Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access

Use of indigenous food formulation in the management of HIV and AIDS patients in Kenya

5^th European Nutrition and Dietetics Conference

June 16-18, 2016 Rome, Italy

Hudson Nyabuga Nyambaka

Kenyatta University, Kenya

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nutr Food Sci

Abstract :

Nutritional therapy has been embraced as important in the care of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), as a way of optimizing the immune system, improving drug response and lowering medical care cost due to reduced susceptibility to opportunistic diseases. Further, some scientists are of the opinion that AIDS is caused by chemicals, drugs and malnutrition. Deficiency of micronutrients among PLWHA is associated with faster clinical progression of HIV disease to AIDS and supplementation of these elements has shown to improve immune system. Various intervention studies using food formulations consisting of indigenous foods have been used to evaluate the levels of serum zinc, retinol and alpha tocopherol and immunity with results indicating improved levels of the micronutrients and improved immunity. Use of indigenous food supplements have shown both clinical and immunological benefits and near significant reduction in viral load implying that low doses of micro nutrients favored viral load reduction. Since the use of HIV and AIDS drugs present several challenges including adverse health effects, resistance and compliance, mainstreaming the use of nutritional formulations in healthcare delivery looks promising.

Biography :

Hudson Nyabuga Nyambaka is an Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry with extensive research in Nutritional Chemistry and he is the Head of the Department of Chemistry, Kenyatta University. He has completed his PhD degree in Food Science from the University of Leeds, UK and MSc degree from Kenyatta University. His research focuses on nutrients in foods with emphasis on processing procedures and their effects on nutritional and sensory values, bioavailability & bioconversion and food formulations. He has published several articles in reputable journals. He has supervised several PhD and MSc students, examined several theses and refereed several articles in reputable journals.

Email: hudsonyambaka@yahoo.co.uk