Medical hypotheses
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Despite successful intensive care a substantial portion of critically ill patients dies after discharge from the intensive care unit or hospital. Observational studies investigating long-term survival of critically ill patients reported that most deaths occur during the first months or year after discharge. Only limited data on the causes of impaired quality of life and post-intensive care unit deaths exist in the current literature. ⋯ An interesting and potentially beneficial therapy could be the administration of immune-modulating drugs during the time after intensive care unit or hospital discharge until chronic inflammation has subsided. Statins are well-investigated and effective drugs to attenuate chronic inflammation and could potentially also improve long-term outcome of critically ill patients after intensive care unit or hospital discharge. Future studies evaluating the course of inflammation during and after critical illness as well as its response to statin therapy are required.
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A diet high in fruits and vegetables decreases the risk of various cancers. And recently, several ingredients extracted from fruits and vegetables are observed to have a protective effect against different cancers as well. ⋯ Due to the fact that these ingredients possess not only a comparatively high purity and quantity, but also a potential economic value, it seems that they are superior to and could replace fresh vegetables and fruits in cancer prevention in the future. Herein, we proposed the hypothesis: the ingredients cannot take the place of fresh fruits and vegetables in cancer prevention.