‘Healthy Gut from the Start’ campaign sheds light on GI tract function, digestive diseases
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In 1988, President Ronal Reagan declared May National Digestive Diseases Awareness Month, and since then activities and programs have been implemented to increase the understanding of causes and treatments for various digestive diseases.
The World Gastroenterology Organization celebrates World Digestive Health Day on May 29. The focus of this year’s campaign is “Your Digestive Health: A Healthy Gut from the Start,” which highlights that the gastrointestinal tract promotes organ function from the time of birth through the rest of our lives. The campaign seeks to help individuals better understand the GI tract’s normal function, importance of diet and when to find care for GI-related symptoms.
Additionally, selfie cards with #WWDHD2023 are available to further increase awareness on social media.
To promote National Digestive Diseases Awareness Month and encourage your patients to share their own experiences, Healio has compiled a list of the latest news and research on a wide range of digestive diseases.
Q&A: Survey results highlight need for awareness, open communication about IBS
More than half of the respondents in Salix Pharmaceutical’s annual patient perspective survey reported waiting at least a year before mentioning their irritable bowel syndrome symptoms to a health care provider.
According to a company press release, 43% of respondents were unaware that IBS is a chronic condition, 43% assumed their symptoms would resolve with dietary modification and 39% thought they would get resolution with over-the-counter medications. Read more.
FDA limit on acetaminophen dosage linked to fewer hospitalizations, cases of liver failure
A 2011 FDA mandate, which limited acetaminophen dosage to 325 mg/tablet in prescription acetaminophen and opioid products, correlated with a decrease in yearly hospitalizations and cases of acute liver failure related to toxicity.
“Anecdotally we had several patients in rapid succession with acetaminophen overdose — in the setting of taking over-the-counter flu/cold medications — requiring liver transplantation, and we wanted to understand FDA limits around dosing,” Jayme E. Locke, MD, MPH, FACS, FAST, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Institute at University of Alabama at Birmingham, told Healio. “Given the FDA mandate was restricted to prescription combination meds, we decided to see if cases of acute liver failure and hospitalizations were lower post- vs. pre-mandate.” Read more.
Milk elimination achieves similar histological remission vs. more restrictive diet in EoE
The elimination of animal milk alone was an effective first step in dietary therapy for patients with eosinophilic esophagitis, according to research published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.
“A controversy in diet-based therapy for eosinophilic esophagitis is whether to initially exclude a long list of possible food triggers or start with a smaller number of the most common food antigens that trigger esophageal eosinophilia,” Kara L. Kliewer, PhD, of the division of allergy and immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati, and colleagues wrote. “Excluding many potential triggers increases the likelihood that histological improvement will be reached at the cost of markedly restricting diet when eliminating six or more commonly consumed food types.” Read more.
Gallstone disease may be predictor of pancreatic cancer
Patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma were six times more likely to have had cholelithiasis or cholecystitis in the year before diagnosis compared with the general population, according to data presented at Digestive Disease Week.
“Pancreatic cancer is often fatal, because it is frequently not diagnosed until its later stages. What complicates the initial diagnosis is that early symptoms often mirror those associated with gallstone disease and gallbladder inflammation, both of which have been demonstrated to be risk factors for pancreatic cancer,” Teviah E. Sachs, MD, MPH, associate professor and chief of surgical oncology at Boston Medical Center, said at the DDW media briefing. “Unfortunately, there is little known about how often these conditions occur before the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.” Read more.
Patients with COVID-19 experience GI symptoms more frequently than noninfected controls
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had a “modest increased risk” for long-term gastrointestinal symptoms and irritable bowel syndrome compared with control patients, according to research published in Gut.
“The data we collected show that those who have contracted COVID-19 experience gastrointestinal symptoms more frequently than those who have not been affected by it,” Giovanni Barbara, MD, study coordinator and professor of medical and surgical sciences at the University of Bologna in Italy, said in a related press release. “Given the vast spread of COVID-19 globally, we should therefore expect an increase in diagnoses related to gut-brain interaction disorders.” Read more.
Q&A: Exercise ‘seems to groom’ microbiome in ways that affect overall health, well-being
It is widely known that exercise improves cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health, but research now suggests physical activity may positively affect the composition and diversity of an individual’s gut microbiome.
“The metabolic effects of your microbiome are hugely important in determining your susceptibility to various diseases and your overall health in general,” William D. Chey, MD, AGAF, FACG, chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at Michigan Medicine, told Healio. “Exercise seems to increase the diversity of your microbiome and that overall is felt to be a good thing.” Read more.
Women younger than 55 years have a 2.4% higher incidence of pancreatic cancer vs. men
The incidence of pancreatic cancer increased at a faster rate over time among women aged younger than 55 years compared with their male counterparts, according to research published in Gastroenterology.
“A previously published nationwide study by our team showed that the incidence of pancreatic cancer has been significantly increasing in younger women at a greater rate compared to younger men,” Yazan Abboud, MD, a postdoctoral research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told Healio. “However, the study was limited in such that it represented 36.7% of the U.S. population, and thus, the generalizability of the findings was somewhat limited.” Read more.
Q&A: We must ‘outsmart the virus’: Strategy needed to curb risk for long COVID, GI issues
Infection with SARS-CoV-2 increased the risk for long-term gastrointestinal problems within 1 year, including motility disorders, acute pancreatitis and liver disease, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
“There are a lot of different hypotheses to explain why SARS-CoV-2, which we all thought of as a respiratory virus that leads to pneumonia or other respiratory problems, can actually result in GI disorders,” Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, chief of research and development service at Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System and clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, told Healio. Read more.
Higher-volume hospitals linked to reduced mortality, failure to rescue after liver surgery
Hospitals that performed at least 25 major hepatectomies per year had lower rates of postoperative in-hospital mortality and failure to rescue, suggesting better management of postoperative complications.
“Hospital volume influences postoperative complications after complex digestive surgical procedures. Higher hospital volume is associated with lower mortality rates. This relationship has also been demonstrated for failure to rescue,” Josephine Magnin, of the department of digestive surgical oncology at the University Hospital of Dijon in France, and colleagues wrote in the British Journal of Surgery. “Most studies addressing the impact of hospital volume on postoperative mortality and morbidity after liver surgery have shown discordant results.” Read more.
References:
- National Digestive Diseases Awareness Month. https://nationaltoday.com/national-digestive-diseases-awareness-month/ Accessed May 4, 2023.
- World Digestive Health Day. http://wdhd.worldgastroenterology.org/ Accessed May 4, 2023.