IN THIS ISSUE OF JAMA, GAZIANO AND COLLEAGUES 1 REport one of several analyses of data from the Physicians’ Health Study II (PHS II) randomized controlled trial. Among more than 14 000 male physicians who participated in this study, the authors report a marginally statistically significant (P=.04) inverse relationship between taking a daily multivitamin (Centrum Silver) and the occurrence of ca...

Older adults are at risk for malnutrition, which may contribute to their increased risk of infection. Nutritional supplementation strategies can reduce this risk and reverse some of the immune dysfunction associated with advanced age. This review discusses nutritional interventions that have been examined in clinical trials of older adults. The data support use of a daily multivitamin or trace-...

The extrinsic sources for erosion-causing acids are primarily acidic beverages and foodstuffs. Effervescent tablets also contain organic acids (e.g. citric, tartaric, malic) in order to form carbon dioxide by contact with water – with the help of the carbonate salts of the tablets. To adequately inform patients about the possible erosive potential of effervescent tablets, this study was underta...

BACKGROUND While many randomised controlled trials have been conducted on multivitamins, to our knowledge no qualitative research exploring the subjective experience of taking a multivitamin during a clinical trial has been reported. METHODS Semi-structured and open-ended written questions were incorporated into a 16-week double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel groups trial of ...

An isotope dilution LC/mass spectrometric (ID-LC/MS) method was developed as a candidate reference method for the accurate determination of niacin in infant formula, breakfast cereals and multivitamin. After spiking nicotinamide-d(4) as an internal standard, infant formula and breakfast cereal samples were hydrolysed under alkaline condition. Samples were then analysed in SRM mode to detect nic...

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of selenium (Se) supplementation of mature ewes in the period from day -14 to day 90 post mating on Se status, productivity and viability of ewes and their offspring. Multiparous crossbred ewes (n = 82) were randomly assigned to receive a standard dried grass-based diet (control) or dried grass diet supplemented with 1 g of selenised yeas...