Background: It is well established that improvement of endothelial dysfunction (ED) could prevent or delay the occurrence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its related morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this study we investigated whether administration of vitamin C could be effective by improving brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and intima media thickness (IMT), two surrogate markers of ED, in children with CKD or chronic renal failure (CRF). Materials and Methods: In this analytic-experimental study children aged 3-18 years with a diagnosis of CRF and a group of healthy children were enrolled. Vitamin C (250 mg/day) administrated for the two studied groups for 1 month. Endothelial function was evaluated by FMD and IMT measurement using vascular Doppler ultrasonography, before and after trial. Results: In this study 18 patients with CRF and 19 normal children as the control group were studied. At baseline mean of IMT and FMD was not different in the two studied groups (P > 0.05). After vitamin C administration IMT decreased significantly in the two studied groups (P < 0.05). FMD increased in the two studied groups but the difference was significant in the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings of this interventional trial have demonstrated that vitamin C could have protective effect on ED of patients with CRF possibly in those with severe form of the disease but for obtaining more conclusive results larger sample size is needed.

Background: The current survey investigates the effect of 12 weeks yoga training on headache frequency, severity, duration and blood nitric oxide levels as well as headache impacts on female migraineurs' lives. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two female patients with migraine took part and were randomly divided into two groups. The control group (n = 14) received medication and the yoga group (n = 18) participated in 12 weeks yoga training in addition to receiving the same medication as that of the control group. Frequency and duration of headache were assessed by a questionnaire. Visual Analogue Scale was used to measure the severity of headache, and the metabolite of NO also was measured by Griess reaction. Headache Impact Test ( HIT-6) was also used to assess the impact of headache on patients' lives. Data were analyzed by t-test mean variance. Results: After 3 months intervention, in the yoga group, there was a significant reduction in the impact of headache on patients' lives, headache frequency, and severity and a non-significant reduction in headache duration in the yoga group. There was no significant difference in the plasma levels of NO between yoga and control groups before and after the study. Conclusion: Based on the results, yoga could be recommended as a complementary method to migraine patients.