Fathima Hajara Aslam

• PhD
• Dean's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Deakin University

Context Dietary fibers hold potential to influence depressive and anxiety outcomes by modulating the microbiota–gut–brain axis, which is increasingly recognized as an underlying factor in mental health maintenance. Objective Evidence for the effects of fibers on depressive and anxiety outcomes remains unclear. To this end, a systematic literature...

This umbrella review aimed to systematically identify the peri-operative risk factors associated with post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) using meta-analyses of observational studies. To date, no review has synthesised nor assessed the strength of the available evidence examining risk factors for POCD. Database searches from journal incepti...

An increase in the age of surgical patients as well as the volume of surgeries is associated with a rise in perioperative neurocognitive disorders. These disorders encompass acute delirium and longer-term cognitive dysfunctions. Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin that plays a dynamic role in a series of neurological function...

Letter to the Editor

While the role of a healthy diet in the management and prevention of physical chronic disease is well established, the nascent field of nutritional psychiatry has identified that improved diet quality is associated with a reduced risk of mental disorders, and emerging clinical trial data support a causal relationship between diet quality and depres...

Background Beta-casein is a major protein in cow’s milk, of which A1 and A2 are the most frequent variants. Recent evidence implicates A1 beta-casein consumption in mechanisms that are of potential importance to mental health, yet its possible effects on psychological endpoints remains unknown. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the compar...

Background At a population level, the relation between dairy consumption and gut microbiome composition is poorly understood. Objectives We sought to study the cross-sectional associations between individual dairy foods (i.e., milk, yogurt, and cheese), as well as total dairy intake, and the gut microbiome composition in a large, representative sa...

Numerous observational studies have investigated the role of the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) in chronic disease risk. The aims of this umbrella review and integrated meta-analyses were to systematically synthesize the observational evidence reporting on the associations between the DII and health outcomes based on meta-analyses, and to assess...

Objective The current study aimed to assess the association between dairy consumption and constipation in the general adult population. Design Data from the Geelong Osteoporosis Study were used to assess the association between dairy consumption and constipation in women ( n=632) and men ( n=609). Information on milk, yogurt and cheese, and consti...

Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric disorder with high morbidity and mortality rate. Evidence for the optimal psychopharmacological approach to managing the disorder remains limited, with nutritional treatment, focused on weight restoration through the consumption of high energy diet, regarded as one of the fundamental steps in treatment. The...

The effects of dairy and dairy-derived products on the human gut microbiota remains understudied. A systematic literature search was conducted using Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus, and PubMed databases with the aim of collating evidence on the intakes of all types of dairy and their effects on the gut microbiota in adults. Risk of bias was assesse...

The field of nutritional psychiatry has generated observational and efficacy data supporting a role for healthy dietary patterns in depression onset and symptom management. To guide future clinical trials and targeted dietary therapies, this review provides an overview of what is currently known regarding underlying mechanisms of action by which di...

The association between dairy product consumption and biomarkers of inflammation, adipocytokines, and oxidative stress is poorly studied in children. Therefore, these associations were examined in a representative subsample of 1338 schoolchildren with a mean age of 11.5 (±0.7) years in the Healthy Growth Study. Information on dairy product consumpt...

Objective Given the inconsistent evidence on dairy consumption and risk of fracture, we assessed the association between milk/total dairy consumption and major osteoporotic fracture (MOF) in women from the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS). Methods Women aged ≥50 years (n=833) were followed from baseline (1993–1997) to date of first fracture, death...

Beyond being a source of key nutrients, bovine milk influences physiological functions by synthesising bioactive peptides during the process of digestion. Some of the claimed negative health outcomes associated with milk consumption, such as cardiovascular diseases and type 1 diabetes may be attributed to an opioid peptide, beta-casomorphin-7 (BCM-...

Mental disorders including depression and anxiety are often comorbid with gut problems, suggesting a bidirectional relationship between mental health and gut function. Several mechanisms might explain this comorbidity, such as inflammation and immune activation; intestinal permeability; perturbations in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis; neur...

The growth stimulatory effect produced by combining different sources of prebiotics i.e; Fiber isolates from Musa sp pseudostem, polyphenol extracts from Sesbania grandiflora flower petal and non-digestible polysaccharide extracts from Artocarpus heterophyllus seed were assessed against probiotic organisms, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacte...