Study on Vit D and Crohn's as well as info from Dr. who preformed the study! YAY
Alright, so I found a study completed in Montreal QC, Canada by John H White, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Physiology, Department of Medicine, he works in the endocrinology and metabolism dept. of McGill University.
The study is called (and bear with me as I attempt to attach the link)
"Vitamin D supplements could prevent and relieve symptoms of Crohn's disease, says new study."
http://trusted.md/blog/wpho/2010/02/05/vitamin_d_deficiency_may_lead_to_crohns_disease#axzz1BOV5AMNS
I then sent him an email inquiring further and to my amazment he responded within hours, so I will now attempt to attach that email:
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To: John H. White, Dr.
Subject: Question regarding your findings of Vitamin D and Crohn's Disease
Dr. White,
My name is "GG" and I live in Newfoundland. I have a severe case of Crohn's Disease with a very extensive medical history.
I came across your article while researching a potential link between weather and IBD flare ups. During my research I have entered many support forums and posted threads asking others with Crohn's Disease if they had noticed a correlation with the weather or time of year that their flares are worse; as I have found myself, many other Crohn's sufferers noticed that they tended to flare worse in the winter. This is not to say they don't flare during other times of the year, however, there has been a noticeable difference in the severity during the winter to spring seasons.
After reading through your article I am led to wonder if the flares possibly happen due to the lack of natural Vitamin D we receive from the sun? If this may be the case then would you suggest that taking Vitamin D should be done all year and increased during that time of year, or would you suggest we get it naturally during the "sunny" seasons and then supplement during the not so sunny seasons?
As well, does the vitamin only absorb through certain parts of your digestive tract or can you still benefit from taking these supplements if you have had several resections, particularly the terminal ileum, and the right colon?
I understand you do not have access to my medical records and cannot give me actual medical advice, I am hypothetically asking. I also thought that you would be the most knowledgable on this topic as you preformed a similar study to my question. If you do require further information please feel free to ask. Also, if you know of any more articles that may be related to this I would really appreciate any direction you could give me.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you,
"GG"
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Hi "GG",
Thank you for your email. You have obviously researched the subject extensively. Living in Newfoundland, you probably don't make vitamin D in your skin for at least 7 months of the year. Not being a clinician, I do not know where vitamin D is (preferentially) absorbed in the digestive tract. However, it is clear from the literature that malabsorption is a often problem with CD patients.
I would strongly recommend that you have your vitamin D levels checked. I should note in this regard that the Institute of Medicine (IoM) in the United States at the request of the Canadian and US governments recently issued daily recommended intake (DRI) levels for vitamin D that many people in the vitamin D field find very conservative. The IoM suggested that levels of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D form (the stable, circulating precursor of the active form) should be at 50nM or 20ng/ml. It is their job to be conservative and only use the most rigorous clinical data to inform DRI. They considered that only the data analyzing the role of vitamin D in skeletal health was strong enough to meet their criteria. In addition, it should be pointed out that the nutrition community has been 'busted" in the past with other nutrients (e.g. vitamin E), which were subsequently found to be potentially harmful at elevated levels. That being said, my feeling is that there is enough evidence that maintaining circulating levels around 80nM (32ng/ml) would provide added benefit with out any evidence for harm. It is once levels are over 100/40 that small "red flags" start appearing in the literature among other data providing evidence for additional benefit at those levels.
Genetic evidence and other types of studies point to CD arising from a defect in innate immune responses to intestinal flora. There is accumulating laboratory evidence that vitamin D boosts innate immune responses in humans, and this data fits with associations between vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and susceptibility to infectious diseases in the literature. However, most of the clinical data has yet to reach the level of experimental rigour that the IoM would deem sufficient to include in any recommendations of DRI. This would require (large) randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials of vitamin D supplementation. In the CD field I haven't checked the literature for several weeks. However, I did come across one very small trial from Hungary that suggested that vitamin D supplementation reduced the severity of CD flare-ups. Nonetheless, much more work needs to be done.
Even if it turns outs out, the laboratory data notwithstanding, that their is no clinical benefit of vitamin D supplementation on frequency or severity of CD flare-ups, it is a good idea to maintain optimal vitamin D levels because of the long-term benefit for the bone health. You may have to have your vitamin D levels tested on several occasions to make sure that you are supplementing adequately because of potential problems with absorption.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
John White
John H. White, Ph.D.,
Professor,
Departments of Physiology and Medicine,
McGill University,
McIntyre Bldg., Rm. 1112,
3655 Drummond St.,
Montreal Qc, H3G 1Y6
Tel: 514 398 8498
Fax: 514 398 7452
So, that has somewhat answered the question as to whether or not their is a correlation between the weather and flare ups. I find this interesting and will be getting my levels checked and then heading to a holistic center for the "suggested" doses of Vit. D, I will check back in here and let everyone know if I find it helpful or not. I probably won't know anything for awhile as I am suspected to have C Diff. currently (again!).
Hope you find this helpful!
GG