World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 654, (Part 2): Nutritional Factors in Peripheral Neuropathies

By World Health Organization

Book Id: WPLBN0000055465
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 3.58 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 654, (Part 2): Nutritional Factors in Peripheral Neuropathies
Author:	World Health Organization
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Health., Public health, Wellness programs
Collections:	Medical Library Collection, World Health Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	World Health Organization


Citation APA MLA Chicago Health Organization, B. W. (n.d.). World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 654, (Part 2). Retrieved from http://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Medical Reference Publication

Excerpt
It is well established that a chronic state of undernutrition or malnutrition may affect the central or the peripheral nervous system, or both. Polyneuropathies of nutritional origin, which have long posed a worldwide problem, constitute a clinical entity encountered as commonly by general physicians as by specialists. However, the settings in which primary nutritional neuropathies occur differ considerably from one part of the world to another. In developing countries, poverty, severe drought, ignorance, an unbalanced diet and vegetarian regimes appear to be the main factors in dietary deficiencies, although the chronic abuse of alcohol is playing an increasingly important role, and conditions such as pregnancy, lactation, and infections may be precipitating factors. By contrast, in developed countries, the most common nutritional causes of polyneuropathy, in order of frequency, appear to be chronic alcoholism, food fads, ignorance, and neglect. Secondary or conditioned nutritional polyneuropathies are also quite common. They may be due to a variety of malabsorption syndromes (Binder et al., 1967) or to chronic debilitating illnesses, such as neoplasia, dementia, psychosis, and depression, which often cause severe nutritional depletion. In addition. a number of drugs-for example, isoniazid (Biehl & Vilter, 1954a, b; Gammon et al., 1953), which is used in the treatment of tuberculosis, and hydralazine (Raskin & Fishman, 1965), an antihypertensive agent-interfere with normal vitamin metabolism. Their prolonged use may ultimately result in a polyneuropathy. The term toxonutritional seems appropriate to describe such a clinical condition. While clinically significant primary or secondary malnutrition are very common, not all afflicted patients de\elop complications of the nervous system. It would be helpful to be able to identify the susceptible individual whose nervous system. central or peripheral, is particularly vulnerable to the effects of nutritional deficiency and other metabolic insults, but so far this has not been done. Recently it has been shown that some individuals are indeed more vulnerable than others. Blass & Gibson (1977) have discovered that some patients

Table of Contents
604 (1977) Wholesomeness of irradiated food Report of a Joint FAO/IAEA/WHO Expert Committee (44 pages) ....6 605 (1977) Chemotherapy of solid tumours Report of a WHO Expert Committee (106 pages) ....................12 606 (1977) The role of immune complexes in disease Report of a WHO Scientific Group (58 pages) ........... ;. ..........8 607 (1977) WHO Expert Committee on Leprosy Fifth report (48 pages) ...........................................6 608 (1977) Criteria for the evaluation of learning objectives in the education of health personnel Report of a WHO Study Group (47 pages) .............. , ...........6 609 (1977) Health needs of adolescents Report of a WHO Expert Committee (54 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 610 (1977) WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization Twenty-eighth report (133 pages) ..................................11 61 1 (1977) Use of ionizing radiation and radionuclides on human beings for medical research, training, and nonmedical purposes Report of a WHO Expert Committee (39 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 61 2 (1 977) Pesticide residues in food Report of the 1976 Joint Meeting of the FA0 Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues and the Environment and the WHO Expert Group on Pesticide Residues (35 pages:) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613 (1977) Child mental health and psychosocial devdopment Report of a WHO Expert Committee (71 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 (1977) WHO Expert Committee on Specificatiom for Pharmaceutical Preparations Twenty-sixth report (53 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615 (1977) The selection of essential cbugs Report of WHO Expert Committee (36 pages) ...................... 6 16 (1 978) Neisseria gonorrhoeae and gonocorral infections Report of a WHO Scientific Group (142 pages) ...................... 6 17 (1 978) Evaluation of certain food additives Twenty-first report of the Joint FAOIWHO Expert Committee on Food Additives(41pages) ............................................. 618 (1978) WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dcpepdwce Twenty-first report (49 pages) ..................................... 61 9 (1 978) Steroid contraception and the risk of neoplasia Report of a WHO Scientific Group (54 pages) ....................... 620 (1978) Chemistry and specifications of pesticides Second report of the WHO Expert Committee on Vector Biology and Control (36 pages) ............................................... 621 (1978) Epidemiology, etiology, and prevention of periodontal diseases Report of a WHO Scientific Group (60 pages) ....................... 622 (1 978) The promotion and development of traditional medicine Report of a WHO meeting (41 pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sw. fr. 6.-