Calcium and vitamin d supplementation decreases incidence of stress fractures in female navy recruits.

What Was Tested

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

Stress fractures (SFx) are one of the most common and debilitating overuse injuries seen in military recruits, and they are also problematic for nonmilitary athletic populations.

Who Took Part

The study group was 5201 volunteers.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, women only.

SFx were ascertained when recruits reported to the Great Lakes clinic with symptoms.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

Neither the volunteers nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some volunteers received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

All SFx were confirmed with radiography or technetium scan according to the usual Navy protocol.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Calcium, Fractures, Stress, Military Personnel, United States and Vitamin D.

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 5201 volunteers.

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2008 (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.