1st National Congress on Current Approaches in Nutrition and Dietetics was held
The 1st National Congress on Current Approaches in Nutrition and Dietetics, which was held by Üsküdar University with the theme of 'Current issues in nutritional treatment of psychiatric and neurological diseases', was held on May 24-25 at the İbni Sina Auditorium in the NP Health Campus.
Prof. Nevzat Tarhan stated that "The brain and intestines are communicating. There is such a mechanism between them. Sometimes the gut affects brain function. And sometimes a person also upset their gut because they cannot manage their brain."
Rector Prof. Nazife Güngör stated that "We need to put the mission of 'food to live' in our nutrition culture."
Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin stated that "Nutrition during pregnancy affects the future of the child."
Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Assoc. Prof. Müge Arslan stated that "Nutrition is a very important and vital action that has a role in human life from the period in the mother's womb, just like psychology."
The 1st Annual Conference on 'Current Issues in the Nutritional Treatment of Psychiatric and Neurological Diseases' organized by Üsküdar University. The National Congress on Current Approaches in Nutrition and Dietetics will be held on May 24-25 at the İbni Sina Auditorium of the NP Health Campus.
Prof. Güngör: "The concept of healthy nutrition includes healthy living"
Speaking at the opening of the congress, Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Nazife Güngör stated that the sociological, psychological and cultural aspects of nutrition are very important and expressed that "When we say nutrition, many dimensions are involved. Of course, it is important to eat healthy and to eat as much as necessary in order to be healthy. All this is the work of our nutritionists. However, the job of specialists is not just to give prescriptions. In general, the perception in society is that the expert gives a prescription and regulates your daily nutrition. The concept of healthy eating includes healthy living."
"It is very important not only to live, but also to maintain a quality life"
Pointing out that in the world we live in today, some of the people lose their lives due to overeating, some of them die of hunger or are deprived of quality life, Prof. Nazife Güngör made the following remarks:
"It is very important not only to live, but also to maintain a quality life. We can make the life we live a quality one when we place nutrition as a culture and a lifestyle in our life practices. Otherwise, we deal with blood pressure, low blood values, and heart rhythm disorders every day. Therefore, we must know what we eat, how and how much we should eat. There is a saying that says, 'Do we live to eat or do we eat to live'. We need to put the mission of 'food to live' in our nutrition culture and dietetic culture. With a healthy mind and a healthy body structure, the life we live has meaning. That is why this congress is important. We are organizing the first one this year, and I hope it will continue in the coming years.
Yes, nutrition is important and a part of life. Viewed as a whole, many questions will be discussed here today, 'Who is fed and how much, how do they eat? Who is full, who is hungry?' Here, our experts will discuss nutrition at the micro level on the one hand and emphasize macro problems on the other."
Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin: "When regular and balanced nutrition is not realized, many problems may arise in the baby"
Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin pointed out in his speech that nutrition starts before birth and emphasized that the mother's nutrition during pregnancy affects the development of the child.
Stating that many problems may arise in the baby when regular and balanced nutrition is not realized, Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin expressed that "If there is no proper nutrition, problems such as premature birth, high blood pressure in the mother, low birth weight or vice versa, babies born with high birth weight can be seen. The most important and most valuable concept is breast milk. Breast milk is an equal value for all mothers. When everyone buys more or less this, they get the best thing they can get, a universal value, equally."
Adding that breastfeeding is extremely important for both nutrition and development, Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin stated that the children of mothers who are fed properly and grow up with breast milk are more successful and better communicative individuals in the following years.
Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin: "One side dies of hunger, and the other side dies of overnutrition"
Reminding that nutrition is extremely important in childhood and adolescence, Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin pointed out that nutrition has been used for socialization in recent years:
"People used to eat only to survive, but now they eat to socialize and get together. While there are huge amounts of money given to a small plate, on the contrary, there are people who struggle to find a piece on that plate. Probably in the future, 'hunger' will be one of the most important concepts due to climate change."
"750 to 850 million people are struggling with hunger"
Referring to some statistics in his speech, Prof. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin provided the following information:
"The world's population is about 8.1 billion. Those who deal with hunger are about 10 percent of that, or between 750 and 850 million people, struggling with hunger. While this is the case on one side, there are overweight people on the other. 1 billion 761 million people are dealing with being overweight and 862 million people are dealing with obesity. Every day, 25,000 people die of hunger in the world. The cost of obesity to health is $240 million every day, and $68 million people spend to lose weight. In other words, one side dies of hunger, and the other side dies of overnutrition. Striking the balance here will be one of the most important roles of this department."
Assoc. Prof. Müge Arslan: "Nutrition is an important and vital action, just like psychology..."
Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Assoc. Prof. Müge Arslan stated in her speech at the opening of the congress that the 1st National Congress of Current Approaches in Nutrition and Dietetics addressed the issues of nutrition in psychology and neurological diseases.
Stating that the most important process in the universe is the life cycle and that the most important factors affecting it are nutrition and psychology, Assoc. Prof. Müge Arslan continued as follows:
"Nutrition is a very important and vital action that has a role in human life from the period in the mother's womb, just like psychology. Psychology also has a very important place throughout all vital processes from the period in the mother's womb. The main theme of our congress includes the relationship between nutrition and neurological and psychological processes, which have a very important place in the processes before, during and after the disease. As we all know, neurological and psychological processes are processes that we often overcome consciously, by being aware, diagnosed, consciously, and often unconsciously, in parallel with the severity and frequency of the situations experienced in life, or that we think we have overcome unconsciously, or that we put in the background and encounter in the future processes and directly affect our quality of life. I look forward to listening to our congress, where our doyen professors will share their knowledge and experience, just like you."
In the first session of the congress, the relationship between psychiatric diseases and nutrition was discussed
In the first session of the congress, Prof. Feyza Arıcıoğlu from Marmara University gave a speech titled "The Place and Importance of Neuroinflammation in Psychiatric Diseases", Prof. Aslı Akyol Mutlu from Hacettepe University gave a speech titled "Chrononution and Psychiatric Diseases", President of Üsküdar University Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan gave a speech titled "Current Perspective on Common Psychiatric Diseases" and Prof. Betül Çiçek from Erciyes University gave a speech titled "The Power of Colors in Psychiatric Diseases: Antioxidant Fruits"
Prof. Tarhan: "I would like to talk about brain-friendly life"
President of Üsküdar University Psychiatrist Prof. Nevzat Tarhan stated in his presentation titled "Current Perspective on Common Psychiatric Diseases” that he wanted to talk about brain-friendly life and expressed that "I would like to explain that how we eat and live has positive effects on our physical health, brain health and mental health."
Referring to the study that deals with the effects of depression on brain functions, Prof. Tarhan stated that "There is also a patient group. Depression group. And healthy volunteers. Sick and healthy volunteers are told, ‘Imagine playing tennis.’ When they dream of playing tennis, they look at where and how their brains work. Again, it gives both groups the task of walking around the house in a healthy, peaceful environment."
People with depression cannot imagine walking around in a peaceful environment
Noting that when they dream of playing tennis, similar activity areas are seen in the brains of both groups, Prof. Tarhan said that when the healthy group dreams of walking around the house peacefully, the areas in their brains that are indicators of low stress and high peace are active, while depressed patients perform the same task, their brain activities continue to show high stress levels as when they dream of playing tennis, and the brain. They explained that they continued to work as if they were in a stressful situation, not being able to imagine walking around in a peaceful environment.
"A lot of therapy techniques try to fix the brain's broken connections"
Stating that many therapy techniques applied by clinicians try to correct the damaged connections and networks of the brain, Prof. Tarhan said that "The brain is closely related to energy consumption, and nutrition and microbiota balance are effective on the brain-gut axis. There is such a mechanism. Sometimes the gut affects brain function. Sometimes, one also upsets their intestines because they cannot manage their brain."
"Our body and our brain are communicating"
Stating that applying the same standard diet recommendations to everyone can negatively affect the eating habits of individuals, Prof. Tarhan continued his remarks as follows:
"Our body and brain are communicating, we need to know that. Energy consumption in the brain is also very important. 2 percent of the body weight that goes into one’s body is the brain. The brain uses 15 percent of the cardiac output. It uses 25 percent of the cardiac output and the total oxygen and glucose capacity of the whole body. The brain is 2 percent of our body. It uses 25 percent of the oxygen and glucose that comes into the body. It is a very serious thing, and it is a resource-draining organ in the body, depleting energy resources."
"Our brain does not sleep during sleep"
Noting that the brain is an organ that works silently, but the brain is not silent, Prof. Tarhan stated that "Our brain does not sleep during sleep. Especially in the REM period, the waves in the brain are the same as when you are awake during the day. The brain continues to consume all energies rapidly. Even during sleep, the brain shrinks a little. The circumference of the vessel is expanding. All fatigue substances, oxidation, oxidative accumulations accumulated in the body are all formed in a lymph-like pathway around the vessel. From there, it goes into the vein. Without sleep, toxic substances accumulate in the brain. Being sleep deprived disrupts mental connections."
Emphasizing the importance of brain-friendly nutrition, daily main meals and snacks, Prof. Tarhan said that eating habits are also learned from childhood, and if you are walking after the child with a plate in your hand, that child is very likely to experience nutritional disorders in the future.
Prof. Feyza Arıcıoğlu: "Psychiatric diseases and nutritional disorders are very intertwined"
In her speech titled "The Place and Importance of Neuroinflammation in Psychiatric Diseases", Prof. Feyza Arıcıoğlu from Marmara University stated that on the basis of both neurological and psychiatric diseases, it is necessary to inevitably take into account lifestyle and nutrition, as well as all other components, and continued her remarks as follows:
"When we look at diseases such as stress, chronic stress, stress-based depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia in everyday life, we see either an eating disorder in terms of emotional suppression or vice versa. Therefore, psychiatric diseases and nutritional disorders are very intertwined."
Current issues in nutritional treatment of psychiatric and neurological diseases were discussed
On the first day of the congress, current issues in the nutritional treatment of psychiatric and neurological diseases were discussed. Prof. Betül Çiçek from Erciyes University gave a presentation on "The Power of Colors in Psychiatric Diseases: Antioxidant Fruits", Prof. Aslı Akyol Mutlu from Hacettepe University gave a presentation on "Chrononution and Psychiatric Diseases", Üsküdar University NPİSTANBUL Hospital Internal Medicine Specialist Prof. Aytaç Atamer gave a presentation on "Neurological Diseases and the Relationship between Gut-Brain Axis", Prof. Çetin Kaymak from the University of Health Sciences Gülhane Faculty of Medicine gave a presentation on "Acquired Muscle Weakness in Neurological Diseases and Malnutrition Relationship", Prof. Gamze Akbulut from İstanbul Kent University gave a presentation on "The Effect of MIND Diet on the Treatment of Neurological Diseases", Prof. Yasemin Akdevelioğlu from Gazi University gave a presentation on "Ketogenic Diet: Can There Be a Hope in the Treatment of Neurological Diseases?" and Prof. Fatma Nişancı Kılınç from Kırıkkale University gave a presentation on "The Place of Fermented Products In the Treatment of Neurological Diseases".
The second day of the congress...
On the second day of the congress, those who made a presentation are as follows: Asst. Prof. Vahibe Uluçay Kestane "Parental Effect on Child and Adolescent Nutrition", Ankara University Prof. Nurcan Dış Ayhan "Current Perspective on Nutritional Change in Adolescence", University of Health Sciences Assoc. Prof. Elvan Yılmaz Akyüz "The Effect of Dopamine Triggers on Eating Disorders", Specialist Dietitian Hülya Yiğit "Can Healthy Eating Be Achieved in Eating Disorders: A Case Report".
Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)