Effects of a multivitamin, mineral and herbal supplement on cognition and blood biomarkers in older men: a randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamins, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Nutritional and vitamin status may be related to cognitive function and decline in older adults.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of nutritional supplementation on cognition in older men.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 51 individuals taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, men only.

Participants were 51 male individuals aged between 50 and 74 years, with a sedentary lifestyle.

Cognitive performance was assessed at baseline and post-treatment using a computerised battery of cognitive tasks, enabling the measurement of a range of attentional and memory processes.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamins and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

As a double-blind Vitamins study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamins could be set against what happens without it.

Blood measures of vitamin B(12), folate and homocysteine were collected prior to and after supplementation.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Biomarkers, Cognition, Dietary Supplements, Folic Acid, Homocysteine, Memory and Memory, Episodic.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamins in 51 individuals.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2012 (Human psychopharmacology), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.