By Amina Abdul Salam CAIRO, Oct 8, 2018 - The International Academy for Therapeutic Nutrition, one of the institutions of the Egyptian Society for Women's Health, recently held the first scientific conference, in collaboration with the Children's Cancer Hospital 57357 Egypt. The conference was chaired by Dr Maysa Shawki, Professor of Public Health, Cairo University, and the Deputy Chairman of the conference, Dr Mohamed Abul Gheit, Professor of Anaesthesia and Obesity. The conference lectures dealt with the latest research in the field of feeding to support the body's immunity through prevention of, and therapy against, the immune diseases and chronic and non-infectious – diseases, such as obesity and diabetes types 1 and 2. Dr Shawki said that Egypt was in an urgent need to the specialisation of therapeutic nutrition. Dr Shawki reviewed figures of chronic and non- infectious diseases. A report issued by Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics in 2017 showed that 46 per cent of Egyptians mortalities were due to cardiac diseases and 14 per cent were caused by tumours. Another 2017 report by World Health Organisation pointed out that 22.7 per cent of Egyptians were smokers and rate of negative smoking has reached to 50 per cent. From here the directives of President Abdel Fatah El Sisi called for conducting a national survey for the detection of chronic and non- infectious diseases that conjunction with survey hepatitis C virus which includes examining 50 million citizens. Dr Dina Shehab, Consultant in Paediatrics at the National Nutrition Institute, delivered a lecture on immune nutrition in children, pointing out the current therapeutic systems for chronic diseases among children that depend on antibiotics and other medications. Studies have shown that the causes of these diseases and the risk factors related to them point to the use of new therapeutic methods based on nutrition interventions at specific times before or during pregnancy stages, the breast feeding stage and the stage of weaning from milk to decrease winter fever infections that are common among children of school age. Dr Suzzan Hagag, Lecturer at the Public Health Division, Cairo University, said that vitamins and minerals play a vital role in strengthening the immune system to protect the human body against illnesses. She said that vitamins and minerals that have an essential role in boosting the immune system are Vitamin "A", "D", "C" and the vitamin "B" group and folic acid, iron, Zinc, selenium, copper, calcium, chromium and magnesium. She said that the human body can get all its needs of vitamins through balanced healthy meals. Dr Allya Mosalami, Professor of the Internal Diseases, Cairo University, said that vitamin D is the cheapest means of protecting the body against several disease and can be got from sun rays. It has been proved that many acute and chronic illnesses could be avoided or treated by keeping vitamin D in the blood at the normal level required for public health. These diseases are tuberculosis, influenza, and some kinds of cancer.
