Effects of zinc supplementation as adjunct therapy on the systemic immune responses in shigellosis.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in the context of immune system (general), published as a randomized controlled trial.

The researchers assessed the in vivo effect of zinc supplementation on systemic and mucosal responses in mildly to moderately malnourished (defined as <-1 but >-2 and <-2 but >-3 weight-for-height z scores, respectively, based on the National Center for Health Statistics growth reference) children with shigellosis.

Why It Was Studied

Zinc is lost during diarrheal diseases, and zinc deficiency induces intestinal morphology-altering inflammatory responses that zinc supplementation can correct.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are infants and young children, both men and women.

A double-blind placebo-controlled trial was conducted in Shigella flexneri-infected children aged 12-59 mo.

All subjects received standard antibiotic therapy.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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.

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

What Was Measured

Zinc is lost during diarrheal diseases, and zinc deficiency induces intestinal morphology-altering inflammatory responses that zinc supplementation can correct.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Analysis of Variance, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Antibodies, Bacterial, B-Lymphocytes, Blood Bactericidal Activity, Calcium and Child Nutrition Disorders.

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 people with immune system (general).

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2005 (The American journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, Immune system (general) research.