Conference focuses on nutritional aspect of everyday health

Sunday, 06 April 2008
By Kholood F. Al-Rhamah

JEDDAH – The importance of nutrition in preserving everyday health for adults and children was the focus of a three-day conference King Faisal Specialist Hospital organized late last week.

The conference highlighted the importance of nutrition preventing diseases that have become more common in the busy everyday life of people in an ever faster-paced society.

“We are aiming in this conference at various categories with different messages to ordinary people, doctors and nutritionists,” said Dr. Saddah Eshki, Chief Clinical Services, Chairman Medical Nutrition Department in KFSH and the conference chief. “We explained Cardiology diseases in particular to the public, because these are high mortality diseases.”

He said the conference gave the message that excessive use of some medicines could cause more problems than they can cure, such as cholesterol drugs, which can cause cancer and liver problems if they are taken more often than they should be.

“The second message is for doctors to focus on the importance of medical nutrition for patients,” he said. “If the patient was in intensive care with wounds, the healing process could go better if there was better nutrition.”

He said cancer patients can be treated without putting them on bad diet that could worsen their cases and eventually kill them.

“The third message is for nutritionists, who should constantly update their knowledge after graduation,” said Eshki.

He added that it was a very good step for King Abdul Aziz University to open a specialty in medical nutrition.

Many speakers from different parts of the world participated in the event, such as Dr. Allan Johnson, associate dean of the division of Allied Health Sciences at the College of Pharmacy in Howard University, and Dr. Federico Bozzetti, Oncologist Surgeon and the head of the surgical department at the Hospital of Prato, Italy and Dr. Lubso Sobotka, Professor of Medicine, head of the Department of Metabolic Care and Gerontology, Medical Faculty in Charles University, Czech Republic.

“Cachexia, loss of weight, muscle atrophy, fatigue, weakness and significant loss of appetite in someone who is not actively trying to lose weight, is a major cause of mortality among cancer patients, because from 10 to 25 percent of cancer patients with advanced disease die because of it, not because of the affliction itself,” said Bozzetti.

“It is quite important to approach this kind of patient from the nutritional point of view.”He added that “the preparation and the cultural background of nurses and dieticians (in Saudi Arabia) impressed me very much.” “It is different, higher and much better than many other countries in Europe,” Bozzetti said.