The role of research - how much is enough?

A great deal of research is involved in bringing PARNUTs to the marketplace . Research often begins with identifying an unfilled nutritional need, dete rmining a that need is great enough to warrant development of a new product , and then evaluating the efficacy and safety of the potential product in a nimal models and clinical trials. This approach tends to emphasize short-te rm outcomes, however, while neglecting the issues of whether a product offe rs long term benefit or holds long term risks. This article presents discus sion centered around the need for selecting appropriate outcomes far nutrit ional intervention trials, designing trials with a follow-up rime sufficien t to allow for outcome measurement, and enrolling a patient population larg e enough to accurately gauge efficacy and tolerability.