Do iron and vitamin C co-supplementation influence platelet function or LDL oxidizability in healthy volunteers?

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Adenosine Diphosphate.

To examine the effect of co-supplementation with iron and vitamin C on antioxidant status, platelet function and low density lipoprotein oxidation in normal healthy volunteers.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 20 subjects were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, both men and women.

The study was carried out with two groups of 20 subjects each acting as their own control, comparing presupplemention with postsupplemention.

Forty normal healthy volunteers, recruited from the staff of the Medical School and Hospital in which two volunteers withdrew during the study.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Adenosine Diphosphate and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The International Antioxidant Research Centre, The Guy's, King's College and St Thomas's School of Biomedical Science, Guy's Campus, London.

Blood samples were taken at 6 wk and 12 wk, and prior to supplementation and analysed for iron and antioxidant status (transferrin bound iron, vitamin C and E, and beta-carotene levels) in both studies.

Samples from the first study were analysed for the susceptibility of LDL isolated from plasma to Cu2+-induced oxidation and samples from the second for platelet function.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adenosine Diphosphate, Adenosine Triphosphate, Ascorbic Acid, Blood Platelets, Copper, Dietary Supplements and Hemoglobins.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Adenosine Diphosphate in 20 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1999 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.