Crohn's Disease 4X less likely to reoccur after surgery if good level of vitamin D

Created February 2021

The Correlation between Vitamin D Levels and the Risk of Postoperative Recurrence in Crohn's Disease

Digestion. 2021 Feb 8;1-9. doi: 10.1159/000513589.

Akihiro Yamada 1 2, Yuga Komaki 1 3, Fukiko Komaki 1 3, Haider Haider 1, Dejan Micic 1, Joel Pekow 1, Sushila Dalal 1, Russell D Cohen 1, Lisa Cannon 1 4, Konstantin Umanskiy 1 4, Radhika Smith 1 4, Benjamin D Shogan 1 4, Roger Hurst 1 4, Neil Hyman 1 4, David T Rubin 1, Atsushi Sakuraba 5

1. Overview Gut and vitamin D has the following summary{include} 1. Gut category listing contains the following{include} 1. Items in both categories Gut and Surgery:{category}--- 1. See also Vitamin D Life* Crohn's Disease patients normalizing their Vitamin D levels decreased risk of surgery by 44 percent – Aug 2013* Crohn’s helped by 5000 IU vitamin D – April 2013* Crohn's Disease relapse rate of 3 in 8 with 1,000 IU vs 0 in 12 with 10,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT Feb 2017* Crohn’s disease helped when vitamin D level raised above 30 ng – RCT Feb 2015* Crohn's disease associated with 7.6X deactivation of Vitamin D receptor – July 2015The risk of 44 diseases at least double with poor Vitamin D Receptor as of Oct 2019Omega-3, Magnesium, Zinc, non-daily Vitamin D dosing, curcumin, intense exercise, etc     Note: The founder of Vitamin D Life uses 10 of the 12 known VDR activators

Background and aims: Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with disease activity in Crohn's disease (CD). We assessed whether there is a correlation between vitamin D levels and the risk of postoperative recurrence in CD.

Methods: CD patients who underwent surgery were identified from a prospectively maintained database at the University of Chicago. The primary endpoint was the correlation of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels measured at 6-12 months after surgery and the proportion of patients in endoscopic remission, defined as a simple endoscopic score for CD of 0. Clinical, biological (C-reactive protein), and histologic recurrences were also studied.

Results: Among a total of 89 patients, 17, 46, and 26 patients had vitamin D levels of <15, 15-30, and >30 ng/mL, respectively. Patients with higher vitamin D levels were significantly more likely to be in endoscopic remission compared to those with lower levels (23, 42, and 67% in ascending tertile order; p = 0.028).

On multivariate analysis, vitamin D >30 ng/mL (odds ratio [OR] 0.22, 95% confidence interval [pCI] 0.07-0.66, p = 0.006) and anti-tumor necrosis factor agent treatment (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.08-0.83, p = 0.01) were associated with reduced risk of endoscopic recurrence. Rates of clinical, biological, and histologic remission trended to be higher in patients with higher vitamin D levels (p = 0.17, 0.55, 0.062, respectively).

Conclusion: In the present study, higher vitamin D level was associated with lower risk of postoperative endoscopic CD recurrence. Further, studies are warranted to assess the role of vitamin D in postoperative CD recurrence.

Tags: Gut Trauma and surgery