Plasma changes in micronutrients following a multivitamin and mineral supplement in healthy adults.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Micronutrients and Vitamins in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To estimate the micronutrient (riboflavin, folate, vitamin C, vitamin B(12), iron, zinc and copper) bioavailability in healthy adults from a multi-micronutrient dietary supplement to assess the possible influence on it by the tablet disintegration properties and by the relative intestinal permeability of subject.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 15 subjects taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

The bioavailability of seven micronutrients from a single brand of multi-micronutrient dietary supplement was measured on two separate occasions in the presence of a standardized test meal in 15 healthy adult subjects.

Each subject visited the Metabolic Research Unit on four separate randomized occasions for an absorption test.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this Micronutrients study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Some subjects received a placebo instead of Micronutrients, giving a reference point.

Each person switched between Micronutrients and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

One test measured the intestinal permeability.

The other three tests measured the postprandial changes in plasma or serum concentrations after consuming a test meal alone (control:placebo effect), or the test meal with either whole or crushed and powdered dietary supplements. 15 healthy Caucasian adult volunteers, aged 42 +/- 14 years.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Area Under Curve, Biological Availability, Deficiency Diseases, Dietary Supplements, Intestinal Absorption, Micronutrients and Minerals.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and crossover study of Micronutrients and Vitamins in 15 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2003 (Journal of the American College of Nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.