"They're super foods"*

While I was writing the draft of this post, I realized that despite the name of my blog, neither greens nor berries have yet been a topic of a post. Here is a feature article from the online version of the Nutrition Action Healthletter on how eating leafy greens benefits our eyes, bones, brains and other body parts' longevity and integrity:

The Greens Party

(*Tufts University researcher, Katherine Tucker, referring to leafy green vegetables in the linked article.)

Credit: photo of Mesclun mix by random duck used under this Creative Commons license.

FOOD Trials: Implications for Dietetic Practice

Earlier I posted a brief description of and links to the FOOD Trials, a series of three large, multi-centre, randomized controlled studies that attempted to answer questions about feeding stroke patients.

Here, in the researchers own words, are how the trial results can be applied to practice:

Study 1: Can oral supplementation improve stroke outcome?

On the basis of our results and our surveys of UK practice, it seems likely that patients who are judged to be undernourished on admission or who have deteriorating nutritional status in hospital will be offered oral nutritional supplements.....However, our data do not support use of routine supplementation of hospital diet for unselected stroke patients who are mainly well nourished on admission (The Lancet, Vol 365 February 26, 2005 p. 762).

Studies 2 & 3: Do timing and/or route of enteral feeding affect stroke outcome at 6 months?

Our data would suggest that to reduce case fatality, unless there is a strong indication to delay enteral tube feeding (such indications would have excluded such patients from the FOOD trial), dysphagic stroke patients should be offered enteral tube feeding via a nasogastric tube within the first few days of admission. Also, for enteral feeding within the first 2 or 3 weeks, nasogastric feeding should be the chosen route unless there is a strong practical reason to choose PEG feeding (eg, the patient cannot tolerate a nasogastric tube) (The Lancet, Vol 365 February 26, 2005 p. 771).

The authors also state:

Early tube feeding might reduce case fatality, but at the expense of increasing the proportion surviving with poor outcome. Our data do not support a policy of early initiation of PEG feeding in dysphagic stroke patients (The Lancet, Vol 365 February 26, 2005 p. 764).

Evidence for best nutrition practice in stroke care

Because June is Stroke Month, I'm going to end this last week of June with several posts on stroke research that provides evidence for best nutrition practice.

Today I'm highlighting the FOOD trials that tried to answer the why, when and how of feeding stroke pts. The questions were:

1. In patients who can take adequate oral fluids, does routine oral nutrition supplementation increase the proportion of stroke patients surviving without disability?
2. In patients who are unable to take an adequate diet orally, does early initiation of tube feeding (NG or PEG) increase the proportion of stroke patients surviving without severe disability?
3. In patients who need tube feeding, is a PEG tube, instead of the traditional NG tube, associated with improved outcomes after stroke?

The study results, along with a helpful commentary, were published in the 26 February 2005 issue of the Lancet. Here are the web links to the articles (note: subscription needed to read them):

Donnan GA, Dewey HM. Stroke and nutrition: FOOD for thought. The Lancet, Volume 365, Number 9461, pages 729-730.

Routine oral nutritional supplementation for stroke patients in hospital (FOOD): a multicentre randomised controlled trial. The FOOD Trial Collaboration. The Lancet, Volume 365, Number 9461, pages 755-763.

Effect of timing and method of enteral tube feeding for dysphagic stroke patients (FOOD): a multicentre randomised controlled trial. The FOOD Trial Collaboration. The Lancet, Volume 365, Number 9461, pages 764-772.

If you or your workplace do not have a Lancet subscription, you can still read summaries of the articles for free, although you do have to register. I did this, but to be honest, I didn't find the summaries had enough information to be useful.

I had wanted to upload the full articles to my blog but I can't because of copyright restrictions. If you can't access the articles easily, please email me and I will email you copies for your personal use. (The copyright policy permits this.)

My email address is on the About page.

Protocol for Cochrane Review: Nursing interventions for improving nutritional status of stroke patients

Depending on where you work or go to school, you may have free access to the full Cochrane Library. Here's the web link to this protocol: Nursing interventions for improving nutritional status of stroke patients.

I realize some readers may not have free access so I've uploaded the Introduction on my blog. I hope it will give you enough information to decide whether you'd like to read the entire report.

Links:
Introduction to protocol
Nursing interventions for improving nutritional status of stroke patients

Round-up of Stroke Resources

Today at a Stroke Care Improvement meeting I shared some of the stroke resources I've been gathering during the past two months. Now would be a good time to take stock and collect all the previously published links in one post. The list is a work-in-progress and will grow.

Although the resources are not nutrition-specific, they all contain some nutrition elements such as diet modifications to reduce stroke risk factors (primary and secondary prevention) or manage deficits (e.g, dysphagia) during acute stroke treatment and rehabilitation.

THE LIST:

Practices and Standards Working Group, The Canadian Stroke Strategy. Canadian Best Practice Recommendations for Stroke Care: 2006.

Best Practices and Standards Working Group, The Canadian Stroke Strategy. Best Practices and Standards Environmental Scan Report.

Heart and Stroke Foundation home page.

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Ontario Stroke System. Best Practice Guidelines.

National Stroke Foundation, Australia. National Clinical Guidelines for Acute Stroke Management.

National Stroke Foundation, Australia. National Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery.

National Stroke Foundation, Australia. Stroke Care Pathway: A Resource for Health Professionals.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. Management of patients with stroke: Identification and management of dysphagia. September 2004.

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. Management of patients with stroke: Rehabilitation, prevention and management of complications, and discharge planning. November 2002.

Teasell R, Foley N. Evidence-based review of stroke rehabilitation: Managing the stroke rehabilitation triage process.