A moderately high intake compared to a low intake of zinc depresses magnesium balance and alters indices of bone turnover in postmenopausal women.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Zinc and Copper.

To determine whether moderately high or low intakes of zinc adversely affect the copper status of postmenopausal women to result in unfavorable changes in calcium and magnesium metabolism and other indicators of bone turnover.

Who Took Part

The study group was 28 women.

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

A total of 28 postmenopausal women recruited by advertisement throughout the United States of America.

Among them, 25 women (64.9+6.7 y) completed the study; 21 as designed.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

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

The metabolic unit of the Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, Grand Forks, ND, USA.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Bone Density, Bone and Bones, Calcitonin, Copper, Drug Interactions, Feces and Magnesium.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Zinc and Copper in 28 women.

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 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2004 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

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