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Watch it grow: Esophageal impaction with chia seeds

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Abstract

Esophageal obstructions are a medical emergency, due to inability to control secretions and risk of perforation. Epidemiology of esophageal foreign-body impaction has evolved to include increasing incidence of non-meat food causes as well as increasing underlying prevalence of pathologies including eosinophilic esophagitis. Chia seeds, a staple known for health benefits, have an uncanny ability to absorb large quantities of water leading to a hydrated gel-like substance which can cause an obstruction. We report the first case of chia seed impaction in a patient with likely eosinophilic esophagitis.

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... There exists also a review on health promoting properties and therapeutic applications of chia (Marcinek K., 2017). Simmelink et al. (2016) even warned about possible obstructions caused by chia. Furthermore, chia seeds are found to affect satiety and to be beneficial in the treatment of overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes (Vuksan et al., 2017a,b). ...
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Aims: The object of this review was to collect available data on 1) adverse effects observed in humans from the intake of plant food supplements (PFS) or botanical preparations; 2) the misidentification of poisonous plants; 3) interactions between PFS/botanicals and conventional drugs or nutrients. Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE and Embase were searched from database inception to June 2014, using the terms “adverse effect/s”, “poisoning/s”, “plant food supplement/s”, “misidentification/s”, and “interaction/s” in combination with the relevant plant name. All papers were critically evaluated according to the WHO Guidelines for causality assessment. Results: Data were obtained for 66 plants that are common ingredients of PFS; of the 488 papers selected, 398 (81.6%) dealt with adverse effects directly associated with the botanical and 89 (18.2%) concerned interactions with conventional drugs. Only 1 case was associated with misidentification. Adverse effects were reported for 39 out of the 66 botanical substances searched. Of the total references, 86.5% were associated with 14 plants, including Glycine max/soybean (19.3%), Glycyrrhiza glabra/liquorice (12.5%), Ginkgo biloba/ginkgo and Camellia sinensis/green tea (both 8.6%). Conclusions: Considering the length of time examined and the number of plants included in the review, it is remarkable that: 1) the adverse effects due to botanical ingredients were relatively infrequent, if assessed for causality; 2) the number of severe clinical reactions was very limited, but some fatal cases have been described. Data presented in this review were assessed for quality in order to make the results maximally useful for clinicians in identifying or excluding deleterious effects of botanicals.
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BACKGROUND Hamburger is a meat-based food that is easy to prepare and is widely consumed. It can be enriched using different ingredients, such as chia's by-product, which is rich in omega-3. Chemometrics is a very interesting tool to assess the influence of ingredients in the composition of foods. A complete factorial design 22 (two factors in two levels) with duplicate was performed to investigate the influence of the factors (1) concentration of textured soy proteins (TSP) and (2) concentration of chia flour partially defatted (CFPD) as a partial replacement for the bovine meat and porcine fat mix in hamburgers.RESULTSThe results of proximal composition, lipid oxidation, fatty acids sums, ratios, and nutritional indexes were used to propose statistical models. The factors TSP and CFPD were significant, and the increased values contributed to improve the composition in fatty acids, crude protein, and ash. Principal components analysis distinguished the samples with a higher content of chia. In desirability analysis, the highest level of TSP and CFPD was described as the optimal region, and it was not necessary to make another experimental point.CONCLUSION The addition of chia's by-product is an alternative to increase the α-linolenic contents and to obtain nutritionally balanced food. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry
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Esophageal food impaction is a common presentation of eosinophilic esophagitis. The prevalence of eosinophilic esophagitis among patients with food impaction is unknown. To address this, we evaluated clinicopathologic features of adults with food impaction. For a 3-year period, patients from a single, adult, community-based gastroenterology practice with esophageal food impaction were evaluated. Histories were assessed and esophageal biopsy specimens were evaluated by routine and immunohistochemical techniques. Thirty-one patients with food impaction were evaluated. Seventeen of 31 patients had >20 eosinophils/high power field (HPF) without gender predilection. Thirteen of these 17 patients had been treated with proton pump inhibitors at the time biopsy specimens were obtained. Patients with >20 eosinophils/HPF were significantly younger (mean age 42 +/- 4 years) than patients with <20 eosinophils/HPF (mean age 70 + 3 years). Superficial white exudates and eosinophilic microabscesses in the squamous epithelium were features observed only in patients with >20 eosinophils/HPF. Immunopathologic analysis demonstrated increased CD8 lymphocytes and major basic protein deposition in their squamous epithelium. More than half of patients with esophageal food impaction in a primary gastroenterology practice have >20 eosinophils/HPF. Based on clinicopathologic features, a significant number likely have eosinophilic esophagitis.