Positive effects of a chicken eggshell powder-enriched vitamin-mineral supplement on femoral neck bone mineral density in healthy late post-menopausal Dutch women.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamins, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Although bone metabolism is largely under genetic control, the role of nutrition is considerable.

The present study evaluates the effects of chicken eggshell powder, a new source of dietary Ca, and purified CaCO3 on bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine and hip.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults and older adults, women only.

Healthy Caucasian women (n 85), selected by age (> or =50 and <70 years), from the databases of general practitioners were recruited by telephone calls.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Vitamins study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Vitamins study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Vitamins group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

The present study evaluates the effects of chicken eggshell powder, a new source of dietary Ca, and purified CaCO3 on bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine and hip.

They had to be at least 5 years post-menopausal, with lumbar spine T-score being > - 2.5.

The subject headings attached to it are Age Factors, Biomarkers, Bone Density, Calcium, Calcium Carbonate, Chickens and Dietary Supplements.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamins.

The publication is from 2002 (The British journal of nutrition), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.