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Can Vitamin D Deficiency Cause Crohns?

You need to take a supplement of Vit D3. I take 4000 IU daily. I do not think a Vit D deficiancy causes crohn's. I mean A lot of people are VitD deficiant actually. Depending on how your digestion is, there are different kinds you can get. There are liquids that are easily abosrbed or there are capsules too. I take one by Pure encapsulations. It is very good and has NO added ingrediants. I prefer capsules or liquid. Do not take tablets, they are hard to absorb.

I had my VitD levels checked 6 yeasrs ago and mine was at a 9. After 6 months on 5000 iu a day of Vit D3, my levels went up to 68.






I've been hearing a lot of people talk about this lately and so I decided to come up with my own thoughts on the topic. I did my research and also asked the opinions of many IBDers about wether or not they have a deficiency of vitamin D and what they do to help it... this is what I got!

http://www.myjourneywithcrohns.com/2013/01/can-vitamin-d-deficiency-cause-crohns.html

That being said.. what do you guys think?
 

Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
I'd like it if you shared your information on the forum SarahChoueiry. :)

I have a problem with the answers to your question below and the question itself or lack of a question:
"Do you have a vitamin D deficiency and have IBD? I am working on a post on this topic and the links between the two. What is your experience with it?"

Did no one say NO I don't have a D deficiency or I don't know? Also you didn't ask if they were deficient before being diagnosed. That's more of a key question yet most probably wont know.
 
I applaud you for looking at the topic and researching it. I'd be careful about the correlation/causation issue. Here are a few interesting studies on Vitamin D deficiency correlations and Crohns (though as Crabby points out, they are post-diagnostic and related to disease activity). Mostly the Vitamin D causality is for osteoporosis/osteopenia due to malabsorption from Crohns.

http://gut.bmj.com/content/26/11/1197.abstract

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/6982188/reload=0;jsessionid=P4QOKAKY9ODPVVSqKnPN.18

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/12945007

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/5/1077.short
 
Why do you have a problem with my post?
If you do not like my question that is ok but i know many found it helpful to know that they are not alone with being deficient with vitamin D and the post was created to focus on some specific people in mind who were getting frustrated that they keep finding deficiencies within their blood work.

And for the questions i did not ask, i felt i asked all i wanted for the post i created and wanted to look into. That is one of the great things about having the freedom to write about topics you want when you have your own blog :).

I am sorry but your approach/opinion on this post is a bit irritating and critical and not appreciated, especially since my intentions are always to help others like me, which have Crohn's and others with IBD.

I respect you wanting to find out the questions to the answers you feel i neglected to ask and i encourage you to write up a post and find the answers using the forum.

I'd like it if you shared your information on the forum SarahChoueiry. :)

I have a problem with the answers to your question below and the question itself or lack of a question:
"Do you have a vitamin D deficiency and have IBD? I am working on a post on this topic and the links between the two. What is your experience with it?"

Did no one say NO I don't have a D deficiency or I don't know? Also you didn't ask if they were deficient before being diagnosed. That's more of a key question yet most probably wont know.
 
Thank you for sharing and glad you got it back up there! i bet you noticed a huge difference in your every day :)

You need to take a supplement of Vit D3. I take 4000 IU daily. I do not think a Vit D deficiancy causes crohn's. I mean A lot of people are VitD deficiant actually. Depending on how your digestion is, there are different kinds you can get. There are liquids that are easily abosrbed or there are capsules too. I take one by Pure encapsulations. It is very good and has NO added ingrediants. I prefer capsules or liquid. Do not take tablets, they are hard to absorb.

I had my VitD levels checked 6 yeasrs ago and mine was at a 9. After 6 months on 5000 iu a day of Vit D3, my levels went up to 68.
 
Thank you for sharing all these links and I agree. i would never say that the deficiency of vitamin D causes Crohns bc that is not something proven nor to i truly believe in that. That is why i wrote up this little post about it and allow people to start thinking about it...
:)

I applaud you for looking at the topic and researching it. I'd be careful about the correlation/causation issue. Here are a few interesting studies on Vitamin D deficiency correlations and Crohns (though as Crabby points out, they are post-diagnostic and related to disease activity). Mostly the Vitamin D causality is for osteoporosis/osteopenia due to malabsorption from Crohns.

http://gut.bmj.com/content/26/11/1197.abstract

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/6982188/reload=0;jsessionid=P4QOKAKY9ODPVVSqKnPN.18

http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/12945007

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/5/1077.short
 

kiny

Well-known member
I dunno. Vitamin D interacts with the NOD2 gene through the VDR gene. NOD2 can induce autophagy by signaling ATG16L1 (VDR = vitamin D receptor)

VDR gene, NOD2 and ATG16L1 are all involved in autophagy to clear bacteria, and they are all linked to genetic defects of a certain percentage genetically predisposing people with crohn's disease.

Inability to induce autophagy to clear bacteria is an essential component in crohn's disease.

It's not the cause I think, it's one of the mechanics involved, but could low vitamin D tip the scale from no crohn's disease to crohn's disease, yes I can buy that. Low serum vitamin D is linked to more chance of getting crohn's disease. If you can't induce autophagy correctly you would be subject to a chronic infection, which is arguably one of the possible causes of crohn's disease. Having low vitamin D or defects in the VDR gene would make this worse. You would get constant inflammation because you can't clear the bacteria.

Of all the vitamin and micronutrient deficiencies in crohn's disease, vitamin D is likely one of the most important if not the most important, because of it's ability to stimulate autophagy through NOD2, which is not working correctly in many people with crohn's disease.
 
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Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
Why do you have a problem with my post?
Because there's little content and it simply just links to your blog. If you want to share information then share it on the forum.

I am sorry but your approach/opinion on this post is a bit irritating and critical and not appreciated, especially since my intentions are always to help others like me, which have Crohn's and others with IBD.
I'm sorry you don't appreciate someone asking questions and that it irritated you but since you brought up the issue I felt it important to ask. That's one of the great things about a public forum, everyone has the freedom to ask questions.

I respect you wanting to find out the questions to the answers you feel i neglected to ask and i encourage you to write up a post and find the answers using the forum.
I'm asking here since you already made a thread about it and would have gotten some "no" responses.

I mean your thread title asks if Vit D deficiency can cause Crohn's. I don't see how not knowing if they had the deficiency before they were diagnosed with Crohn's (or had symptoms of Crohn's) isn't important to the topic.

I wasn't picking a fight or trying to upset you. Just asking questions and suggesting that there be more content in your thread is all.
 

kiny

Well-known member
Here is the source I posted in the multimedia section.

As expected, crohn's disease but not UC is linked in this study to low serum vitamin D. It's a pretty huge demographic. I do not know how else to interpret this study than to say there is a link. And since vitamin D can stimulate autophagy it makes a lot of sense, this is what you would expect once you learn autophagy is compromised in CD.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3367959/

"RESULTS:

During 1,492,811 person-years of follow-up evaluation, we documented 122 incident cases of CD and 123 cases of UC. The median predicted 25(OH)D level was 22.3 ng/mL in the lowest and 32.2 ng/mL in the highest quartiles. Compared with the lowest quartile, the multivariate-adjusted HR associated with the highest quartile of vitamin D was 0.54 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30-.99) for CD (P(trend) = .02) and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.34-1.25) for UC (P(trend) = .17). Compared with women with a predicted 25(OH)D level less than 20 ng/mL, the multivariate-adjusted HR was 0.38 (95% CI, 0.15-0.97) for CD and 0.57 (95% CI, 0.19-1.70) for UC for women with a predicted 25(OH)D level greater than 30 ng/mL. There was a significant inverse association between dietary and supplemental vitamin D and UC, and a nonsignificant reduction in CD risk.

CONCLUSIONS:

Higher predicted plasma levels of 25(OH)D significantly reduce the risk for incident CD and nonsignificantly reduce the risk for UC in women. "
 
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ok ... also not trying to start a fight..
everyone has the right to share what they think...
Because there's little content and it simply just links to your blog. If you want to share information then share it on the forum.



I'm sorry you don't appreciate someone asking questions and that it irritated you but since you brought up the issue I felt it important to ask. That's one of the great things about a public forum, everyone has the freedom to ask questions.



I'm asking here since you already made a thread about it and would have gotten some "no" responses.

I mean your thread title asks if Vit D deficiency can cause Crohn's. I don't see how not knowing if they had the deficiency before they were diagnosed with Crohn's (or had symptoms of Crohn's) isn't important to the topic.

I wasn't picking a fight or trying to upset you. Just asking questions and suggesting that there be more content in your thread is all.
 
People with Crohns have an absorption problem . Maybe that's why it doesn't show in UC patients? Crohns patients are also low with 12?

If low Vitamin D caused it, wouldn't the supplement "fix" it?

Lauren
 
Ya exactly... well i think what the article is saying (and i am not sure if i believe it) is that it doesn't "cause" it but more so the extreme deficiency can trigger it to be active in our bodies. That we always have the gene of crohn's and it is dorment until "awakened" as my GI says

People with Crohns have an absorption problem . Maybe that's why it doesn't show in UC patients? Crohns patients are also low with 12?

If low Vitamin D caused it, wouldn't the supplement "fix" it?

Lauren
 

kiny

Well-known member
I think you're referring to the stuy right. It was taken before crohn's disease diagnosis which would rule out aborption problem. They basically took 70k ppl ,healthy people, checked who had high and low vitamin D, more people with low vitamin D ended up getting crohn's disease than ones who had high vitamin D. For UC it didn't matter.
 
A lot of people have Crohns without knowing it.

It stands to reason that a group studied with low vitamin D should have more
cases of Crohns.

lauren
 

kiny

Well-known member
Right, I see what you're getting at, I would need to read the full but I think they would have checked people for crohn's disease over those years with some consistency, that was the goal of the study after all. You think low vitamin D would just be a clinical manifestation, ok maybe.

They also followed them for several years though, it's not like they measured vitamin D on diagnosis.
 

Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
Then you also have to take into account how difficult it can be to diagnose Crohn's disease. For many people on the forum alone it took years for them to get a diagnosis. So it may still be possible they had Crohn's but were still undiagnosed.
 
I might be way off base but, I think the CD comes first. Even if we are not aware we have it . The malabsorbtion is because of this disease .


Lauren
 

CrohnsChicago

Super Moderator
I wouldn't say CD comes first or that malabsorption is because of the disease, my reason being because you have to take into consideration that people in certain climates are most likely to acquire a natural deficiency due to living in a less sunny environment. I live in Chicago. its not unknown for someone in my area or further north to have even a slight deficiency (which i have, nothing major) and not know or notice it. But not everyone in Chicago or north has CD.

I thought this to be an interesting testimonial on Dr. Cannell's sight about vitamin D and Crohns.

"Mailbag: vitamin D and Crohn’s"

http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/2011...-d-and-crohns/
I'm sure severe deficiency can do that but (and I may be off base here myself in saying this), how often does someone with crohn's diesease have a severe enough deficiency with vitamin D to where if you just get weaned off your meds and focus on the vitamin D levels the symptoms get better? Is there any research on that (I honestly am not aware of any and would be interested in reading about it :) If it's already in one of these articles above I apologize, I haven't had time to read through every single one).
 
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Good question, that I don't know an answer to. I've seen on Dr. Cannell's sight in the past listing for different vitamin D studies being done. Recall there was a few concentrating on vitamin D and Crohn's patients, but doing a quick search of the sight didn't see what I recall in the past. It's probably there somewhere, I just didn't see it.

I do remember seeing articles such as this, about the association between low vitamin D and developing Crohn's.

"Vitamin D Supplements Could Fight Crohn's Disease"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127104904.htm

It's cold outside today! I'm just down state from you in Champaign. I braved the cold, went on a walk a bit ago, and now need to thaw. This could take awhile.
 

CrohnsChicago

Super Moderator
I have made many visits to Champaign over the last few years to visit folks at the U of I :) I bet it is cold down there, I am downtown and it is still freezing near the lakefront especially with the winds and whatnot. Stay warm (and take your vitamin D ;))! lol

Good question, that I don't know an answer to. I've seen on Dr. Cannell's sight in the past listing for different vitamin D studies being done. Recall there was a few concentrating on vitamin D and Crohn's patients, but doing a quick search of the sight didn't see what I recall in the past. It's probably there somewhere, I just didn't see it.

I do remember seeing articles such as this, about the association between low vitamin D and developing Crohn's.

"Vitamin D Supplements Could Fight Crohn's Disease"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100127104904.htm

It's cold outside today! I'm just down state from you in Champaign. I braved the cold, went on a walk a bit ago, and now need to thaw. This could take awhile.
 
I was diagnosed with MS in 2010. I was D and B12 deficient then. No Crohn's symptoms until over 2 years later. I have taken B12 injections and prescription D supplements wit good levels since MS diagnosis.
 
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