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Background and Aims: A higher dairy product intake has been associated to higher blood concentrations of 15:0 (pentadecanoic acid), 17:0 (margaric acid), and 14:0 (myristic acid). This study investigates whether a diet high in dairy products influences cholesteryl ester fatty acid concentrations of these specific fatty acids (FA).Methods and Results: In a randomized multiple cross-over study, 13 men and 17 women aged 22 ± 4 years with a BMI of 21.6 ± 2.2 kg/m2 received 3 isocaloric intervention diets (dairy, meat or grain) in random order. For this post-hoc analysis, FA in plasma cholesteryl esters were measured using gas chromatography. We performed a linear mixed model per centered log-ratio transformed FA, adjusting for period, and the interaction between diet and period. Consumed total fat intake per controlled intervention diet was 31.0 ± 0.9 en%/day (dairy), 31.5 ± 0.6 en%/day (meat), and 28.4 ± 1.2 en%/day (grain), respectively. The dairy diet led to higher relative concentrations of 15:0 when compared to diets high in meat and grain, (β; 0.27, 95%CI: 0.18,0.37; p = 1.2 × 10-5, and β: 0.15; 95%CI: 0.06,0.24; p = 1.2 × 10-2, respectively). The dairy diet also led to higher 14:0 when compared to the meat diet (β: 0.34; 95%CI: 0.21,0.46; p = 6.0 × 10-5), but not when compared to the grain diet. 17:0 did not differ between diets.Conclusion: The plasma cholesteryl ester fraction after a diet high in dairy was characterized by higher 15:0 levels. Concentrations of 14:0 were only higher when comparing the FA profile after a diet high in dairy when compared to a diet high in meat.Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01314040. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 25% of seizures in children are refractory to anti-seizure medications and need other modalities to control. Recently, herbal agents with anticonvulsive effects on seizure models in animals have received significant attention, but studies that show their impact on seizures in children are scarce. In a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design, we tried to demonstrate the efficacy of a mixture of Nigella sativa and Thymus vulgaris extracts (Epistop) on seizures in a group of children with refractory epilepsies. Twenty-two children with refractory epilepsies were randomly assigned into two sequences to receive Epistop or placebo in a cross-over design. Neither Epistop nor placebo had effects on the seizure frequency and duration over the study period. Only four children experienced clinically substantial seizure frequency (more than 50%) reduction after Epistop administration. These results indicate that a mixture of Nigella sativa and Thymus vulgaris extracts does not affect the seizure frequency and duration in children with refractory seizures. However, a minority of highly selected children with refractory seizures might benefit from the effects of a mixture of these agents' extracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]