Kent State Interns

In the 2015, January issue of Today’s Dietitian , Lindsey Getz writes about a new term, pregorexia, used by the media to define women who exhibit eating disorder behaviors during their pregnancy to avoid gaining weight. Pregorexia is not currently a medical term, therefore, there is no official medical definition. Despite no official recognition, pregorexia describes behaviors including extreme dieting, overly strenuous exercise, and even binging and purging throughout pregnancy. During pregnancy, women gain a “baby bump” but they also gain weight in the hips, thighs, and other areas of the body. Some women still feel the pressure to be thin, even during pregnancy which often triggers pregorexia. These behaviors are putting pregnant mothers and their babies at risk. Pregorexia falls into two categories: women who have suffered from previous eating disorders and are carrying it into their pregnancy, and women who have never suffered from an eating disorder but cannot accept gaining w...

The objective of this study was to determine if the effects of an aggressive fluid-restricted and sodium-restricted diet differed from the effects with no such restrictions on weight loss and clinical stability throughout a three day period in hospitalized patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Sodium and fluid restrictions are therapeutic remedies that have been used to treat ADHF universally. However, there is a lack of evidence based research to conclude that there is improvement to reach clinical stability in patients with ADHF. A total of 813 patients admitted with ADHF were assessed for eligibility. The study included 75 adults diagnosed with systolic dysfunction, ADHF, and a thirty-six hour inpatient length of stay or less. The control group (n=37) was prescribed the standard hospital diet which included a liberal sodium and fluid intake diet while the intervention group (n=38) followed a maximum fluid intake of 800 mL per day and maximum sodium restricti...

The Diabetes and Heart Disease Link In our world today cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death and disability. Diabetes, the 7 th leading cause of death in the US, continues to significantly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease at a 2-4 times higher rate as compared to individuals without diabetes. Understanding the relationship between diabetes and cardiovascular disease is one that is multifactorial and complicated. Research shows that artherosclerosis, a major factor of cardiovascular disease, is found to negatively affect an individual’s macrovascular with diabetes to a greater extent as compared to individuals without diabetes. Furthermore dyslipidemia, a strong risk factor of atherosclerosis is found in most individuals with diabetes. These major risk factors along with smoking and hypertension are found to act synergistically in the cardiovascular disease process.           ...

Wound healing in patients with diabetes is challenging and problematic due to circulation and nerve damage that goes hand in hand with the disease. Diabetes educators routinely educate their patients about day-to-day foot care. However, what measures are dietitians making in the prevention and treatment of wounds for individuals with diabetes? Optimum diabetes management is correlated with minimizing complications including retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral arterial disease. 60% to 70% of individuals diagnosed with diabetes have some form of nervous system damage, often compromising sensation in the extremities which is why routine foot care is so important. Diabetic foot wounds are one of the most common wounds seen. Diabetes influences wound healing by impacting all the stages of healing. There is no specified blood glucose level or hemoglobin A1c level that encourages wound healing. However according to the ...

Patients with heart conditions such as arterial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis are often prescribed Warfarin, an oral anticoagulant medication that is known to come with a range of negative and life-threatening complications. The current recommendation is that Warfarin users should aim for a stable daily vitamin K intake in order to improve the safety and efficacy of treatment. However, many studies have reported that warfarin-treated patients are often advised to either limit or avoid intake of vitamin K rich foods, especially green vegetables. This is troublesome because evidence has shown that patients with low intakes of vitamin K are more likely to experience decreased stability of warfarin therapy, leading to negative health outcomes. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics conducted a study with patients enrolled in the Quebec Warfarin Cohort Study. The goal of this research was to determine what recommendations patients received from their health care professionals in ...