Impact of the micro nutriments’ deficit on the functional disorders for diabetic menopause women.

O. Berriche*^a (Dr), R. Ben Othman^a (Dr), A. Gamoudi^a (Mrs), N. Ben Amor^a (Dr), F. Khedimi^a (Ms), R. Mizouri^a (Dr), H. Ben Jemaa^b (Dr), H. Jamoussi^a (Prof)

^a National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology of Tunis, Tunis, TUNISIA ; ^b Higher School of Health Sciences and Techniques of Tunis, Tunis, TUNISIA

* olfaberriche1@gmail.com

Introduction :

Menopause can contribute to a variety of functional disorders such as fatigue, mental health disorders and sleeping problems. This is mainly due to a deficit in neurotransmitters’ synthesis, which can be explained by a frequent micronutrient deficiency during this stage of life for women.

Objective :

The aim of this study is to detect the micronutrients’ insufficiency for diabetic menopause women, and study its impact on the functioning of the brain.

Methods :

It consists of a transversal descriptive study elaborated within the National Institute of Nutrition of Tunis. This study included 100 diabetic menopause patients. They went through a dietary survey. Patients answered to a DNS questionnaire (Dopamine/ Noradrenaline / Serotonin) that have been approved by the European Institute of Dietetics and Micro nutrition to measure the impact of food on brain functioning.

The average age of the study population was around 63.67 ± 6.52 years old. As for the duration of diabetes, its average is around 11.64 ± 5.73 years old. Deficiency in iron, selenium, and zinc intake have been noted for, respectively, 40%, 16.4% and 63.6% of patients. More than the half of the study population had insufficient intake of magnesium (52.7%) and vitamin B6 (58.2%).

The DNS questionnaire showed strong scores for dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin for, respectively, 50.9%, 45.5% and 49.1% of patients. This is due to a default of the synthesis of neurotransmitters linked to a deficit in micronutrients.

We found negative correlation and a statistic significance between the scores of dopamine, the intake of iron (r= -0.268 ; p = 0.048) and selenium (r = -0.317 ;p = 0.018), between the scores of noradrenaline, the intake of copper (r= - 0.338 ;p = 0.012), and between the score of serotonin, the intake of vitamin B6 (r = - 0.604 ;p <0.01), iron (r = -0.34 ;p = 0.011) and zinc (r = - 0.349 ;p = 0.009).

Conclusion :

It is crucial to detect the micro nutritional deficit from diabetic menopause women and to satisfy their micronutrient needs, by a diversified diet to assure an optimal functioning of the brain.

The author has declared no conflict of interest.