Background:
Although FD may affect up to 10% of the general population, the therapy for FD is not standard. Recently, ginger-based food supplements have been proposed in order to restore FD symptoms. Our aim was to assess the efficacy of a new nutraceutical formulation containing extract of gingerol and thymus as a possible natural treatment in managing the symptoms of functional dyspepsia (FD).
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed the efficacy and safety profiles of a nutraceutical formulation containing Zingiber of¬ficinalis root extract and a standardized Thymus extract. It was adminis¬tered as 1 ml/day twice a day for 90 days. Patients were assessed at baseline and af¬ter 1, 2 and 3 months of treatment, following a month of pharmacological washout by completing a questionnaire reporting the trend of the following symptoms: epigastric pain, epigastric heaviness, early satiety, belching, and regurgitation. Every symptom was assessed by a Visual Analogic Scale (VAS), ranging from 0= absence to 10= maximal severity.
Results:
We enrolled 272 patients (99 males and 173 females; median IQR age 49.5, 36-64 yrs). Obesity (BMI>30) was present in 28 (12.5%) patients; smokers were 83 (30.5%); and comorbidities were present in 107 (39.3%) patients. Improvement of symptom scores during treatment and one month after its suspension was extremely significant (p<0.000).
Conclusion:
This large study found that nutraceutical formulation could be one of the tools for an empirical approach to treat patients with FD, especially when a non-conventional drug treatment is preferable for the patient and considered suitable by the physician.
BPH could be considered the most common benign tumor for men between 60 and 75 years of age. PSA is an
unsatisfactory biomarker to define BPH progression to cancer. Recently, sigma-2 receptors have been recognized in several
prostate cancer cell lines such as PC-3, DU-145 and LNCaP. It is reported that, in some cases, BPH could progress to
malignancy and this progression can not easily be monitored by biomarkers such as PSA. In this paper we investigated 10
specimens from TURP, finding overexpression of sigma-2 receptors in two of these specimens (specimen 1 and 2) accompanied
by 4 ng/mL PSA values. We hypothesize that the presence of sigma-2 receptors is related to a BPH progressing
in prostate cancer. A possible correlation between sigma-2 receptors and PSA values could be useful to identify this
pathological progression.
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