The role of nutrition in health status after spinal cord injury

Abstract

Nutrition is the process in which growth, repair, and maintenance of the body are accomplished by consuming and utilizing food substances. A proper diet must be ingested to ensure the right amount of nutrition is delivered to sustain appropriate physiological mechanisms. Knowledge of the basic constituent of dietary intake is essential for several of health related variables. Poor diet negatively affects overall health which can lead to obesity and can cause many types of diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc. Our research group has previously invested in studying the adaptations in body composition following spinal cord injury (SCI) and how regional as well as total adipose tissue distribution may negatively influence the metabolic profile in this population. Little is known about the role of nutrition following SCI and it is unclear how it impacts body composition and the metabolic profile. The purpose of this mini-review is to summarize the available evidence on how macronutrient components (carbohydrate, fat and protein) impact health status after SCI. We hope as an outcome of this work to stimulate further research in this area to expand the knowledge on how to properly design dietary interventions that suit the adaptations following SCI.

Keywords: Body composition; carbohydrate; energy expenditure; fat; nutrition; protein; spinal cord injury.

Figures

Figure 1.

Percentage macronutrients over the course of 12 weeks in two groups with SCI. The first group (RT + Diet) was involved in training using surface neuromuscular electrical stimulation and followed a standard diet protocol (45% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 25% protein) and the second group (Diet) followed only the standard diet protocol (45% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 25% protein). Although we were successful matching macronutrients between both groups; individuals with SCI in both groups were higher in percentage fat intake by 5% and were lower in percentage protein intake by 7% [10].

Figure 2.

Basal metabolic rate and SCI. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) of a 45 years old, T4 motor complete American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) A, person with SCI as measured by indirect calorimeter for 20 minutes. Participant fasted overnight for 8–10 hours before conducting the test. After excluding the first 5 minutes and obtaining a steady state, the BMR for this participant was 1527 kcal/day.