Clinical nutrition

Nutritional medicine is an interdisciplinary medical discipline that seeks to take advantage of current scientific knowledge about the physiology and pathophysiology of the human diet for the prevention, cure and alleviation of disease.

Nutritional medicine deals with exploration of nutritional knowledge, the development of nutritional therapy applications and the establishment of these findings in all branches of medicine. This diet is understood both as a supply of healthy individuals or patients with macro (carbohydrates, fats, proteins ) and micronutrients ( vitamins and trace elements ), on the other hand as a nutritional intervention, ie therapeutic intervention.

Methods

Basis of medical nutrition therapy is the diet history and physical examination, as well as any apparatus and laboratory investigations. This allows the dietary risk profile of patients (overweight, underweight and malnutrition ) are assessed. In hospitals these tasks is done primarily with a nutrition support team.

Many diseases can be positively affected by adequate nutrition. It was shown in several studies that require comprehensive perioperative nutrition improves wound healing and reduces morbidity and mortality. Serious illness should be fed even when overweight in the case, because fasting increases the morbidity and mortality. Is not possible, an oral diet, the various methods of artificial feeding are applied. In this case, if possible, the enteral Preference will be given prior to parenteral nutrition. The nutrition intervention is only part of the overall therapy. The attempt at healing major diseases, by exclusive diet is considered in nutritional medicine as malpractice.

Furthermore, the diet affects the functioning of the immune system, a fact which has led to the development of immunonutrition.

The nutritional medicine research uses, such as other medical disciplines also, wherever possible, the methods of evidence-based medicine. The research results are incorporated into nutrition practice guidelines, which are published in Germany, among others by the German Society for Nutritional Medicine ( DGEM ).