Conclusion For many years, it has been suggested that zinc supplements could relieve the symptoms of the common cold, but there was little clarity until a 2011 evidence review. This recent review suggested a modest reduction in the length of symptoms, although the results were not entirely conclusive. In a bid to help clarify the matter further, the researchers behind this latest research conducted another review of evidence on this issue. It suggests that zinc may help shorten the common cold. However, as with the previous reviews, the results are undermined by the high variability between trials in terms of their methods, study population and treatment aspects (such as zinc dosage and when zinc was first taken). In addition, while zinc may help shorten a cold, it also seems to have side ...

Knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk significantly improves prognostication among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, study findings indicate. (Source: MedWire News - Respiratory)

To investigate asthmatic patients' perceptions of their disease.

METHODS: The study was done with the participation of 23 patients among the asthmatics whose progress is monitored regularly in a university hospital. Phenomenological methodology was used, and the first step was to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the participants. Then, in order to determine their feelings and opinions on the subject of their asthma, each participant was asked to write a letter to answer the following question: "If asthma were a friend of yours, what would you like to say to it in a letter?" Data were analyzed using the continuous comparative method of Colaizzi (1978; "Psychological research as a phenomenologist views it", in Valle, R. And King, M. (Eds), Existential Phenomenological Alternatives for Psychology, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.). For this purpose, each researcher read the letters separately and identified the important thoughts, and similar statements were classified under the same theme groups.

RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 41.43 ± 6.23 years, and 69.6% of them were female, 73.9% were married, 34.8% were primary school graduates, and 34.7% were civil servants (with no social security problems). The statements of the asthmatics in the study were grouped according to the following themes: "The Most Important Factor in Accepting Asthma Is Time," "It's So Hard to Be Asthmatic," "Being Asthmatic Means Understanding the Value of Life," "I Don't Like Asthma, so I Can't Make Friends with It," "Learning to Live with Asthma," "One Day I May Recover from Asthma," "Feeling Anger," and "Suffering from Continuous Worry and Fear."

CONCLUSION: Asthmatic patients need psychosocial support since they believe that there is no certain treatment for asthma, and attacks are inevitable.

Apoptosis is a conserved and regulated cell suicide process, the malfunction of which is closely linked with carcinogenesis. Caspases control the induction of apoptosis through an enzymatic cascade that can be activated by both the mitochondrial and death receptor pathways.

Smac is a mitochondrial protein that interacts with Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins (IAPs) and, upon apoptotic stimuli, is released into the cytoplasm to inhibit the capase-binding activity of IAPs. Smac plays key roles in both the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, especially lung cancer.

Our review will focus on the roles of Smac in lung carcinogenesis and cancer progression and its relevance in lung cancer treatment.