Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a kind of malnutrition resulting from chronic self-induced starvation. The reported associated endocrine changes (adaptive and non-adaptive) include hypothalamic amenorrhea, a nutritionally acquired growth hormone resistance with low insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) secretion, relative hypercortisolemia, decreased leptin and insulin concentrations, and increased ghrelin, PYY and adiponectin secretion. The combined effect of malnutrition and endocrinopathy may have deleterious effects on multi-organs including bone, gonads, thyroid gland, and brain (neurocognition, anxiety, depression, and other psychopathologies). The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a kinase that in humans is encoded by the mTOR gene. Recent studies suggest an important role of mTOR complex in integration of nutrient and hormone signals to adjust energy homeostasis. In this review, we tried to elucidate the role/s of mTOR as critical mediator of the cellular response in anorexia nervosa.Anemia can be the consequence of a single disease or an expression of external factors mainly nutritional deficiencies. Genetic issues are important in the primary care of adolescents because a genetic diagnosis may not be made until adolescence when the teenager presents with the first signs or symptoms of the condition. This situation is relatively frequent for rare anemias (RA) an important, and relatively heterogeneous group of rare diseases (RD) where anemia is the first and most relevant clinical manifestation of the disease. RA are characterized by their low prevalence ( less then 1 per 10,000 individuals), and, in some cases, by their complex mechanism. For these reasons, RA are little known, even among health professionals, and patients tend to remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for long periods of time, making it impossible to know the prognosis of the disease or to carry out genetic counseling for future pregnancies. Since this situation is an important cause of anxiety for both adolescent patients and their families, the physician’s knowledge of the natural history of a genetic disease will be the key factor for the anticipatory guidance for diagnosis and clinical follow-up. RA can be due to three primary causes 1.Bone marrow erythropoietic defects, 2. Excessive destruction of mature red blood cells (hemolysis), and 3. Blood loss (bleeding). More than 80% of RAs are hereditary, and about 20% remain undiagnosed but when their first clinical manifestations appear during childhood or adolescence, they are frequently misdiagnosed with iron deficiency. For this reason, RA are today an important clinical and social health problem worldwide.Linear growth failure (stunting) in childhood is the most prevalent form of undernutrition globally. The debate continues as to whether children who become stunted before age 24 months can catch up in growth and cognitive functions later in their lives. The potentially irreparable physical and neurocognitive damage that accompanies stunted growth is a major obstacle to human development. This review aims at evaluation and summarizing the published research covering the different aspects of stunting from childhood to adulthood.The need for an alternative source of donor organs, together with the expansion of scientific data in this field, has focused attention on xenotransplantation as a possible alternative to allotransplantation in the treatment of patients with end-stage disease of vital organs. The fundamental property called ‘evolution’ was not discovered in the study of living matter by Darwin, but in the study of the foundations of the Logic of Nature, i.e. in first level Galilean Science. The work of Darwin was aiming at the discovery of the origin of the human species and the property of living matter called ‘evolution’ was intended to prove what the origin was of the human species. In this letter to editor we present our opinion about the relationship between the xenotransplantation limitations and Charles Darwin theory on Human evolution.Not requested.Copper deficiency syndrome is an underestimated cause of posterior myelitis. We describe the case of a 41-year-old woman, who developed a subacute ataxic paraparesis associated with low back pain. CB-5083 supplier Her 3T spine MRI showed a thin hyperintense FS-Echo T2 longitudinally extensive lesion involving the posterior columns of the cervical cord (from C2 to C6). An extensive diagnostic work-up excluded other causes of myelopathy and blood tests pointed out hypocupremia and mild hyperzincemia. Patients affected by this rare form of oligoelement deficiency typically develop progressive posterior column dysfunction with sensory ataxia and spasticity, sometimes associated with sensori-motor polyneuropathy. Clinical and radiological characteristics of posterior myelopathy due to copper deficiency are briefly reviewed. Physicians should be aware of this condition since a prompt introduction of copper supplementation can avoid progression of the neurological damage.Non-alcoholic Wernicke Encephalopathy (WE) is an overlooked complication of malnourishment in all its forms including undernutrition, inadequate vitamine intake and endocrinological diseases. Both delay in treatment and overtreatment can lead to severe neurological life-long consequences. Inadequate management in patients with chronic malnutrition may cause abrupt osmolytes unbalance and subsequent osmotic demyelination syndromes. We describe a 65-year old man with apathetic encephalopathy caused by thyreotoxicosis and associated with malnutrition and severe thiamine depletion.In death and mourning, why should we think that rites adapt to psychology and not vice-versa? Or believe that psychological workings grow into a rite or ritual? When analysing practices related to rites of passage, death emerges as a rupture – or breakage – of social status.The use of eponyms adds a valuable historical context to the art of medicine, and shall hence be encouraged, nevertheless their use must always reflect an appropriate historical and medical terminology. A bizarre narration concerns the widespread term “St. Anthony’s fire”, which has been used for denoting not less than three distinct diseases. In this article we underscore that at least three distinct diseases, one toxic (i.e., ergotism) and two infectious (i.e., erysipelas and herpes zoster) have been called, in different times and countries, with the same eponym term of “St. Anthony’s fire”, whilst some other diseases may have also been comprised under this “umbrella” definition. It is possible, for example, that even some cases of plague may have been misclassified as “St. Anthony’s fire”. This article also deals with the importance of this topic in the history of art. Several important artists in different periods, in particular painters, were inspired from the history of St. Anthony, who is generally represented in association with fire (representing the burning pain of the diseases), pig (symbolizing the fat of pigs used in the past for relieving skin symptoms), and different “temptations” (devils, food, gold, jewelry, etc.