Oral zinc supplementation reduces the erythropoietin responsiveness index in patients on hemodialysis.

What Was Tested

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

In hemodialysis (HD) patients, zinc depletion caused by inadequate intake, malabsorption, and removal by HD treatment leads to erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) hyporesponsiveness.

This study investigated the effects of zinc supplementation in HD patients with zinc deficiency on changes in the erythropoietin responsiveness index (ERI).

Who Took Part

The study group was 70 patients.

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

All the 70 patients had been taking epoetin alpha as treatment for renal anemia.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

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

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Anemia, Carnosine, Copper, Dietary Supplements, Epoetin Alfa, Erythropoietin and Ferritins.

The authors tagged it with the keywords erythropoiesis stimulating agent, erythropoietin responsiveness index, hemodialysis, renal anemia and zinc deficiency.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and Carnosine in 70 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2015 (Nutrients), a journal based in Switzerland.

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