Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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20.08.2008 |
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Multivitamin pill helps children think more accurately
If children take a daily supplement containing extra vitamins and minerals, their brains work in a more focused way. In psychological tests the children make fewer mistakes, researchers at Northumbria University concluded from an experiment involving eighty children between eight and fourteen.
Study
The table below shows what the tablets contain.
Results
The figure below shows how often the children clicked in the wrong direction. The dark bars represent the children who were taking the supplement. The white bars represent the children who got a placebo.
It sounds promising, but don't forget that the researchers did eight tests with the children for all sorts of mental functions, including reaction speed, memory and alertness. The Pharmaton pills had no effect on any of the other functions.
The researchers also got the children to fill in a questionnaire about how they were feeling. The children had to indicate whether they were "relaxed, alert, jittery, tired or tense", whether they had a headache, their general mood and whether they felt "mentally tired, happy or calm".
Out of the whole list of questions, there were no conclusive results. The vitamin pills had no effect – except that the children during the test period felt less jittery than the children who got a placebo.
Conclusion
Sounds pretty confident. Or is it the hand of the study's sponsor we can detect here? Which is - of course - Pharmaton, the manufacturer of the tablets tested.
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