Influence of cholecalciferol supplementation in hemodialysis patients on monocyte subsets: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

A potential influence on monocyte and T lymphocyte dysfunction advocates blood level-adapted supplementation as recommended by K/DOQI guidelines.

This was a prospective double-blind randomized placebo controlled trial examining immune effects of 12 weeks of cholecalciferol supplementation.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 38 patients taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

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

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

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

The subject headings attached to it are Bone and Bones, Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Fibroblast Growth Factor-23, Monocytes, Renal Dialysis and Th1 Cells.

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

The publication is from 2013 (Nephron. Clinical practice), a journal based in Switzerland.

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