Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T06:26:59.330Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nutritional Aspects of Down's Syndrome with Special Reference to the Nervous System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Peter E. Sylvester
Peter E. Sylvester*
Affiliation:
St Lawrence's Hospital, Caterham, Surrey, and Honorary Consultant, St Thomas' Hospital
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Multiple deficiencies of vitamins and trace metals have been demonstrated in Down's syndrome. The picture is complex, especially since not all individuals are affected equally. Deficiencies are not age-related, but appear to be lifelong. The brain in Downs's syndrome does not develop adequately; one area, the hippocampus, which is concerned with memory, is poorly developed and is also involved in the pathological changes of Alzheimer's disease. The role of nutrients is discussed in relation to damage to the mature brain, and to the ageing process.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 2 , August 1984 , pp. 115 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1984 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, C. W. M. (1965) Neurohistochemistry. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Auld, R. M., Pommer, A. M., Houck, J. C. & Burke, F. G. (1959) Vitamin A absorption in mongoloid children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 63, 1010–13.Google Scholar
Barlow, P. J., Sylvester, P. E. & Dickerson, J. W. T. (1981) Hair Trace Metal Levels in Down Syndrome Patients. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 25, 161–68.Google Scholar
Barlow, P. J., Sylvester, P. E. (1983) Hip dislocation and manganese deficiency. Lancet, ii, 685.Google Scholar
Crome, L., & Stern, J. (1972) Pathology of Mental Retardation (Second edition). Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Davies, I. J. T. (1972) The Clinical Significance of the Essential Biological Metals. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Davies, P. A. & Davis, J. V. (1970) Very low birth weight and subsequent head growth. Lancet, ii, 1216–219.Google Scholar
Dickerson, J. W. T., Williams, C. A., Quinn, H., Wright, E. C., Sylvester, P. E. & Gosling, P. J. H. (1983) Xylose absorption in Down's subjects (In press).Google Scholar
Dobbing, J. & Sands, J. (1973) Quantitative growth and development of human brain. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 48, 757–67.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. H. (1978) Skin age in Down's syndrome. A note on the findings of Murdock and Evans. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 22, 223.Google Scholar
Einarson, L. (1954) Structural changes and functional disturbances in the nervous system. Neurovascular lesions in Vitamin E deficient adult rats. Anatomiske Skrifter, 1, NR1, Universitetsforlaget, Aarhus, Denmark.Google Scholar
Entwhistle, G. M. (1974) A dietary survey of a Surrey hospital for the mentally subnormal. B.Sc. Thesis. University of Surrey.Google Scholar
Erway, L., Hurley, L. S. & Fraser, A. S. (1970) Congenital ataxia and otolith defects due to manganese deficiency. Journal of Nutrition, 100, 643.Google Scholar
Fabia, J. & Drolette, M. (1970) Malformations and leukemia in children with Down's syndrome. Pediatrics, 45, 50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gleser, I. I. & Blinkov, S. M. (1968) The Human Brain in Figures and Tables. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Gray's Anatomy (1967) 34th Edition. (ed. Davies D. V. & Coupland R. E.) London: Longman.Google Scholar
Griffiths, A. W. & Behrman, J. (1967) Dark adaption in mongols. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, ii, 23–30.Google Scholar
Harman, D. (1961) Prolongation of the normal life span and inhibition of spontaneous cancer by antioxidant. Journal of Gerentology, 16, 247–54.Google Scholar
Harrell, R. F., Capp, R. H., Davis, D. R. Peerless, J., & Ravitz, L. R. (1981) Can nutritional supplements help mentally retarded children? An explanatory study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D. C., 78, 574–78.Google Scholar
Jervis, G. A. (1948) Early senile dementia in mongoloid idiocy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 105, 102–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurence, K. M., James, N., Miller, M. H., Tennent, E. G. & Campbell, H., (1981) Double blind randomised controlled trial of folate before conception to prevent recurrence of neural tube defects. British Medical Journal, 282, 1509–511.Google Scholar
Lejeune, J. (1983) Lecture to Down's Children Association, London.Google Scholar
Marin-Padilla, M. (1976) Pyramidal cell abnormalities in the motor cortex of a child with Down's syndrome. A Golgi study. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 167, 63.Google Scholar
Matin, M. A., Sylvester, P. E., Edwards, D. & Dickerson, J. W. T. (1981) Vitamin and zinc status in Down syndrome. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 25, 121–6.Google Scholar
Murdock, J. D. & Evans, J. H. (1978) An objective in vitro study of ageing in the skin with Down's syndrome. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 22, 131–5.Google Scholar
O'Brien, D. & Grosher, A. (1962) The abnormality of tryptophan metabolism in children with mongolism. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 37, 17–20.Google Scholar
Olson, M. I. & Shaw, Chang-Mei (1969) Presenile dementia and Alzheimer's disease in mongolism. Brain, 92, 147–65.Google Scholar
Palmer, S., (1978) Influence of Vitamin A nutritive on the immune response. Findings in children with Down's syndrome. International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research, Res. 48, 188–216.Google Scholar
Reading, C. M., McLeary, A. & Nobile, S. (1979) Down's syndrome and thiamine deficiency. Orthomolecular Psychiatry, 8, 4–12.Google Scholar
Rudra, D. N., Dickerson, J. W. T. & Walker, R. (1975) The effect of some antioxidants on lipofuscin accumulation in rat brain. Proceedings of Nutrition Society, 34, 122A.Google Scholar
Sinet, P. M., Couturier, J., Dutrillax, B., Poissonier, M., Raoul, O., Rethore, M. O., Allard, D., Lejeune, J. & Jerome, H. (1976) Trisomie 21 et superoxide dismutase–1 (IPO–A) Experimental Cell Research 97 (1976) 47–55.Google Scholar
Smithells, R. W., Sheppard, C., Schorah, C. J., Seller, M. J., Nevin, M., Harris, R., Read, A. P. & Fielding, D. W. (1981) Apparent prevention of neural tube defect by periconceptional vitamin supplementation. Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 56, 911–18.Google Scholar
Sobel, A. E., Strazzalla, M., Sherman, B. S., Elkan, B., Morgenstern, S. W., Marius, N. & Meisel, A. (1958) Vitamin A absorption and other blood composition studies in mongolism. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 62, 642–56.Google ScholarPubMed
Spector, R., Cancilla, P. & Damasio, A. (1979) Is idopathic dementia a regional deficiency state? Medical Hypotheses, 5, 763–7.Google Scholar
Sylvester, P. E. (1974) Aortic and pulmonary valve fenestrations as ageing indices in Down's syndrome. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 18, 367.Google Scholar
Sylvester, P. E. (1983) The Hippocampus in Down syndrome. Journal of Mental Deficiency Research, 27, 227–36.Google Scholar
Takashima, S., Berker, L. E., Armstrong, D. L. & Chan, F-W. (1981) Abnormal neuronal development in the visual cortex of the human fetus and infant with Down's syndrome. A quantitative and qualitative Golgi study. Brain Research, 225, 1.Google Scholar
Tan, Y. H., Tishfield, J. & Ruddle, F. H. (1973) The linkage of genes for the human interferon-induced antiviral protein and indophenol oxidase B to chromosome 9–21. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 137, 317–30.Google Scholar
Terry, R. D. & Wisniewski, H. M. (1972) In Ageing and the Brain. (Ed. Gaitz C. M.). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Thompson D'arcy Wentworth (1963) On Growth and Form (Second Edition). II, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Turkel, H. (1963) Medical treatment of mongolism. Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Mental Retardation. Vienna 1961. Basel: Karger. 409–16.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation (1973) Trace Elements in Human Nutrition. Report of W.H.O. Expert Committee, Geneva. Technical Report Series 532.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.