The effects of magnesium supplementation on exercise performance.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

To determine the effects of magnesium (Mg2+) supplementation on performance and recovery in physically active women using the sensitive and recently advanced measure of ionic Mg2+ (iMg).

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers and adults, women only.

At baseline, participants submitted to a resting blood pressure measurement, and they completed both an anaerobic treadmill test and an incremental (aerobic) treadmill test.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

In the crossover set-up each of the participants took both Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

For the latter, values for workload, oxygen uptake, and heart rate were obtained at both anaerobic threshold and maximal effort.

Blood samples for iMg, total serum Mg2+ (TMg), erythrocyte Mg2+ (EMg), Ca2+, K+, Na+, hemoglobin, hematocrit, lactate, and glucose were also collected pretest, and 4, 10, 30 min, and 24 h posttest.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Antacids, Dietary Supplements, Exercise Test, Heart Rate, Magnesium, Magnesium Oxide and Oxygen Consumption.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 2 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2001 (Medicine and science in sports and exercise), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.