The role of nutrition in influencing mechanisms involved in environmentally mediated diseases

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Human exposure to environmental contaminants such as persistent chlorinated organics, heavy metals, pesticides, phthalates, flame retardants, electronic waste and airborne pollutants around the world, and especially in Southeast Asian regions, are significant and require urgent attention. Given this widespread contamination and abundance of such toxins as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the ecosystem, it is unlikely that remediation alone will be sufficient to address the health impacts associated with this exposure. Furthermore, we must assume that the impact on health of some of these contaminants results in populations with extraordinary vulnerabilities to disease risks. Further exacerbating risk; infectious diseases, poverty and malnutrition are common in the Southeast Asian regions of the world. Thus, exploring preventive measures of environmental exposure and disease risk through new paradigms of environmental toxicology, optimal and/or healthful nutrition and health is essential. For example, folic acid supplementation can lower blood arsenic levels, and plant-derived bioactive nutrients can lower cardiovascular and cancer risks linked to pollutant exposure. Data also indicate that diets enriched with bioactive food components such as polyphenols and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids can prevent or decrease toxicant-induced inflammation. Thus, consuming healthy diets that exhibit high levels of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, is a meaningful way to reduce the vulnerability to non-communicable diseases linked to environmental toxic insults. This nutritional paradigm in environmental toxicology requires further study in order to improve our understanding of the relationship between nutrition or other lifestyle modifications and toxicant-induced diseases. Understanding mechanistic relationships between nutritional modulation of environmental toxicants and susceptibility to disease development are important for both cumulative risk assessment and the design and implementation of future public health programs and behavioral interventions.</jats:p>

The developmental basis of disease: Update on environmental exposures and animal models

“…Coplanar PCBs stimulate inflammation and oxidative stress, reviewed in Ref. . Consumption of green tea can reduce oxidative and inflammatory responses associated with PCB exposures via the up‐regulation of antioxidant enzymes and thereby reduce cardiovascular toxicity and inflammation .…”

“…Consumption of green tea can reduce oxidative and inflammatory responses associated with PCB exposures via the up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes and thereby reduce cardiovascular toxicity and inflammation. 57,58 Similarly, resveratrol, a polyphenol, found in berries has been shown to reduce hepatic steatosis and oxidative stress in mice exposed to dioxin 59 and to protect against PCB-induced type 2 diabetes. 60 Resveratrol may be acting to stimulate the antioxidant pathway via activation of NRF2, perhaps via epigenetic mechanisms.…”

Causes and solutions to “globesity”: The new fa(s)t alarming global epidemic

“…The process from gaining extra weight to developing pathologic obesity is usually long and polygenic. Several groups of risk factors influence body weight gain and interplay in the development of obesity such as excessive food consumption, low levels of physical activity, certain genetic phenotypes, disturbed neuroendocrine regulation, societal and environmental factors, epigenetic changes and iatrogenic factors (Cheng et al, 2018;González-Muniesa et al, 2017;Hennig et al, 2018;Karam and McFarlane, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, the differences in fat deposition patterns have been described in monozygotic twins with identical genetic background, suggesting important role of the nutrition and epigenetic interactions in obesity development. Therefore, maintaining a healthy lifestyle involves more of a focus on the quality of foods eaten and the overall metabolic balance than on kilograms or calories alone (Cheng et al, 2018;Hennig et al, 2018).…”

Effet des acides gras polyinsaturés à longue chaîne n-3 sur le remodelage membranaire induit par les toxiques chimiques : retentissement sur la mort cellulaire

“…A l'heure actuelle, la nature des régimes alimentaires émerge comme un nouveau moyen de prévention vis-à-vis des maladies liées à l'exposition aux toxiques chimiques, notamment les contaminants environnementaux [10]. Or, les acides gras polyinsaturés à longue chaîne n-3…”