Effect of zinc supplementation on vitamin status of middle-aged and older European adults: the ZENITH study.

What Was Tested

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

To assess the effects of zinc supplementation on vitamin status in middle-aged and older volunteers.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

Biochemical measurements were performed at baseline and after 3 and 6 months of zinc supplementation.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

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.

Dietary intake was assessed by means of a validated 4-day recall record.

Fasting blood samples were simultaneously analysed for levels of plasma retinol and alpha-tocopherol by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Erythrocyte folates were measured by a competitive immunoassay with direct chemiluminescence detection on an automatized immunoanalyser.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Aging, Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid, Diet, Dietary Supplements, Erythrocytes, Folic Acid and Luminescent Measurements.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2008 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

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