A new study, published in the United European Gastroenterology Journal, found that vitamin D supplementation in Crohn's disease patients in remission is associated with maintenance of intestinal permeability and improvement of markers of disease activity in the short-term, according to a Medscape report.
Here are four insights:
1. Researchers randomized 27 Crohn's disease patients in remission to 2000 IU of vitamin D or placebo every day for three months.
2. The study found that at the end of three months, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were significantly higher in the active treatment group. They also showed stable maintenance of intestinal permeability.
3. On the other hand, the placebo group observed significant increases in both small bowel and gastro-duodenal permeability.
4. "While the study is exciting and may translate to improved treatment for CD, we also recognize that there is not yet sufficient evidence to recommend vitamin D as an adjunctive treatment and further randomized controlled trials are need," senior author Maria O'Sullivan, PhD, of St. James's Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, told Reuters Health. "Currently it seems sensible, that at a minimum, we aim to prevent vitamin D deficiency in people with this disease."