Category: Malnutrition
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Lumiflavin and Lumichrome notes (and something called Autochrome)
Lumiflavin is a toxic product of photolysis of vitamin B2. Lumiflavin is a compound showing yellow-green fluorescence, formed by a photolysis of riboflavin in alkaline solution. Lumiflavin 1948-Present Lumichrome 1944-Present The Autochrome Lumière was an early color photography process patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France and first marketed in 1907. Autochrome was an additive color “mosaic screen plate” process. It was the principal color photography process in use before the…
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Latent tetany and anxiety, marginal magnesium deficit, and normocalcemia (1975)
The identification of marginal magnesium deficit, such as we have detected in a patient with anxiety, depression, and psychomatic complaints, is a difficult diagnostic problem. Electromyography of a limb, rendered acutely ischemic either just before or after hyperventilation, can elicit latent tetany in this condition, as well as in calcium deficiency. We have demonstrated iterative…
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Hypomagnesemic tetany of ruminants (1988)
Hypomagnesemic tetany of ruminants is a noninfectious metabolic disorder that occurs in a wide range of nutritional and management conditions. This article considers its etiology and pathogenesis, clinical signs, clinical pathology and lesions, diagnosis, clinical management, prevention, and control. Smith RA, Edwards WC. Hypomagnesemic tetany of ruminants. Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract. 1988…
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The magnesium-deficiency tetany syndrome in man (1960)
Magnesium is second only to potassium in abundance as an intracellular cation. The whole body of a human adult contains nearly 25 gm. The numerous important biochemical reactions dependent upon the presence of this metal have been discussed elsewhere. Magnesium is an essential nutrient for animals and plants, suggesting that a dietary inadequacy of this ion might…
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Studies on the nutritional basis of abnormal behavior in albino rats; the effect of pyridoxine deficiency upon sound-induced magnesium tetany (1945)
After a magnesium deficient diet for 5 to 8 days, young rats showed vasodilatation, hyperirritability, and latent tetany. Brief exposures to the sound of a resonated buzzer elicited severe tonic-clonic convulsions. When such a diet was continued for 10 to 23 days, sensitivity increased with death resulting from spontaneous or induced seizures. In a similar…
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Experts warn of fatty liver disease ‘epidemic’ in young people
In Bristol University‘s study Children of the 90s, 2.5% of 4,000 people born in 1991 and 1992 were found by ultrasound scanning at the age of 18 to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; five years later transient elastography (fibroscan) found over 20% to have the fatty deposits on the liver of steatosis, indicating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; half of those…
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Aetokthonotoxin (AETX) aka ‘eagle toxin’ discovered in 2021
Aetokthonotoxin (AETX), colloquially ‘eagle toxin’, was discovered in 2021 as the cyanobacterial neurotoxin causing vacuolar myelinopathy (VM) in eagles in North America. Avian vacuolar myelinopathy (AVM) is a fatal neurological disease that affects various waterbirds and raptors. It is most common in the bald eagle and American coot, and it is known in the killdeer, bufflehead, northern shoveler, American wigeon, Canada goose, great horned owl, mallard, and ring-necked duck. Avian vacuolar myelinopathy is a newly discovered disease that…
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β-Methylamino-L-alanine, or BMAA
β-Methylamino-L-alanine, or BMAA, is a non-proteinogenic amino acid produced by cyanobacteria. BMAA is a neurotoxin and its potential role in various neurodegenerative disorders is the subject of scientific research. Structure and properties BMAA is a derivative of the amino acid alanine with a methylamino group on the side chain. This non-proteinogenic amino acid is classified as a polar base. Sources and detection BMAA is produced by cyanobacteria in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. In…
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Lytico-bodig disease, Guam disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-parkinsonism-dementia (ALS-PDC) is a neurodegenerative disease or all of them
Lytico-bodig (also Lytigo-bodig) disease, Guam disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-parkinsonism-dementia (ALS-PDC) is a neurodegenerative disease of uncertain etiology endemic to the Chamorro people of the island of Guam in Micronesia. Lytigo and bodig are Chamorro language words for two different manifestations of the same condition. ALS-PDC, a term coined by Asao Hirano and colleagues in 1961, reflects its resemblance to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. First reports of the disease surfaced in three death certificates on Guam in 1904 which made…
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The Amazonian legend of Manà is related to the cult of Manioc, the native staple food that sprang from her grave
ManĂ, a TupĂ myth of origins, is the name of an indigenous girl with very fair complexion. The Amazonian legend of ManĂ is related to the cult of Manioc, the native staple food that sprang from her grave. The legend The daughter of a TupĂ chief became pregnant. Her father wanted to take revenge on the man who brought shame to…
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Cassava (tapioca) chips have become a major source of ethanol production
In many countries, significant research has begun to evaluate the use of cassava as an ethanol biofuel feedstock. Under the Development Plan for Renewable Energy in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan in the People’s Republic of China, the target was to increase the production of ethanol fuel from nongrain feedstock to 2 million metric tons (2,000,000 long tons; 2,200,000 short tons), and…
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Cassava is used in a number of commercially available laundry products
Cassava is also used in a number of commercially available laundry products, especially as starch for shirts and other garments. Using cassava starch diluted in water and spraying it over fabrics before ironing helps stiffen collars.
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Malnutrition may play a role in Tropical ataxic neuropathy (TAN) aka Strachan-Scott Syndrome and prisoners of war neuropathy
Tropical ataxic neuropathy (TAN, also known as Strachan-Scott Syndrome and prisoners of war neuropathy) is a disease or category of diseases that commonly causes disability and increases mortality. The causes of TAN are not understood; there is no generally accepted treatment, and the reported outcomes are inconsistent. The disease affects poor tropical populations; there are no good statistics on how…
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Cause and Prevention of Konzo
The character of the neurological injury is not clear. The disease onset is associated with high intake of cyanide from a diet of mostly bitter cassava, which is low in protein, particularly sulfur amino acids. These are essential for the detoxification in the body of cyanide to thiocyanate, which is removed in the urine. A…
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Signs and symptoms of Konzo
The onset of paralysis (spastic paraparesis) is sudden and symmetrical and affects the legs more than the arms. The resulting disability is permanent but does not progress. Typically, a patient is standing and walking on the balls of the feet with rigid legs and often with ankle clonus. Initially, most patients experience generalized weakness during the first…
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Differential diagnoses for Konzo are lathyrism and paraparesis apparently caused by geographical location or bad genes…go figure
The clinical symptoms are strikingly similar to those of lathyrism and also similar to tropical spastic paraparesis and hereditary spastic paraparesis, only that the latter two disorders have a slow onset. Konzo is distinct from polio which is a flaccid paralysis and most often affects a person asymmetrically.[citation needed] Konzo is one of several tropical neuropathies. A distinct myeloneuropathy also associated to cyanogen intake from cassava is tropical ataxic…
