Vitamin K2 supplementation improves hip bone geometry and bone strength indices in postmenopausal women

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Vitamin K mediates the synthesis of proteins regulating bone metabolism.

The researchers have tested whether high vitamin K(2) intake promotes bone mineral density and bone strength.

Who Took Part

The study group was 325 women.

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

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

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

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

BMC and hip geometry were assessed by DXA.

Bone strength indices were calculated from DXA-BMD, femoral neck width (FNW) and hip axis length (HAL).

What Was Measured

The researchers have tested whether high vitamin K(2) intake promotes bone mineral density and bone strength.

Here the researchers have tested whether BMC and femoral neck width are affected by high vitamin K intake.

The subject headings attached to it are Absorptiometry, Photon, Bone Density, Femur Neck, Hip Fractures, Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal, Postmenopause and Risk Factors.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 325 women.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2007 (Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA), a journal based in England.

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