SCD/LDN/Entocort combo lab results plus bonus Vitamin D rant

My daughter has had no symptoms for months, sed rate only 6, but the dang lab did the regular CRP test, which doesn't measure accurately at the lowest end (1 and below), so we don't really know whether her CRP was .8 or lower. My guess is yes, but we can't assume so.

Her hemoglobin was 13.9, the highest it has been in years (usually she hovers at around 12 or lower), which is weird because she hasn't taken a single iron supplement since starting strict SCD! I don't know whether her improved iron status is because of the meds/diet combo or because the iron supplements were contributing to inflammation (there's some research that suggests they do, which is why many GIs are reluctant to prescribe them).  

The only abnormal result was her Vitamin D status of 18, which the lab says is low but I believe the US government's research completed last fall by the Institute of Medicine is right in saying there is no hard evidence for saying that Vitamin D levels under 20 are too low. In fact, it suggested that my daughter could have a much lower level and still be fine. For years, my daughter has struggled to get Vitamin D high enough for what I now believe are completely arbitrary guidelines. And the result was not benign: for instance, her blood calcium rose to above normal, which can cause all kinds of harm and showed us, no, 5000 units a day is not necessarily safe. So she is taking 600IU daily, or less. We are not going to get excited about Vitamin D until we see concrete evidence she needs it - namely, if it really is low, her PTH would be high. And it isn't. Everybody's need for Vitamin D is different, and there's no doubt it is important, but nobody should have to jump through hoops trying to get Vitamin D high enough to meet arbitrary guidelines. Not if they see no improvement in symptoms, and not if the other markers of low Vitamin D, like high PTH, are fine.

The next step is to taper off Entocort and try SCD/LDN or SCD/LDN/Pentasa. At some point, she might try going off strict SCD - and test the LDN/Pentasa by itself, because she hates the diet. Really hates it.

But her labs showed the CRP was not quite low enough - which means she probably still had inflammation in the terminal ileum, even though she didn't show obvious symptoms. Next week she will use LDN to taper off Entocort (which worked before - you could call LDN a steroid-sparing med), and then try combining LDN with Pentasa to see if the Pentasa boosts the efficacy of LDN (or vice versa).  

She decided to stop SCD but she said she will NEVER give up LDN. It's easy to take, causes no side effects, and definitely helps. 

She will soon stop SCD because her Crohn's is under control with the meds and she feels the diet is making her too neurotic and interfering with too much of her life. Also, she is waaaay too thin and desperately wants to gain the weight back that she lost on SCD.  She says she will never, though, go back to eating all the junk she used to eat. Right now, though, the diet is just making her too unhappy.