Nutraceuticals is a broad term derived from nutrition and pharmaceutical. Nutraceuticals are used as a part of food for preventing and treating many acute and chronic diseases. Nutraceuticals are divided into three main categories including herbs, nutrients and dietary supplements. The food products which are used as nutraceuticals are dietary fibers, prebiotics, probiotics, polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants, spices and some other types of types of herbs and natural foods. Probiotics are ingested for their positive advantages in the digestive tract or systemic area like in the liver, brain, vagina or blood stream. Antioxidants are essential for treatment of almost all diseases because most chronic diseases occur due to oxidative stress. Flavonoids and phytochemicals have antioxidant properties due to which it act as therapeutic agents for various diseases such as anti-cancerous.Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are used for lowering the high levels of cholesterol in cardiovascular diseases and many inflammatory diseases.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and is therefore a major public health concern. Acute exacerbations that compromise quality of life, accelerate a decline in respiratory functions, and increase cardiovascular risk during the course of COPD. Few studies have investigated the factors leading to exacerbations. Magnesium may have a role in maintaining disease stability in COPD patients. And serum uric acid has been proposed as a marker for impaired oxidative metabolism & systemic inflammation. A few data exist on the significance of serum uric acid& magnesium in patients with AECOPD. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of serum uric acid& magnesium as a biomarker for the prediction of outcome of patients with AECOPD. Study population was taken from patients admitted to K.R Hospital& PK TB Hospital MMCRI, Mysore with acute exerbation of COPD aged between 18-60years of either sex. 4ml of fasting venous sample was collected from patients admitted with acute exacerbation of COPD serum was analyzed immediately for Uric acid and Magnesium. 35% of patient had hypomagnesaemia where as 55% of study subjects where normomagnesemic with mean SD of 1.7+0.8. The mean standard deviation of uric acid levels was 7.2+ 2.1. Present study showed hypomagnesaemia and hyperuricemia with increase in duration of disease, stage of the disease and duration of hospital stay. Hence the present study helps in assessing the factors responsible for frequent exacerbations and durations of stay in hospital associated in COPD patients.

Every student has different learning style and if the method of information delivered conforms to their learning habits, they learn better. To get best out of a student, facilitator needs to understand the student’s learning modalities and ‘tailor instruction’ in such a way that students appreciate and follow it to learning. In this regard a study was designed to analyze the learning style distribution among 1st year MBBS students. A cross sectional questionnaire based study was conducted among 1st year MBBS students (n=152) using validated VARK questionnaire (version 7.8).The questionnaire consists of 16 questions with 4 options, each of which corresponds to a particular sensory modality preference (visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic). The responses in the questionnaires were assessed according to the keys provided in VARK guide. Demographic details were collected. Preferred learning styles were expressed as frequency and percentage. The response rate was 86.18% (131 students out of 152). Of these 71 (54.2%) were female and 60 (48.8%) were males. All the students preferred more than one sensory modality with 98% quad modal (n=129, M/F=59/70) and near 1% each in tri modal (n=1, M/F=1/0) and bimodal (n=1, M/F=0/1) learning preference. Knowing student’s preferred learning modes; one can focus on developing strategies that are tailored for individuals. All the students in the present study showed multimodal learning styles which points towards the fact that they prefer information to arrive in a variety of modes. Lectures being the major proportion of teaching learning process in 1st MBBS curriculum, one need to adopt active learning strategies and process during lectures which will cater to the needs of all types of learners.