Metabohc interventions

G. W. Geelhoed, MetaboHc maladaptation Individual and social consequences of medical intervention in correcting endemic hypothyroidism, Nutrition, 15 908-932, 1999. 

Life span is also influenced by external factors, such as ROS which primarily arise as by-products of normal metabohc activities and are thought to influence the etiology of age-related diseases. In order to test the theory that ROS cause ageing, the natiual antioxidant systems of C. elegans with small synthetic superoxide dismutase/catalase mimetics. Treatment of wild-type worms increased their mean life span by a mean of 44%, and treatment of prematurely aging worms resulted in normalization of theh life span (a 67% increase). It appears that oxidative stress is a major determinant of life span and that it can be counteracted by phaimacological intervention. 

However, encephalopathies with a metabohc basis tend to be the most problanatic for infants or children, with functional outcomes dependent upon timely and pradent interventions. Three varieties of metabolic encephalopathy in children are discussed here. The first two are closely related. Inborn (genetic) errors of metabolism can present in the newborn as severe encephalopathy from hyperammonemia alone. When a metabolic error presents months to years later, a degree of hepatic insufficiency may complicate the metabolic derangement. In acute or fulminant hepatic failure of any etiology (i.e., infections, drug-induced, toxin-related), the rise in serum ammonia may be only moderate but other factors contribute to the ensuing encephalopathy, which may be devastating within days. 

Excess carbohydrate intake could be accompanied by a thiamine-defident condition. Therefore, thiamine intervention may impact metabohc abnormalities in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats, which were extensively studied as a model of human obesity and metabohc disorders. Based on the assumption that excess glucose influx causes relative thiamine deficiency, we provided thiamine-containing water to the OLETF rats. Thiamine attenuated type 2 DM and metabolic abnormalities in the rat model of human obesity and metabolic disorders. We also investigated the influence of thiamine on PDH activity in the OLETF rats. 

Kien, C.L. Dietary interventions for metabohc syndrome Role of modifying dietary fats. Curr. Diab. Rep. 2009, 9, 43-50. 

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