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Has anyone ever had an attack of Crohn's Disease START UP during the summer or not?

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 4/23/2012 10:43 AM (GMT 0)
Since Vitamin D levels can be low in people with Crohn's Disease I am wondering what effect it may have. I had read online several months ago a lot of articles on how Vitamin D modulates the immune system and can be referred to as a "Master Hormone". It would be interesting to find out WHEN most of your attacks have started? All of my attacks have started in Autumn or Winter time and none during the summer! At my hospital the Nurse told me that all the Crohn's sufferers seem to show up at roughly the same time and this was during the Fall.
Posted 4/23/2012 3:30 PM (GMT 0)
My flare ups are usually during the summer months. My D levels are not very low. I'm on 4000 IU per day and spend every Sat. and Sun. in the summer at the beach soaking up the sun.

Post Edited (petittarte) : 4/23/2012 10:30:48 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 4/23/2012 3:36 PM (GMT 0)
I've had at least one flare in every season.  My worst flare to date was in July/August.  My Vitamin D levels are always low.  I'm on 50,000 IU's 3x a week. 
Posted 4/23/2012 3:38 PM (GMT 0)
I usually flare between May-July only usually get better around September..
Posted 4/23/2012 4:22 PM (GMT 0)
I started getting sick in April-May when I first got CD internally (initially it actaully started with my perianal crohn's skin tags on the outside of my anus when I was a teenager, just after starting BC pills but I was told by every doc then that saw my anal tags they were just hemmies, they weren't hemmies, they were the start of my crohn's...the tags would just come and go on their own and I never had a single change in my bowel habits (one nice healthy poop/day with total bowel control) until just about a yr and a half after I had my first baby, that's when all hell broke loose, the tags were out of control, they still they it was hemmies and they rushed me in for emergency hemmie surgery (they banded them) and at the same time I told all docs that I was starting to have more frequency in bowel movements/day (still formed) but way more times a day than I ever had in my life...they shrugged it off like it was nothing...until the end of May about 2 weeks after the "hemmie" surgerie, then it was crazy D, weightloss, tons of mucous and some blood and lots of anal fissures on top on my severely flaring anal skin tags....I had to put water in the tub and use that to poop in cuz I was such a mess "down there".

And to boot, I've never been in full remission since 21 yrs ago this May that I was officially DX with having crohn's.


I hate crohns!
Posted 4/24/2012 12:53 AM (GMT 0)
I've had flares in the summer. My vit. D levels are normal. For me, it doesn't seem related.
Posted 4/24/2012 10:30 AM (GMT 0)
Well thank you all for responding to my question! It sounds like some of you have been to hell and back! I wish I could SAY something to console you and to DO something that would help, but I feel completely inadequate since I have the same problem! I know HOW MUCH this stupid disease SUCKS, and I wish they would HURRY UP and find a definate cause for it and a definate CURE for it too!
As for Vitamin D levels having an effect...your replies tell me that they DON'T have much of an effect at all!
Thanks everyone for letting me know this!
Posted 4/24/2012 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
Kate, you may find this interesting...

“We found that the risk of both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease is significantly lower among individuals who lived in southern latitudes compared to northern latitudes,” said one of the study authors, Hamed Khalili of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“So this tells us that the environment plays a key role here,” he said, adding that differences in sunlight exposure and vitamin D levels may be responsible.

In the second study, researchers added vitamin D supplements to the treatment of 23 patients suffering from Crohn’s disease. about half the patients were given 1,000 international units of vitamin D a day, while the other half took 10,000 IU a day.

After six months, the patients taking the low dose had no change in their symptoms. But the high-dose patients reported a significant improvement, including less abdominal pain and diarrhea.

“You very well may need a higher dose of vitamin D to get an effect,” said one of the researchers, Brian Bosworth of New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College. He added the patients tolerated the high dose with no ill effects.

The two separate studies were presented in Washington at the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Both research teams cautioned that more studies are needed to confirm the links between vitamin D and chronic digestive diseases.

Nonetheless, the latest findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that low levels of vitamin D may be contributing to a host of health problems including heart disease, certain cancers, autoimmune disorders and depression. If these results hold up under greater scientific scrutiny, vitamin D supplements could become a standard part of disease prevention and medical treatment.

As Dr. Bosworth puts it: “Vitamin D is a relatively safe and easy intervention to make.”
Posted 4/24/2012 4:22 PM (GMT 0)
Oh goshes, there was vitamin C, then there was vitamin E, then vitamin A, now it is vitamin D .... wasn't there also a "latest" for vitamin B12 or the B-complext vitamins??

My first symptoms of Crohn's began during the summer of 1975. I went into one big flare that lasted until my resection in early 1978.

I was blessed w/a 20 year remission after that resection. Just further proof that God looks after fools.

I don't remember what time of the year the Crohn's symptoms began creeping up on me back in 1998.

Posted 4/25/2012 9:22 AM (GMT 0)
Hi there, and thank you for your responses! I'm glad you spoke up pb4 and thank you for doing so! I had this back burner type suspicion around Vitamin D and because I have a deficiency and my symptoms keep on going I had wondered about it A LOT! I had taken Humira over 2 years ago and acquired some MS symptoms of numbness which I still have! The whole thing is ridiculous to me! I'm starting to blame it all on the drug companies for they would like nothing but to keep us on their drugs instead of finding a REAL CURE! The "poor" companies would be missing all our dough if we got cured!

In my quest to help myself I had gone on a site that talked all about the importance of Vitamin D and since I have numbness and a deficiency I had wondered what all the clues could mean. Frankly I DON"T really believe that our immune systems are dumb! There are thousands of us sufferers and I just don't believe that ALL of us have idiotic immune systems. There is a REAL REASON WHY we are suffering!

That said I would really like to try LDN, so I asked my regular GP today and he said NO! I couldn't believe it for I thought he was in my corner for all these years, but apparently NOT! I should've said to him, "Well I hope that you're ready to help dig my grave after I'm dead?!" Instead I told him, "Well if you don't allow me to take it I will find a way regardless!" So if you live in Canada please let me know where I could get some of that stuff to try?!
Now CrohnieToo did you spend a lot of time outside during that year in 1975 and or were you taking any Vitamin D then? I'm wondering about that because I haven't had much sunlight since I live in Vancouver Canada and I sleep a lot too and even during the day!! Hmm, maybe I should try sleeping in the sunshine when it comes out! (We get A LOT of rain here!!!) I love your last comment and it's REALLY FUNNY and I can relate since whenever your just about to do "something important" the darn computer wants to upgrade its self!
Well thanks for all your comments!
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