Osteoporosis in inflammatory bowel disease: effect of calcium and vitamin D with or without fluoride.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To assess the effect of fluoride supplementation on lumbar spine bone mineral density in osteoporotic patients with inflammatory bowel disease treated in parallel with calcium and vitamin D.

Why It Was Studied

Previous data have indicated low bone formation as a mechanism of osteoporosis in inflammatory bowel disease.

Fluoride can stimulate bone formation.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 94 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, both men and women.

In this prospective, randomized, double-blind, parallel and placebo-controlled study, 94 patients with inflammatory bowel disease (lumbar spine T score below - 2 standard deviations, normal serum 25OH vitamin D), with a median age of 35 years, were included.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

The Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group ran side by side rather than switching.

Bone mineral density was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

The relative change in bone mineral density from 0 to 12 months was tested in each group (fluoride or placebo) and compared between the groups.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Absorptiometry, Photon, Adrenal Cortex Hormones, Body Mass Index, Bone Density, Calcium, Fluorides and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 94 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2002 (Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics), a journal based in England.

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