Definitions and Epidemiology Obesity is a chronic condition defined as an excess of body fat or adipose tissue that causes disease. Adiposity per se is difficult to measure expediently, so the use of BMI has become common as a marker…
Nutrition in Specific Disease States Nutritional assessment and directed nutritional therapy are important in the treatment of many GI diseases. Familiarity with appropriate nutritional intervention is imperative to obtain good clinical outcomes. The preceding chapter reviewed nutritional assessment, and this…
Diligent attention to patients’ nutritional needs can have a major positive impact on medical outcomes. This is particularly true in GI and liver disease because many of these conditions, in addition to altering nutrient metabolism and requirements, are prone to…
The gastrointestinal (GI) tract relies on hormones and neurotransmitters to integrate signals arising in the lumen with whole-body homeostasis. For instance, satiety in the brain is, to a great extent, induced by the presence of food in the gut. This…
Characteristics of the Human Intestinal Microbiome The intestinal microbiome is a diverse ecosystem comprising microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses including bacteriophages), their genomes (i.e., genes), and the surrounding environmental conditions. The population of microorganisms alone in a particular niche…
Mucosal immunity refers to immune responses that occur at mucosal sites. The demands on the mucosal immune system are quite distinct from their systemic counterparts. At mucosal sites, the “outside world” is typically separated from the inner world by a…
Normal cellular proliferation and differentiation are essential to tissue homeostasis in all organs, including the digestive tract. The neoplastic process involves a fundamental disruption of these mechanisms, which can give rise to cancer development and metastasis with the additional acquisition…
Acknowledgment NIH grant R01DK041274 is acknowledged for financial support. 68.1 Introduction Diarrhea is a global health concern ranked second only to respiratory diseases in worldwide occurrence. In 2015, UNICEF estimated that half a million deaths per year from diarrhea occur…
67.1 Irritable Bowel Syndrome The irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder present in 10%–20% of worldwide population. A functional disorder is the one for which no abnormal physical or metabolic process can be found to explain patienťs symptoms.…
Gastrointestinal cancers represent a heterogeneous, complex array of disorders and diseases. They may be divided into rare inherited forms and more frequent sporadic forms. There is a critical interplay of genetic and environmental factors that foster the conversion of normal…