New zinc test developed to detect malnourishment

New zinc test developed to detect malnourishment Today’s Video of the Day from the Georgia Institute of Technology describes an experimental zinc test that was designed to detect malnourishment.

The test may ultimately expose widespread zinc deficiencies, which are responsible for about half a million deaths each year.

“In the developing world today, many people may get enough calories but miss out on a lot of nutrients,” said study lead author Professor Mark Styczynski.  As seen above shows New zinc test developed to detect malnourishment

“You can look at someone and tell if they’re getting enough calories but not if they’re getting sufficient amounts of developmentally important nutrients.”  One of the nutritional risk screening tools used most often in hospitals worldwide is the NRS-2002. The NRS-2002 was developed by Kondrup et al., and is meant to be a generic tool in the hospital setting—that is, useful in detecting most of the patients who would benefit from nutritional therapy.

Nutritional risk screening, a simple and rapid first-line tool to detect patients at risk of malnutrition, should be performed systematically in patients at hospital admission. Patients with nutritional risk should subsequently undergo a more detailed nutritional assessment to identify and quantify specific nutritional problems.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: Georgia Tech / Brice Zimmerman / Allison Carter