Prevalence of menopausal hot flashes in Lebanon: A cross-sectional study

Background

Menopausal hot flashes or vasomotor symptoms are prevalent and could be debilitating in postmenopausal women. There is controversy regarding the risk factors for hot flashes, some of which may vary from one country or culture to another.

Objective

To shed light on this matter by assessing the prevalence of hot flashes, their effect on quality of life, and their association with certain factors such as physical exercise, caffeine, spicy food consumption, dietary intake, smoking, alcohol, etc.

Materials and Methods

A large cross-sectional study was conducted among 627 Lebanese women, aged 45-67 yr using a well-developed and comprehensive questionnaire, in order to better assess the prevalence of hot flashes, focusing on their characteristics, association with various factors, severity, and effect on the women's quality of life.

Results

62.5% of participants experienced hot flashes. A statistically significant difference was noted between women who experience hot flashes and their counterparts with respect to smoking, body mass index, spicy food consumption, education level, age, menstrual status, and parity. An association was not found with physical activity or other dietary factors.

Conclusion

As an alternative for hormone therapy, clinicians should consider lifestyle changes to help manage hot flashes, which impose a tremendous physical and social toll on the women experiencing them.

Lifestyle Genetics-Based Reports in the Treatment of Obesity

Obesity becomes a chronic disease due to the increasing number of mortality and morbidity cases around the world. In most regions, chronic illnesses, such as obesity, are important sources of morbidity and mortality. Due to a lack of effective strategies for prevention and management, the adverse effects of obesity and related diseases on health continue to be a serious problem. Relevant information was searched from Google Scholar, Scopus, and PubMed using such different terms as "Obesity", "Obesity Management", "Obesity AND Physical activity", "Obesity AND Genetics", "Obesity AND Diet", and "Obesity AND Nutrigenomics". Obesity is characterized by a complex interaction of hereditary and lifestyle factors, which includes food. Diet is an environmental element that plays an important and considerable role in the management of health and reduces the risk of obesity and its comorbidities. Changes in lifestyle patterns not only help burn extra calories but also prevent the development of obesity via its modulating effect on genetic factors. Different people respond differently to an obesogenic environment. The notion of nutrigenetics emerged as a result of various genetic variations that may explain this heterogeneity. Nutritional genomics, also known as nutrigenetics, is the study that investigates and analyses gene variations linked to varied responses to certain foods; moreover, it links this variation to diseases, such as obesity. As a result, tailored nutrition advice based on a person's genetic profile may improve the outcomes of a specific dietary strategy and offer a novel dietary strategy to improve life quality and preventing obesity. This study concluded that physical activity and dietary interventions play an effective role in the management of obesity. Moreover, understanding of the function of the most prominent obesity-related genes, as well as the interaction between nutrition and gene expression, will help researchers design personalized treatment strategies for humans.

Adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and risk of total and cause-specific mortality: results from the Golestan Cohort Study

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the association between adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and overall and cause-specific mortality in the Golestan Cohort Study (GCS).

METHODS

A total of 50 045 participants aged 40 years or older were recruited from Golestan Province, Iran, from 2004 to 2008 and followed for a mean of 10.64 years. The DASH diet score was calculated for each individual based on food groups. The primary outcome measure was death from any cause.

RESULTS

During 517 326 person-years of follow-up, 6763 deaths were reported. After adjustment for potential confounders, DASH diet score was inversely associated with risk of death from all causes and cancers [hazard ratio (HR): 0.86; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.75, 0.98; and HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.47, 0.90, respectively]. A higher DASH diet score was associated with lower risk of gastrointestinal cancer mortality in men (HR: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.30, 0.99). A greater adherence to DASH diet was also associated with lower other-cancer mortality in women (HR: 0.50; 95% CI: 0.24, 0.99). No association between DASH diet score and cardiovascular disease mortality was observed, except that those dying of cardiovascular disease were younger than 50 years of age and smokers.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that maintaining a diet similar to the DASH diet is independently associated with reducing the risk of total death, cancers, and especially gastrointestinal cancers in men.