Effects of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Epigenetic Aging in Overweight and Obese African Americans With Suboptimal Vitamin D Status: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

In this study, the researchers aim to test the hypothesis that vitamin D supplementation would slow down epigenetic aging, a new marker of biological aging.

Mixed-effects models were used to evaluate the treatment effects.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 51 participants taking part.

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

Whole genome-wide DNA methylation analysis was conducted in 51 participants.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, giving a reference point.

DNA methylation ages were calculated according to the Horvath and the Hannum methods.

Methylation-based age acceleration index (∆Age) is defined as the difference between DNA methylation age and chronological age in years.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Black or African American, Aging, Cholecalciferol, DNA Methylation, Dietary Supplements, Epigenesis, Genetic and Georgia.

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 51 participants.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2019 (The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences), a journal based in United States.

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