Supplementation with oral vitamin D3 and calcium during winter prevents seasonal bone loss: a randomized controlled open-label prospective trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Bone metabolism follows a seasonal pattern with high bone turnover and bone loss during the winter.

Bone metabolism follows a seasonal pattern characterized by high bone turnover and bone loss during winter.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 55 adults were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and open-label.

The adults were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Nothing was hidden in this open-label Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study: the adults and staff both knew the treatment.

Primary endpoints were changes in calciotropic hormones [serum 25(OH)D, 1,25(OH)2D, and parathyroid hormone], markers of bone formation (serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase) and of bone resorption (urinary pyridinoline and deoxypyridinoline), and changes in lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Absorptiometry, Photon, Alkaline Phosphatase, Amino Acids, Bone Density, Bone Resorption, Bone and Bones and Calcium.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 55 adults.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2004 (Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research), a journal based in England.

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