Vitamins A & D Inhibit the Growth of Mycobacteria

[kiny]

This is significant for Crohn, since half of the 8 strains are MAP, and they were taken from crohn patients.

(there is another study below on this forum that has info about vitamin D)

everything here below are direct untouched quotes:


BACKGROUND:

The role of vitamins in the combat of disease is usually conceptualized as acting by modulating the immune response of an infected, eukaryotic host. We hypothesized that some vitamins may directly influence the growth of prokaryotes, particularly mycobacteria.
METHODS:

The effect of four fat-soluble vitamins was studied in radiometric Bactec® culture. The vitamins were A (including a precursor and three metabolites,) D, E and K. We evaluated eight strains of three mycobacterial species (four of M. avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), two of M. avium and two of M. tb. complex).
PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:

Vitamins A and D cause dose-dependent inhibition of all three mycobacterial species studied. Vitamin A is consistently more inhibitory than vitamin D. The vitamin A precursor, β-carotene, is not inhibitory, whereas three vitamin A metabolites cause inhibition. Vitamin K has no effect. Vitamin E causes negligible inhibition in a single strain.
SIGNIFICANCE:

We show that vitamin A, its metabolites Retinyl acetate, Retinoic acid and 13-cis Retinoic acid and vitamin D directly inhibit mycobacterial growth in culture. These data are compatible with the hypothesis that complementing the immune response of multicellular organisms, vitamins A and D may have heretofore unproven, unrecognized, independent and probable synergistic, direct antimycobacterial inhibitory activity.








the summary is here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22235314

the full article is here availalbe to anyone: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250462/?tool=pubmed


note:

Two MAP strains had been isolated from humans with Crohn disease “Dominic” (ATCC 43545; Originally isolated by R. Chiodini [27]) and UCF 4 (gift of Saleh Naser, Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando FL.) [28]. The other two MAP strains were from ruminants with Johne disease, ATCC 19698 and 303 (gift of Michael Collins Madison WI.)

 

[Miss Gypsy]

This is really interesting, especially since many Crohnie's (including myself) are Vitamin D deficient. I wonder if we should get our Vitamin A levels tested as well. Can't hurt! Thanks kiny!

 

[David]

Thank you for sharing that Kiny. I think they're going to find that these common deficiencies people with Crohn's Disease experience play a bigger role than is realized.

Before anyone goes and starts taking huge doses of vitamin A, PLEASE NOTE that if you take a lot of vitamin A while deficient in vitamin D (which so many with IBD are) then that vitamin A can impair your vitamin D and cause other potential issues. Read about that here.

 

[Beach]

Just quickly looking at the study, the authors probably used the wrong vitamin K. Plant vitamin K1 would not be as helpful. Vitamin K2-4, which comes from animal sources, and K2-7 from fermentation in some cheeses and a Japanese dish called Natto, I would guess will help with decreasing bacteria growth.

At least, I recently read that grass fed butter oil, high in K2, decreased some unwanted bacteria growth in saliva by up to 95%.