Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major public health problem in Saudi Arabia. Dietary intake plays a major role in CVD incidence; however, the dietary intake status in Saudi nationals with CVD is unknown. We aimed to investigate whether the dietary patterns of Saudi males, using the Saudi dietary guidelines adherence score, in parallel with the measurement of a selective number of cardiovascular disease-related biomarkers, are contributing factors to CVD risk. Demographics, dietary adherence score, and blood biomarker levels were collected for 40 CVD patients and forty non-CVD patients. Fasting blood glucose (p = 0.006) and high-density lipoprotein levels (p = 0.03) were significantly higher in CVD patients. The adherence score to the Saudi dietary guidelines was not significantly different between the CVD and non-CVD patients; however, the specific adherence scores of fruit (p = 0.02), olive oil (p = 0.01), and non-alcoholic beer (p = 0.02) were significantly higher in the non-CVD patients. The differences in CVD family history (p = 0.02) and adherence scores to specific groups/foods between the CVD and non-CVD patients may contribute to CVD risk in Saudi males. However, as the sample size of this study was small, further research is required to validate these findings.

Objetivo Identificar a relação entre dois constructos do Modelo Transteorético-estágios e processos de mudança-quan-to ao consumo de frutas e de hortaliças por adolescentes. Métodos Em desenho transversal, foi aplicado um questionário a 61 adolescentes, verificando que o uso do processo autoliberação se distinguiu significativamente (p<0,05) em todos os estágios de mudança no consumo de frutas e de hortaliças. Resultado O processo suporte social apresentou diferenças significativas (p<0,05) no seu uso entre estágios pré-contemplação/contemplação e preparação apenas no consumo de frutas. Quanto ao uso do processo auto-reavaliação, foram encontradas diferenças significativas (p<0,05) entre os estágios pré-contemplação/ contemplação e preparação no consumo de hortaliças. Conclusão Concluiu-se que alguns processos específicos de mudança eram utilizados pelos adolescentes ao se moverem por meio dos estágios de mudança. Intervenções empregando tais processos devem ser realizadas para possibilitar avanços nos estágios de mudança do consumo de frutas e de hortaliças. Termos de Indexação: comportamento do adolescente; frutas; hortaliças.

Breakfast skipping was prevalent among adolescents and young women in the studied sample. Unhealthy dietary habits, father's education lower than university level, and father being unemployed positively predicted breakfast skipping of daughters at home. This implies that breakfast eating can be encouraged by approaching parents in addition to their daughters.

Hitherto, limited clinical impact has been achieved in the treatment of glioblastoma (GBMs). Although phytochemicals found in medicinal herbs can provide mankind with new therapeutic remedies, single agent intervention has failed to bring the expected outcome in clinical trials. Therefore, combinations of several agents at once are gaining increasing attractiveness. In the present study, we investigated the effects of crude alkaloid (CAERS) and flavonoid (CFEZO) extracts prepared from medicinal herbs, Rhazya stricta and Zingiber officinale, respectively, on the growth of human GBM cell line, U251. R. stricta and Z. officinale are traditionally used in folkloric medicine and have antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and free radical scavenging properties. Combination of CAERS and CFEZO treatments synergistically suppressed proliferation and colony formation and effectively induced morphological and biochemical features of apoptosis in U251 cells. Apoptosis induction was mediated by release of mitochondrial cytochrome c, increased Bax : Bcl-2 ratio, enhanced activities of caspase-3 and -9, and PARP-1 cleavage. CAERS and CFEZO treatments decreased expression levels of nuclear NF-κBp65, survivin, XIAP, and cyclin D1 and increased expression level of p53, p21, and Noxa. These results suggest that combination of CAERS and CFEZO provides a useful foundation for studying and developing novel chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of GBM.