
The odds of successfully treating inflammatory bowel diseases such as Chron’s, Colitis, ileitis, etc may in part depend on your levels of vitamin D.
Following up previous research that indicated a role for vitamin D in inflammatory bowel diseases, researchers in Boston analyzed data from 173 patients focusing on their vitamin D status and the level of success with treatment.
They found a clear link between vitamin D status and remission of the disease, with those with normal vitamin D levels at the start of treatment more than 2.5-times as likely to go into remission after three months of treatment with anti-TNF medication, a common treatment for inflammatory conditions.
“These results show a significant association between vitamin D levels and rates of remission among patients with IBD. Specifically, patients who had low vitamin D levels prior to treatment had decreased odds of being in remission after three months of treatment”
The authors concluded that vitamin D levels may influence initial response to medication and that low vitamin D levels may pre-dispose patients to decreased odds of remission.