Vitamin D supplementation and muscle strength in pre-sarcopenic elderly Lebanese people: a randomized controlled trial.

What Was Tested

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

The aim of this randomized, controlled, double-blind study was to examine the effect of vitamin D supplementation on handgrip strength and appendicular skeletal muscle mass in pre-sarcopenic older Lebanese subjects.

Why It Was Studied

The researchers also examined whether this effect differs in normal vs. obese subjects.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 62 men were involved.

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

Participants (n = 128; 62 men and 66 women) deficient in vitamin D (25(OH)D = 12.92 ± 4.3 ng/ml) were recruited from Saint Charles Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.

One hundred fifteen subjects completed the study: 59 had normal weight, while 56 were obese.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was 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 men and researchers unaware of who received Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

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

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Dietary Supplements, Hand Strength, Lebanon, Muscle Strength, Muscle, Skeletal, Nutritional Status and Obesity.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Appendicular skeletal muscle mass, Pre-sarcopenia, Sarcopenic obesity and Vitamin D.

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 62 men.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (Archives of osteoporosis), a journal based in England.

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