title: Nutritional disorders in tropical neurology.
abstract: About three-fourths of the total world population live in the tropics but consume only 6% of worldwide food production and contribute 15% of the world's net revenue explaining the short life expectancy, high infantile mortality, and poor daily caloric intake; moreover, lack of clean drinking water and deficient sanitation promote water-borne infections, diarrhea, and risk of malabsorption that contribute to the prevalence of malnutrition in the tropics. One-third of the world's population consumes insufficient iodine increasing the risk for mental retardation and deafness due to maternal hypothyroidism. The main nutritional syndromes comprise protein-energy malnutrition (marasmus and kwashiorkor); nutritional neuropathies, myelopathies and neuromyelopathies, as well as specific deficiencies of vitamins and micronutrients including iodine, iron, zinc, and selenium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College and Nantz National Alzheimer Center, Methodist Neurological Institute, Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address: GCRoman@tmhs.org.
authors.forename: Gustavo C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Román
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D009462:Neurology; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*
keywords: Cuban epidemic neuropathy; Hunger; Wernicke–Korsakoff; alcohol; alcoholism; beriberi; burning feet; cobalamin; folic acid; homocysteine; iodine; iron; kwashiorkor; malnutrition; marasmus; micronutrient deficiencies; myeloneuropathy; niacin; nicotinamide; night blindness; nutritional amblyopia; nutritional brain atrophy; nutritional myelopathy; nutritional neuropathy; omega-3 fatty acids; optic neuropathy; pantothenic acid; pellagra; polyneuropathy; prisoners of war; psychomotor retardation; pyridoxine deficiency; riboflavin; selenium; subacute combined degeneration; thiamin; tobacco-alcohol amblyopia; vitamin A; vitamin B(12); vitamin B-complex; vitamin D; vitamin E; vitamins; α-tocopherol