Vitamin D supplementation for patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-beta: a randomized controlled trial assessing the effect on flu-like symptoms and immunomodulatory properties.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in the context of multiple sclerosis.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 21 patients taking part.

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

EDSS, relapses, adverse events and quality of life (QoL) were documented.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and double-blind 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 patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Serum levels of 25-hydroxy-D (25-OH-D), calcium, PTH, IL-17, IL-10 and IFN-γ were measured periodically.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cholecalciferol, Cytokines, Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions, Interferon-beta, Interleukin-17 and Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 21 patients in people with multiple sclerosis.

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 2013 (BMC neurology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, Multiple sclerosis research.