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.
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.
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.