Diarrhea and novel dietary factors emerge as predictors of serum vitamin B12 in Panamanian children.

Background: The role of gastrointestinal infection as a factor determining vitamin B12 status in populations with low intake of animal-source foods is unclear.

Objective: To determine dietary adequacy and serum concentrations of vitamin B12 in an extremely impoverished indigenous population of Panamanian children aged 12 to 60 months, and to identify predictors of both dietary and serum vitamin B12.

Methods: A previous community-based survey provided the usual dietary intake and personal, household, and infection (Ascaris and diarrheal disease) information for 209 weaned children.

Effects of dietary conjugated linoleic acid in advanced experimental polycystic kidney disease.

Background/aims: Several dietary interventions, including those involving conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), slow progression of polycystic kidney disease (PKD) when initiated in the early stages of disease in Han:SPRD-cy rats. However, in humans, kidney disease is often undetected until extensive renal injury has developed. The objective of this study therefore was to determine whether initiating dietary CLA intervention in advanced PKD would slow disease progression.