Supplementation with a multivitamin, mineral and herbal formulation may be useful in improving alertness and reducing negative mood symptoms and may also improve feelings of general day-to-day well-being.

By extending the theory of neural efficiency to the within-subject neurocognitive effects of supplementation, we concluded that following the EPA-rich supplementation, participants' brains worked 'less hard' and achieved a better cognitive performance than prior to supplementation. Conversely, the increase in functional activation and lack of improvement in time or accuracy of cognitive performance following DHA-rich supplementation may indicate that DHA-rich supplementation is less effective than EPA-rich supplementation in enhancing neurocognitive functioning after a 30-day supplementation period in the same group of individuals.

Background:The long term safety of potent gastric acid suppressive therapy has yet to be established. Method: General practice record review at a median interval of 26 months followed by retrieval of details of all deaths within four years using the UK National Health Service Central Registers in 17 936 patients prescribed omeprazole in 1993-1995. Death rates were compared with general population rates. Results: Records of 17 489 patients (97.5%) were examined. A total of 12 703 patients received further scripts for antisecretory drugs, 8097 for omeprazole only (65.6%): 3097 patients have died. All cause mortality was higher in the first year (observed/expected (O/E) 1.44 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.34-1.55); p<0.0001) but had fallen to population expectation by the fourth year. There were significant mortality increases in the first year, falling to or below population expectation by the fourth year, for deaths ascribed to neoplasms (1.82 (95% CI 1.58-2.08); p<0.0001), circulatory diseases (1.27 (95% CI 1.13-1.43); p<0.0001), and respiratory diseases (1.37 (95% CI 1.12-1.64); p<0.001). Increased mortality ascribed to digestive diseases (2.56 (95% CI 1.87-3.43); p<0.0001) persisted, although reduced. Increased mortality rates for cancers of the stomach (4.06 (95% CI 2.60-6.04); p<0.0001), colon and rectum (1.40 (95% CI 0.84-2.18); p=0.075), and trachea, bronchus, and lung (1.64 (95% CI 1.19-2.19); p<0.01) seen in the first year had disappeared by the fourth year but that for cancer of the oesophagus had not (O/E 7.35 (95% CI 5.20-10.09) (p<0.0001) in year 1; 2.88 (95% CI 1.62-4.79) (p<0.001) in year 4). Forty of 78 patients dying of oesophageal cancer had the disease present at registration. Twenty seven of those remaining cases had clinical evidence of Barrett's disease, stricture, ulcer, or oesophagitis at registration (O/E 3.30 (95% CI 2.17-4.80)). Six deaths occurred in patients with hiatal hernia or reflux only (O/E 1.02 (95% CI 0.37-2.22)) and five in patients without oesophageal disease (O/E 0.77 (95% CI 0.25-1.80)). No relationships were detected with numbers of omeprazole scripts received. Conclusions: Increases in mortality associated with treatment are due to pre-existing illness, including pre-existing severe oesophageal disease. There was no evidence of an increased risk of oesophageal adenocarcinoma in those without oesophageal mucosal damage recorded at registration.

While cardiovascular and mood benefits of dietary omega-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are manifest, direct neurophysiological evidence of their effects on cortical activity is still limited. Hence we chose to examine the effects of two proprietary fish oil products with different EPA∶DHA ratios (EPA-rich, high EPA∶DHA; DHA-rich) on mental processing speed and visual evoked brain activity. We proposed that nonlinear multifocal visual evoked potentials (mfVEP) would be sensitive to any alteration of the neural function induced by omega-3 fatty acid supplementation, because the higher order kernel responses directly measure the degree of recovery of the neural system as a function of time following stimulation. Twenty-two healthy participants aged 18–34, with no known neurological or psychiatric disorder and not currently taking any nutritional supplementation, were recruited. A double-blind, crossover design was utilized, including a 30-day washout period, between two 30-day supplementation periods of the EPA-rich and DHA-rich diets (with order of diet randomized). Psychophysical choice reaction times and multi-focal nonlinear visual evoked potential (VEP) testing were performed at baseline (No Diet), and after each supplementation period. Following the EPA-rich supplementation, for stimulation at high luminance contrast, a significant reduction in the amplitude of the first slice of the second order VEP kernel response, previously related to activation in the magnocellular pathway, was observed. The correlations between the amplitude changes of short latency second and first order components were significantly different for the two supplementations. Significantly faster choice reaction times were observed psychophysically (compared with baseline performance) under the EPA-rich (but not DHA-rich) supplementation, while simple reaction times were not affected. The reduced nonlinearities observed under the EPA-rich diet suggest a mechanism involving more efficient neural recovery of magnocellular-like visual responses following cortical activation.

A number of randomised controlled trials have indicated that multivitamin/mineral supplementation for a period of 4 weeks or greater can enhance mood and cognition. To date, no studies have investigated whether a single multivitamin dose can benefit mental function in older adults. This study investigated the acute effects of a single multivitamin and mineral and herbal (MVMH) supplement versus placebo on self ratings of mood and the performance of an effortful computerised cognitive battery in a sample of 76 healthy women aged 50-75 years. Mood was assessed using the depression anxiety stress scale (DASS), state trait anxiety inventory-state anxiety scale and visual analogue scales (VAS). Mood was rated at 1 h post supplementation and again after the competition of the cognitive assessments at 2 h post supplementation. It was demonstrated that the MVMH supplement improved overall DASS mood ratings; however, the most prominent effects appeared to be a reduction in ratings of perceived mental stress. These findings were confirmed using visual analogue scales, with these measures also demonstrating MVMH-related increased ratings of calmness. There were no benefits of the MVMH to mood ratings of depression and performance was not enhanced on the cognitive battery. Supplementation with a single multivitamin, mineral and herbal supplement reduces stress several hours after intake in healthy older people.

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Introduction : With an aging population there is an important need for the development of effective treatments for the amelioration of cognitive decline. Multiple mechanisms underlie age-related cognitive decline including cerebrovascular disease, oxidative stress, reduced antioxidant capacity and mitochondrial dysfunction. CoQ 10 is a novel treatment which has the potential to improve brain function in healthy elderly populations due to established beneficial effects on mitochondrial function, vascular function and oxidative stress. Methods and Analysis : We describe the protocol for a 90-day randomized controlled trial which examines the efficacy of Ubiquinol (200 mg/day) vs. placebo for the amelioration of cognitive decline in a healthy (non-demented) elderly sample, aged 60 years and over. The primary outcome is the effect of Ubiquinol at 90 days compared to baseline on CogTrack composite measures of cognition. Additional cognitive measures, as well as measures of cardiovascular function, oxidative stress, liver function and mood will also be monitored across 30-, 60- and 90- day time points. Data analyses will involve repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Discussion : This study will be the first of its kind to provide important clinical and mechanistic data regarding the efficacy of Ubiquinol as a treatment for age-related cognitive decline in the healthy elderly with important implications for productivity and quality of life within this age group. Clinical Trial Registration : The trial has been registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTRN12618001841268).

Gamma-band oscillatory activity (GBA) is an established neural signature of sustained occluded object representation in infants and adults. However, it is not yet known whether the magnitude of GBA in the infant brain reflects the quantity of occluded items held in memory. To examine this, we compared GBA of 6–8 month-old infants during occlusion periods after the representation of two objects vs. that of one object. We found that maintaining a representation of two objects during occlusion resulted in significantly greater GBA relative to maintaining a single object. Further, this enhancement was located in the right occipital region, which is consistent with previous object representation research in adults and infants. We conclude that enhanced GBA reflects neural processes underlying infants’ representation of small numbers.