diseases.The muscles therefore represent a potential site to improve patients' functioning level and quality of life of COPD and CHF. Only one practical therapeutic intervention currently exists that can reverse some of the muscle abnormalities observed in COPD and CHF, namely exercise training, which becomes nowadays the "cornerstone" of the whole rehabilitation.