Thymus Activity, Vitamin D, and Respiratory Infections in Adolescent Swimmers.

What Was Tested

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

To examine the associations linking T cell receptor excision circles (TREC, markers of thymus activity), circulating 25(OH)D concentrations and the effect of vitamin D supplementation, and URI symptoms in young competitive swimmers.

Why It Was Studied

Several studies have identified associations between low vitamin D concentrations and risk of upper respiratory infections (URI).

T lymphocytes have a major anti-viral role, are affected by vitamin D metabolism, and may mediate the link between vitamin D and URIs.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as children and teenagers, both men and women.

Randomized supplementation of either vitamin D3 or placebo was given for 12 winter weeks.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled 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.

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

The associations between TREC copy numbers, vitamin D and URI burden were examined.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cholecalciferol, Dietary Supplements, Respiratory Tract Infections, Swimming, Thymus Gland and Vitamin D.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (The Israel Medical Association journal : IMAJ), a journal based in Israel.

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