Most cases of disability and early death have their root cause in a poor diet. This is a global phenomenon. This means that improving diet can prevent most premature deaths.
According to recent research, Covid-19 patients who have dietary problems experience poorer outcomes.
A balanced diet does more than just help keep diabetes, cancer, and heart disease at bay, it also helps you fight off Covid-19.
Diet therapy helps people to prevent disease, as well as manage and treat illnesses. This includes acute and chronic diseases.
MNT (Medical Nutrition Therapy)
Treatment with Nutrition and Diet
Medical Nutrition Therapy means treating injuries, illnesses, and health conditions with diet and nutrition. MNT is an effective treatment for a range of conditions; from depression to HIV and kidney disease.
Even though researchers have proved that MTN works to treat chronic illnesses, MNT services are not widely accessible. Many patients cannot access it; either because it is too expensive or simply not available for them.
One study that focused on nutrition support for diabetes type 2 patients under Medicare found that not more than 4% benefited from MNT in the first year of their diagnosis.
Applying Digital Health Technology in the Service of MNT
Digital Health Technology has the potential to make MNT accessible to more people than ever before. Besides expanding availability, Digital Health Technology can provide the service in a more precise and individualized way.
We can now use both active and passive data collection to track, monitor, and analyze personal health by, for example, monitoring heart rates with smartwatches or logging in a 5-mile walk using a mobile app.
At least a fifth of America uses either a health app or a smart device to monitor their health. Users can choose from more than 300,000 apps on the market for health tracking.
The latest technologies like big data and machine learning can analyze data in real-time and present an opportunity to transform nutrition management.
With individual data such as meal patterns and symptoms, medics can apply machine learning and big data analysis to come up with evidence-based Medical Nutrition Therapy recommendations fast.
This will enable us to gain a deeper understanding of how diet influences improved disease treatment, management, and prevention.
Using mobile phones to make the technology accessible to more patients will allow them to benefit from MNT and access continual medical support wherever they are.
These technologies are compatible with machine learning and big data. They can make Medical Nutrition Therapy better and more accessible than ever.
Mobile phones can help patients take charge of their care, to access 24/7 medical support no matter where they are.
A single digital health service can integrate all these tools and services to make MNT more accessible financially by allowing them to access the therapy without having to pay for an in-person consultation.
Over time, the technology can minimize the ravages of disease, save lives, and reduce health services expenditure to the tune of billions of dollars.
Individualized MNT Advice
By building a single platform that continuously analyzes data across different locations and demographics, we can understand the role of diet in causing disease and altering the impact of the disease on the human body.
Vulnerable population groups like older people and the chronically ill also stand to benefit from such a platform.
With greater resources dedicated to data analysis, it will be possible to identify risk factors for chronic illnesses a lot earlier and to prescribe dietary interventions early enough to prevent and sometimes even reverse diseases.
Because people’s nutritional needs and preferences evolve with time, people need a platform that can grow and adapt to their changing needs over time, too. AI and machine learning will enable the platform to gradually develop a better understanding of user’s nutritional needs.
This kind of platform will use algorithms to spot and track patterns that reflect individual traits in behavior, biology, as well as physiology. These insights will help the tools to decide on the best diet for individual users, designed for their conditions, genetics, and even lifestyle.
Machine learning, as well as analysis of big data, can help users to understand the diet needs of individuals and to make more precise dietary prescriptions.
The technology can make clinical care better by recognizing the way drugs, nutrition, and disease interact and coming up with more precise MNT prescriptions.
We are on the cusp of a new technological era of more personalized nutritional services than ever.