Journal of Crohn’s and ColitisVolume 6, Issue 4, May 2012, Pages 405–411
Imogen Nicholsona, A. Mark Dalzella, Wael El-Mataryb, c, ,
A Division of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK
B Section of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
C King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Received 20 November 2011. Revised 5 January 2012. Accepted 5 January 2012. Available online 27 January 2012.

Background and aim
The effect of vitamin D supplementation on immune disorders has been a topical research focus. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the current evidence of the effect of vitamin D supplementation as a therapy for colitis.

Methods
The following databases were searched: MEDLINE, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Knowledge, Cinicaltrials.gov and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials using the terms ‘inflammatory bowel disease’ ‘Crohn’s disease’ ‘ulcerative colitis’ ‘colitis’ and ‘vitamin D’. Both human and animal studies published in English language were examined. The reference lists of included studies and review articles were manually searched for any relevant studies.

Results
Four studies were included in this systematic review. All reported an improvement in disease activity with vitamin D supplementation. The only high quality human study reported a non-significant reduction of relapse rate for Crohn’s disease. No major adverse effects of vitamin D supplementation were reported.

Conclusions
Although there is some evidence that supplemental vitamin D, as an adjunctive treatment, may help in controlling colitis, this evidence is not enough to justify using vitamin D in treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Large high quality placebo-controlled randomised controlled trials are needed to explore a possible benefit of using vitamin D in treating IBD.

See also Vitamin D Life

• IBD and Crohn but not Colitis associated with low vitamin D – May 2011 just the opposite of this paper
• All items in category Gut and Vitamin D
• Gut doctors becoming aware of importance of vitamin D – May 2012
• Overview Deficiency of vitamin D shows the feedback problems of gut and vitamin D