Zinc supplementation in children and adolescents with acute leukemia.

What Was Tested

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

Zinc is known as an essential micronutrient for human health because of its structural and biochemical functions, influencing growth and affecting multiple aspects of the immune system.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of oral zinc supplementation on weight gain and infectious episodes in children and adolescents with acute leukemia.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 38 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are young children, children and teenagers, both men and women.

This study included 38 patients, and was carried out as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled investigation.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

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

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

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

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Acute Disease, Dietary Supplements, Infections, Leukemia, Malnutrition, Nutritional Status and Weight Gain.

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 38 patients.

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 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2013 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

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