Jorjani Biomedicine Journal

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Background and objective:

Little studies using a limited number of questionnaires cannot reflect the depth and complication of diabetic patients about self-care. However, using the qualitative research method, it is possible to find out the depth of patients’ experiences of this illness. The purpose of this study was to find individual and environmental obstacles which affect self-care on these patients and to investigate patients’ viewpoint of this disease.

Materials and Methods:

In this qualitative study, group interview and case interview have been used. This study was carried out in two phases and at the end of the interview patients were provided with necessary teaching about the principals of self-care.

Results:

In general, 5 categories of obstacles to self-care in type 2 diabetes were identified which include: physical obstacles, economical obstacles, social obstacles, educational obstacles, and psychic obstacles. Social, educational and psychic obstacles are in latter classes.

Conclusion:

The results of this study showed that a high percentage of patients with type 2 diabetes face serious obstacles in the way of self-care and the most numerous and important obstacles in their opinion are physical and economical obstacles. Considering that developing countries face a shortage of resources, dealing with physical obstacles can bring satisfaction to patients and on the other hand, dealing with these obstacles requires less cooperation from exterior organizations.

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Pluripotent stem cells as the cells with a capacity for self-renewal and differentiation into various specific

cell types have been highly regarded in regenerative medicine studies. To repair the eye disease damages, the

differentiation into retinal pigment epithelial cells of pluripotent stem cells has gained great importance in

recent decades because the inappropriate function of these cells is the main cause of degenerative diseases such

as the age-related macular degeneration. Millions of people in the world suffer this disease.

To restore the damaged cells and, finally, to improve the vision, numerous studies have been conducted on using

pluripotent stem cells, their differentiation into retinal pigment epithelial cells, and finally, their application

in cell therapy. Based on this, many researchers have attempted to produce highly efficient retinal pigment

epithelial cells, such that they show a proper function after transplant, along with the host cells. In this review

article, the importance and the role of pigment epithelial cells, as well as, the studies on the in vitro production

of these cells were examined

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Background & Objective: Control of hypertension is based on lifestyle modification. Group discussion can be considered as an efficient method for health education. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the effect of group discussion on the empowerment of patients with hypertension who were referred to two health centers in Tehran. Method: This was a pretest-post test, quasi-experimental study in a group. The convenience sampling method was used by randomly selecting 36 patients with primary hypertension, aged 30-65 years. They were divided into 4 groups of 9 people. Since the comparison of groups was not taken into consideration, they were not homogenized. For each group, six 90-minute group discussion sessions were held. The tools included demographic information checklists and verbal empowerment questionnaire of Elhani et al with the scale of perceived intensity, perceived susceptibility, efficacy, and control axis. The data were calculated and analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-test. Results: The average age of the subjects was 54 ± 8.4 years and 34.4% of the participants had a history of hypertension for 5 years. Group discussions could lead to improve the average empowerment of individuals (P=0.04). Furthermore, among all the aspects of empowerment, group discussions had the greatest impact on the perception and sensitivity levels (P=0.001 and P=0.02 respectively). Conclusion: In patients with hypertension, group discussions can lead to increased perception and sensitivity levels and also enhance the ability of individuals to control their lifestyles.

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Background and Objectives:  The application of herbal medicine has been rising in recent years. Therefore, it is logical to revise and revive these traditional drugs while identifying their mechanisms of action can result in developing new treatments for many diseases. Curcumin is the most important component of Turmeric with numerous therapeutic properties. We aimed to review the anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties of Curcumin and introduce it as a therapeutic molecule in the present article.

Methods: In this review, 121 articles were selected from authenticated electronic resources and scientific library databases such as Pubmed, Medline, Sciencedirect, WOS, DOAJ, SID, Iranmedex, Magiran and Google Scholar search engine in which Curcumin (Turmeric) had been evaluated as a therapeutic molecule from differeny aspects.

Results: Our findings from the literature revealed that immune responses against infectious and inflammatory factors could be fascilitated by Curcumin. However, the low solubility in water and minimal bioavailability which may lead to poor absorbance from gastrointestinal tract, quick metabolization and elimination from blood circulation are the most important problems during oral consumption.

Conclusion: According to the results of the present review article, Curcumin possesses efficient anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-viral and anti-parasitic properties. However, the low bioavailability of this substance has limited its treatment properties. Nowadays, several mechanisms have been proposed to increase the bioavailability which can improve its absorption.

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