ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.1

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.3

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

摘要:

Context: Numerous studies conducted in juvenile correctional institutions have reported that violence and serious antisocial behavior have been cut almost in half after implementing nutrient-dense diets that are consistent with the World Health Organization's guidelines for fats, sugar, starches, and protein ratios. Two controlled trials tested whether the cause of the behavioralimprovements was psychologicical or biologicical in nature by comparing the behavior of offenders who either received placebos or vitamin-mineral supplements designed to providethe micronutrient equivalent of a well-balanced diet. These randomized trials reported that institutionalized offenders, aged 13 to 17 years or 18 to 26 years, when given active tablets producedabout 40% less violent and other antisocial behavior than the placebo controls. However, generalization could not be made to typical schoolchildren without a controlled trial examiningviolence and antisocial behavior in public schools.Objectives: To determine if schoolchildren, aged 6 to 12 years, who are given low dose vitamin- mineral tablets will produce significantly less violence and antisocial behavior in schoolthan classmates who are given placebos.Design: A stratified randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with pretest and posttest measures of antisocial behavior on school property.Settings and Subjects: Two "working class," primarily Hispanic elementary schools in Phoenix, Arizona. Approximately half of the potential schoolchildren participated, i.e., 468 students aged6 to 12 years.Intervention: Daily vitamin-mineral supplementation at 50% of the U.S. recommended daily allowance (RDA) for 4 months versus placebo. The supplement was designed to raise vitamin-mineral intake up to the levels currently recommended by the National Academy of Sciences for children aged 6 to 11 years.Outcome Measure: Violent and nonviolent delinquency as measured by official school disciplinary records.Results: Of the 468 students randomly assigned to active or placebo tablets, the 80 who were disciplined at least once between September 1st and May 1st served as the research sample. Duringintervention, the 40 children who received active tablets were disciplined, on average, 1 time each, a 47% lower mean rate of antisocial behavior than the 1.875 times each for the 40 childrenwho received placebos (95% confidence interval, 29% to 65%,<5 .020). The children who took active tablets produced lower rates of antisocial behavior in 8 types of recorded infractions: threats/fighting, vandalism, being disrespectful, disorderly conduct, defiance, obscenities, refusalto work or serve, endangering others, and nonspecified offenses.Conclusions: Poor nutritional habits in children that lead to low concentrations of water-soluble vitamins in blood, impair brain function and subsequently cause violence and other seriousantisocial behavior. Correction of nutrient intake, either through a well-balanced diet or low-dose vitamin-mineral supplementation, corrects the low concentrations of vitamins in blood,improves brain function and subsequently lowers institutional violence and antisocial behavior by almost half. This paper adds to the literature by enabling previous research to be generalizedfrom older incarcerated subjects with a history of antisocial behavior to a normal population of younger children in an educational setting.

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.7

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

摘要:

Context: Many medical, nutrition, and education professionals have long suspected that poor diet impairs the academic performance of Western schoolchildren; academic performance oftenimproves after improved diet. However, others have suggested that such academic gains may be due to psychologic effects rather than nutrition. To resolve this issue, two independent researchteams conducted randomized trials in which children were given placebos or low-dose vitamin-mineral tablets designed to raise nutrient intake to the equivalent of a well-balanceddiet. Both teams reported significantly greater gains in nonverbal intelligence among the supplemented groups. The findings were important because of the apparent inadequacy of diet theyrevealed and the magnitude of the potential for increased intelligence. However, none of the ten subsequent replications, or the two original trials, were without limitations leaving this issue incontroversy.Objectives: To determine if schoolchildren who consume low-dose vitamin-mineral tablets will have a significantly larger increase in nonverbal intelligence than children who consumeplacebos in a study that overcomes the primary criticisms directed at the previous 12 controlled trials.Design: A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial using stratified randomization within each teacher's class based on preintervention nonverbal intelligence.Settings and Subjects: Two "working class," primarily Hispanic, elementary schools in Phoenix, Arizona, participated in the study. Slightly more than half the teachers in each schooldistributed the tablets daily to 245 schoolchildren aged 6 to 12 years.Intervention: Daily vitamin-mineral supplementation at 50% of the U.S. daily recommended allowance (RDA) for 3 months versus placebo.Outcome Measures: Post-test nonverbal IQ, as measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), while controlling for pretest nonverbal IQ as a covariate.Four Main Results: First, a significant difference of 2.5 IQ points (95% CI: 1.853.15) was found between 125 children given active tablets and 120 children given placebo tablets (p= 0.038). Second, this finding is consistent with the mean 3.2 IQ point net gain found in the 12 similar butless rigorous studies. Third, a significantly higher proportion of children in the active group gained 15 or more IQ points when compared to the placebo group (p<0.01). Fourth, although 81 matched pairs produced no difference at all in nonverbal IQ gain, the modest 2.5 IQ point net gain for the entire sample can be explained by the remaining 24 children who took activetablets, and had a 16 point higher net gain in IQ than the remaining 19 placebo controls.Conclusions: This study confirms that vitamin-mineral supplementation modestly raised the nonverbal intelligence of some groups of Western schoolchildren by 2 to 3 points but not thatof most Western schoolchildren, presumably because the majority were already adequately nourished. This study also confirms that vitamin-mineral supplementation markedly raises the nonverbalintelligence of a minority of Western schoolchildren, presumably because they were too poorly nourished before supplementation for optimal brain function. Because nonverbal intelligenceis closely associated with academic performance, it follows that schools with children who consume substandard diets should find it difficult to produce academic performance equal tothose schools with children who consume diets that come closer to providing the nutrients suggested in the U.S. RDA. The parents of schoolchildren whose academic performance is substandardwould be well advised to seek a nutritionally oriented physician for assessment of their children's nutritional status as a possible etiology.

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.19

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.31

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

摘要:

Three representative electrostimulators were evaluated to determine whether they meet the manufacturers' labeled nominal output parameters and how the measured parameters comparewith a safety standard written for implanted peripheral nerve stimulators. The pulsed outputs (pulse width, frequency, and voltage) of three devices were measured with an oscilloscope acrossa 500-ohm resistance, meant to simulate subdermal tissue stimulated during electroacupuncture. For each device, at least two measured parameters were not within 25% of the manufacturer'sclaimed values. The measured values were compared with the American National Standard ANSI/AAMI NS15 safety standard for implantable peripheral nerve stimulators. Although fortwo stimulators the pulse voltage at maximum intensity was above that specified by the standard, short-term clinical use may still be safe because the standard was written for long-termstimulation. Similarly, the net unbalanced DC current, which could lead to tissue damage, electrolysis, and electrolytic degradation of the acupuncture needle, was within the limits of the standardat 30 pulses per second, but not at higher frequencies. The primary conclusions are (1) that the outputs of electrostimulators must be calibrated and (2) that practitioners must be adequatelytrained to use these electrostimulators safely.

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.37

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

摘要:

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess if kudzu root extract influences the drinking habits of veterans who entered a substance abuse treatment program.Design: Prospective, randomized double-blind controlled clinical trial.Setting: A nonacademic Veteran Affairs Medical Center.Methods: Patients with the diagnosis of alcoholism were randomly assigned to receive either kudzu root extract 1.2 g twice daily or a matching placebo. Patients completed questionnairesthat focused on craving for alcohol and sobriety status on a monthly basis.Outcome measures: Sobriety level and craving for ethanol were assessed on a visual analogue scale from 0 to 10.Results: Thirty-eight patients completed 1 month of the study; 21 randomly assigned kudzu, 17 to placebo. No statistically significance difference in craving and sobriety scores were notedafter 1 month between kudzu and placebo, or at later stages with smaller numbers (1519) of patients.Conclusion: In this small patient population, kudzu root appeared to be no better than placebo in reducing the craving for alcohol or promoting sobriety.

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.45

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

摘要:

Objective: Homeopathy is controversial, primarily because of the use of medicines diluted beyond the Avogadro limit. This article examines the scientific debate on whether homeopathycan have effects greater than placebo in humans.Methods: Five rigorous English-language clinical studies published in high-impact journals that favored homeopathy were identified. Letters and other articles written in response to thesearticles were then retrieved and analyzed.Results: Much of the content of responses to positive homeopathic research was rhetorical in nature and antagonistic in tone: homeopathic researchers were accused of bias and of being inthe pocket of homeopathic manufacturers; arguments were raised that are demonstrably inaccurate or irrelevant to the interpretation of research; words such as "magic" or "potion" wereused to paint homeopathic research as inherently unscientific. Other commentators argued that based on theoretical grounds homeopathy could not possibly be effective, any positive trial resultmust be due to bias. Surprisingly few responses raised substantive methodologic or statistical issues. Many of these are clearly inaccurate or irrelevant. The possibility of publicationbiasselective publication of positive resultswas raised by some commentators and remains an important criticism of the apparently positive nature of the clinical trial evidence. The mostpersuasive argument against accepting differences between homeopathy and placebo on the basis of current evidence is that homeopathy is scientifically implausible and so requires more evidencethan normal.Conclusions: Investigators undertaking clinical research in homeopathy need to be responsive both to the dangers of publication bias and to the requirement for stronger than usual levelsof evidence.

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.49

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.57

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL

摘要:

Objectives:Hypericum hookerianumWight and Arnott of the family Hypericaceae is a well-known plant among the 20 different species ofHypericumfound in India. Because of its use as a wound-healing agent in traditional practices and literature references, the present study wasundertaken to evaluate the wound-healing potential of this plant.Design:Methanol extracts of the leaves (HHLM) and stems (HHSM) ofH. hookerianumwere studied for their wound-healing properties in the form of ointment, using two types of woundmodels in 36 rats. Ointments of the dried extract of the leaves and stems of this plant were applied in two different concentrations (5% w /w and 10% w/w ointment of extracts in simpleointment base) in both the wound models used in the present study. The effects were studied on incision (skin-breaking strength) and excision (percent wound contraction and epithelializationtime) wound models.Subject:The methanol extract of both leaves and stem ofH. hookerianum; 71 white albino rats of either gender containing six groups for each experimental model with six animals in eachgroup.Results and conclusion:The extract ointments at both concentrations performed significant in both the wound models. The leaf extract in both concentrations showed greater activity thanthe stem. Ointments of both extracts ofH. hookerianumshowed significant effects on wound contraction, wound closure time, tensile strength, regeneration of tissues at the wound site, amongother effects. All these effects were comparable to those of a standard drug, nitrofurazone ointment (0.2% w/w). This investigation confirms the use of aerial parts ofH. hookerianumas a potential wound-healing agent, a property known from folklore medicine.

ISSN:1075-5535    

DOI:10.1089/acm.2000.6.61

出版商:Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.    

年代:2000

数据来源: MAL