Increased telomerase activity and vitamin D supplementation in overweight African Americans.

What Was Tested

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

The researchers aimed to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation modulates peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) telomerase activity in overweight African Americans.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 37 subjects taking part.

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

Fresh PBMCs were collected from 37 subjects (18 in the placebo group and 19 in the vitamin D group), both at baseline and 16 weeks.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

As a double-blind Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

A double blind, randomized and placebo-controlled clinical trial (#NCT01141192) was recently conducted.

PBMC telomerase activity was measured by the telomeric repeat amplification protocol.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Black or African American, Analysis of Variance, Cholecalciferol, Cross-Sectional Studies, Dietary Supplements, Glycated Hemoglobin and Leukocytes, Mononuclear.

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 37 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (International journal of obesity (2005)), a journal based in England.

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