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Query: UMLS:C0020175 (hunger)
 5,670 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Hunger and malnutrition in Africa have been on the increase since the 1960s. During the 1970s, it is estimated that 30 million people were directly affected by famine and malnutrition. About 5 million children died in 1984 alone. In Mozambique during the 1983-84 famine, about 100,000 people perished. In Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Liberia, and Angola armed conflicts compound the problem. Ethiopia alone had 9 million famine victims in 1983. The most common form of malnutrition in Africa is protein energy deficiency affecting over 100 million people, especially 30-50 million children under 5 years of age. Almost another 200 million are at risk. Iron deficiency, commonly called anemia, also affects 150 million people, mostly women and children. Iodine deficiency leads to disorders like mental retardation, cretinism, deafness, abortion, low resistance to disease, and goiter and this affects 60 million with about 150 million more at risk. Vitamin A deficiency causes blindness and low resistance to disease and affects about 10 million. Protein energy deficiency is treated by using donated foods in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, day care centers, and feeding centers. There are no community programs for anemia, or vitamin A or iodine deficiencies. Vaccines for preventing and drugs for treating diseases that cause malnutrition are imported. Therefore, African food and nutrition professionals met in 1988 and created the Africa Council for Food and Nutrition Sciences (AFRONUS) to eliminate famine and malnutrition in Africa. Activities have started in: 1) developing contacts between the workers in food and nutrition; 2) assessing the situation of food and nutrition in Africa; 3) developing an action plan; 4) implementing the plan; and 5) monitoring progress. Food and Nutrition Policy Guidelines have also been prepared by AFRONUS for food and nutrition workers. Africa has enough natural resources to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition, but these resources have to be harnessed.
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PMID:Hunger and malnutrition: the determinant of development: the case for Africa and its food and nutrition workers. 139 7

Famine and the manifestations of acute hunger that result are an unnecessary disgrace to our global society and serious in their political, economic, and social consequences. Probably more damaging is the chronic undernutrition that afflicts such a large proportion of the populations of developing countries and the hidden hungers of iron deficiency, avitaminosis A, and iodine deficiency disorders that are enormously widespread. Famine in the modern world is almost invariably superimposed on chronic undernutrition that is not solved with emergency relief. Adaptation to this undernutrition requires a reduction in physical activity needed for household and community improvement as well as work output. Iron deficiency interferes with cognitive performance, resistance to infection, and capacity for work. Other nutrient deficiencies add to the damage to the individual and society. Prevention of famine and hunger is not primarily a technological issue, but a moral, political, and social one.
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PMID:Consequences of hunger for individuals and societies. 309 3

Behavioral responses of Marthasterias glacialis to low molecular compounds were studied under laboratory conditions. Feeding postures, stomach eversions and locomotion of initially inactive animals can be released with very dilute solutions of lactic acid, neutral 2 and 3 carbon amino acids, L isomers of 4 to 6 carbon neutral amino acids, L-arginine, acetylcholine iodide, and several of their analogues. Hunger was induced by temporary withdrawal of food. Responsiveness to feeding stimuli was controlled with L-cysteine and L-leucine. The lowest behavioral thresholds for the most effective feeding stimuli were 3 X 10(-11) mol/l for both enantiomers of lactic acid, 10(-8) mol/l for L-proline and both enantiomers of cysteine and 10(-7) mol/l for acetylcholine iodide and some of the effective neutral amino acids. The behavioral threshold values for chemical stimuli differed by a factor between 30 and 100 in different sea stars. The test concentration was 3 X 10(-7) mol/l, the level at which L-cysteine elicited a complete feeding response from all the animals. Structure-activity comparison of substances less effective than the control stimulus was thus possible. The behavioral threshold of fully effective substances was determined later. The independence of receptor mechanisms for different substances can be inferred as: L-cysteine controlled responsiveness is not always accompanied by responsiveness to neutral amino acids. Autotomized marthasterias arms crawled after stimulation with lactic acid, cysteine, and acetylcholine iodide but did not respond to the feeding stimuli betaine and L-proline. An animal became inactive if electric shocks were paired with L-proline or L-cysteine emanating from an 'electric' food model.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Behavioral study of chemoreception in the sea star Marthasterias glacialis: structure-activity relationships of lactic acid, amino acids, and acetylcholine. 383 98

The relative radiation hazards from early and delayed fallout following a nuclear attack have been reviewed. It is indicated that the hazard to life from whole-body gamma irradiation from early fallout far outweighs the hazard from radioactive contamination of food. Nevertheless, because of the possible effects of iodine-131, the consumption by infants of fresh milk from animals which have ingested contaminated fodder should be avoided if possible during the first few weeks after attack. During the same period, water from covered supplies should be used in preference to that from open reservoirs. It is more important, however, to alleviate hunger and thirst in both man and animal than to prevent the temporary ingestion of food which may be contaminated by fallout.
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PMID:The radioactive contamination of food following nuclear attack. 607 Nov 30

An analysis conducted by WHO in 1991 and 1992 indicated that death rates from diseases related to diet and life-style (heart conditions, cancer, and diabetes) have increased significantly in many countries during the past 30 years, largely owing to changes in diet and life-style. 40 high-income countries have diet-related disorders, and as many as 80 middle-income nations may have both undernutrition and overnutrition problems. Undernutrition is widespread in some 50 low-income countries and is associated with a high incidence of stunting and micronutrient deficiencies (especially iron, iodine, and vitamin A). Diet-related deficiencies affect 2000 million people. WHO scientists reviewed data from 26 developed and 16 developing countries from the period 1960-89: 20 countries showed increases ranging up to 160% in death rates from diet-related and life-style-related causes. The biggest decreases were in Australia, Canada, Japan, and the USA where education advised people to limit intakes of fat, saturated fat, and salt as well as to increase exercise and reduce smoking. Data on food availability for 1988-90 showed that an estimated 786 million people in developing countries were chronically undernourished. Hunger and malnutrition affect many of the 123 million people living in 11 countries where the food situation is critical. Some 192 million children 5 years of age suffer from protein-energy malnutrition characterized by retardation of physical growth and lowered resistance to infections. 55 million of these underweight children are in south Asian countries. In these countries, about half of all deaths occur before 5 years of age, and the majority of these deaths are caused by diarrheal disease. It is estimated that up to 70% of diarrhea cases are food-borne in origin. There are 1500 million episodes of diarrhea annually in children 5 years of age, killing 3 million of them.
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PMID:International Conference on nutrition. 818 79

Iodine deficiency in pregnancy leads to poor cognitive function in the offspring; however, the effect of concurrent iodine deficiency on school-aged children is not clear. Several studies have shown that school children in iodine-deficient villages have poorer cognitive function than children in iodine-sufficient villages. However, villages differ in many factors that may also detrimentally affect children's development. In addition, the children's nutritional and health status has not usually been taken into account. In this study, we compared the cognitive function and school achievement levels of 170 children who had recently had low thyroxine (T4) levels [T4 </= 45 nmol/L (hypothyroid)] with children who had not had low T4 levels [T4 >/=70 nmol/L (euthyroid)]. The children were matched for school and grade level and came from the same iodine-deficient regions in rural Bangladesh. They were given a battery of cognitive, motor and school achievement tests. We also measured their nutritional status, examined their stools for geohelminths and assessed their home environments. A factor analysis of cognitive and motor function tests yielded two factors, a general cognitive factor and a fine motor factor. The children's height and arm circumference, experience of hunger, parental characteristics and stimulation in the home made independent contributions to their test scores. Controlling for these variables, the hypothyroid children performed worse than the euthyroid children on reading and spelling and the general cognitive factor. These findings indicate that a large number of disadvantages including hypothyroidism are related to the poor development of these children.
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PMID:Biochemical hypothyroidism secondary to iodine deficiency is associated with poor school achievement and cognition in Bangladeshi children. 1022 89

Endemic hypothyroidism has been studied in a Central African population in remote Congo (ex-Zaire) to investigate the prevalence, severity, causes, and potential control of this disorder, with questions as to why this disease is conserved, and whether it confers any adaptive advantage in this resource-constrained environment. Iodine deficiency, cassava goiterogens, and selenium deficiency were found to be the factors implicated in the severe hypothyroidism expressed in congenital cretinism and high goiter incidence in this isolated population, which continues to be under observation following medical intervention. Profound hypothyroidism was encountered in whole village populations as measured by serum thyrotropin determinations ranging from very high to over 1000 IU, and thyroxin levels ranging from low to undetectable; cretinism rates were as high as 11% and goiter incidence approached 100%. Assessment of endocrinologic status, caloric requirement, energy output, fertility, and ecologic factors was carried out before and during iodine repletion by depot injection. Hypothyroidism was corrected and cretinism eliminated in the treatment group, with goiters reduced in most instances (with regrowth exhibited in some who escaped control) and some symptomatic goiter patients were offered surgical treatment for respiratory obstruction. Individual patient benefits, including improved strength and increased energy output, were remarkable. The social and developmental consequences observed within the collective groups of treated patients were remarkable for an increase in caloric requirement and a dramatic increase in fertility that led to quantitative as well as qualitative increases in resource consumption. Micronutrient iodine repletion was not accompanied by any concomitant increase in macronutrient supply, and hunger and environmental degradation resulted. The highly prevalent disease of hypothyroidism is found in highest incidence in areas of greatest resource constraint. It may be that hypothyroidism is conserved in such areas because it may confer adaptive advantage in such marginal environments as an effect, as well as a cause, of underdevelopment. Hypothyroidism may limit energy requirements, fertility, and consumer population pressure in closed ecosystems that could otherwise be outstripped. Single factor intervention in a vertical health care program not sensitive to the fragile biologic balance and not part of a culture-sensitive development program might result in medical maladaptation.
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PMID:Metabolic maladaptation: individual and social consequences of medical intervention in correcting endemic hypothyroidism. 1089 20

Achievement of Health-for-All, whereby people everywhere throughout their lives, have the opportunity to reach and maintain the highest attainable level of health is impossible whilst hunger, starvation, and malnutrition remain. Malnutrition covers a broad spectrum of ills, including undernutrition, specific nutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition; and it kills, maims, retards, cripples, blinds, and impairs human development on a truly massive scale worldwide. In the developing world in 1995, of the estimated 10.4 million deaths among children under 5 years of age, protein-energy malnutrition was an associated and causative factor in 5.1 million of these deaths (i.e. 49%). On the other hand, evidence has recently been compiled suggesting that of the more than 10 million cases of cancer that occurred in 1996, an estimated 30-40% (3-4 million every year) are preventable by feasible, appropriate diets, and by physical activity and maintenance of appropriate body weight. Malnutrition affects all age groups across the entire lifespan. From the moment of conception, throughout foetal life, iodine, folate and intrauterine nutrition have a profound influence on development, growth, morbidity, mortality, not only in utero and in early infancy, but on morbidity, physical and mental capacity throughout life. Despite significant improvements in world food supplies, health conditions, and availability of educational and social services, no population escapes malnutrition's grasp. All countries have significant population groups with some form of debilitating malnutrition. Malnutrition worldwide, includes a spectrum of nutrient-related disorders, deficiencies and conditions including the following major public health problems; Intrauterine growth retardation, protein-energy malnutrition, Iodine deficiency disorders, Vitamin A Deficiency, Iron Deficiency Anaemia and Overweight and Obesity (WHO, Website).
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PMID:The emerging importance of dietary lipids, quantity and quality, in the global disease burden: the potential of aquatic resources. 1200 80

Recent data points to a slowdown in the rate of nutritional advance in many regions of the world and a downturn in some countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This slowdown, however, is unnecessary. Even over the past 5 years, major advances have been made in some areas of nutrition, particularly in reducing by 1.5 billion the number of people at risk from iodine deficiency disorders. The world, working together as an international community, can make progress in nutrition. In 1992, the governments of 159 countries adopted the World Declaration and Plan of Action for Nutrition, declaring their determination to eliminate hunger and reduce all forms of malnutrition. By adopting the declaration and plan of action, governments agreed to develop national plans of action, using the technical expertise of UN agencies. As of 1996, 106 countries had prepared national plans of action for nutrition and most countries in which the national plan has been endorsed by the government are actively pursuing its implementation. Several countries, however, especially the poorest, lack the human and financial resources needed for implementation. Now, almost 5 years after the adoption of the plan, the global impact upon almost all forms of malnutrition falls far short of that required to meet the goals for the year 2000. If current trends continue, no region except Latin America and the Caribbean will achieve the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition and 1990 World Summit for Children goals to reduce levels of child malnutrition by 2000. A holistic, international approach is needed to prevent malnutrition.
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PMID:Meeting the nutrition challenge: a call to arms. 1232 86

In November 1989, 23 leading hunger experts met in Bellagio, Italy, issues a document called the "Bellagio Declaration: Overcoming Hunger in the 1990s." The report lists 4 achievable goals: eliminate famine deaths; end hunger in half of the world's poorest households; reduce by half malnutrition of mothers and small children; and eradicate iodine and vitamin A deficiencies. Famine deaths can be eliminated by setting up early-warning systems and longer-term relief objectives. The only remaining obstacle is how to prevent warring nations from blocking food deliveries and destroying food. Hunger can be eliminated in half the world's poor households by giving the poor access to resources and credit, rehabilitating degraded ecosystems, using sustainable farming, and using existing markets to distribute food equitably. Malnutrition can be halved by sustained breastfeeding, and supplementation of food and micronutrients. Iodine and vitamin A deficiencies can be eliminated by giving iodized oil injections, vitamin A capsules and iodized salt. Ways of dealing with obstacles such as population, deforestation, soil and water shortages, pollution, global warming and capital deficits in the South are discussed. There is hope that these goals can be attained because of the outbreak of peace and democracy, freeing up substantial portions of the 1 trillion US dollars spent on defense; abatement of feat of worldwide economic collapse; and evolution of a worldwide logistic system to provide emergency food aid.
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PMID:The Bellagio Declaration: overcoming hunger in the 1990's. 1234 52


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