Can vitamin D supplements ever fully maintain remission of mild newly diagnosed UC? :(

Hi all,
I am 23 years old - I recently got diagnosed as UC (after nearly a year long period of me eating raw oats daily along with drinking apple cider vinegar before bedtime (for general health benefits). I started noticing all the awful ulcerative symptoms and the colonoscopy image came out generally clear but biopsies at the few inflamed areas indicated UC. I've also been told that my bowel has inflammation in the middle of the bowel (i.e. not high up and not so low/not near the rectum) so the doctor suggested tablet medication as enemas wouldn't be useful.

Unfortunately, having to wait months and months for diagnosis, blood tests, etc., I have been flaring sometimes severely on/off for the past few months. Boswelia (natural herbal supplement) has helped greatly but not always..

Now, I've heard that vitamin D DEFICIENCY can sometimes evaluate the risk of developing UC which makes A LOT of sense in my situation as:
1) I'm very tan (of South Asian descent) so lower vitamin D absorption from sunlight.
2) I use SPF50 cream on my face daily before going out anywhere (to prevent wrinkles etc.) for the past year (i.e. around the time the symptoms started).
3) My clothes are mainly covered up, even in winter, I'd wear long sleeved T-shirts and tights instead of bare legs.
4) I tend to stay in more during the summer as I find the heat harder to tolerate than the cold.
5) I haven't drank milk in over a year (due to hormones in it causing acne, etc.) but it is a vitamin D sources.
6) I don't eat eggs or egg containing products such as cakes in the last year either (also a bit D source)
7) I don't enjoy seafood e.g. salmon, mackerel etc. (but do have a tin of tuna but maybe only once or twice a month).
8) I mainly just eat chicken and veg like broccoli etc. which contain almost zero vitamin D & Have not had any mushrooms recently despite regularly having it when I was younger.
9) I have other low vitamin D related disorders such as depression, asthma and hair loss...

BUT I haven't heard of anyone being put into forever remission just from UC - has vitamin D (supplement or dietary increase) had any positive impact on your UC situation? If so, what dosage, brand and form (e.g. D2 or D3) did you use and how long did it take to start working?

P.S I haven't had my blood vitamin D levels checked yet but may arrange this soon.

Please let me know.

Thank you.

Thank you for the reply.

Yes I wanted to get my vitamin D levels checked via blood test but this will take some time to arrange so wanted opinions and past experience stories first.

I am not on any official UC meds yet - just taking herbal boswelia.

No I don't have a copy of colonoscopy results - were sent to my specialist. I didn't realise some patients receive a copy of it to keep.

I live in England, UK

Nobody knows what causes or cures UC. It's therefore easy to find correlation without causation. Hind sight is always perfect 20/20 vision, if only i hadn't X then i wouldn't have gotten UC. There's likely no causation here.

It it skips areas it's called Crohn's

It's not that simple. If the poster has a UC diagnosis I would go with that until if/when the docs change their minds. They have access to the colonoscopy and biopsy results, which we don't. And even if I could see the biopsy results, I wouldn't have the expertise to interpret them.

@Dandelion - I think you're putting all your eggs into one basket so to speak. I would be looking closer to home, i.e. your massively restrictive diet and your lifestyle. I'd be depressed if I could never feel the sun on my skin and only ate chicken and veg - where are the carbs? By all means get your vitamin D tested and take a supplement if it's low, but the chances of vitamin D being a cure-all are remote.

PS: It's not clear from your post whether you have rectal inflammation or not. If not, then that's more suggestive of it being Crohn's, since UC very rarely spares the rectum (although using rectal meds can heal the rectum while leaving inflammation elsewhere in the colon). But if you're worried talk to your doctor and ask them to explain why you have a UC diagnosis instead of a Crohn's one.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 4/12/2017 6:27:07 PM (GMT-6)

Adequate vit D levels probably won't cure your UC, but there are lots of actual medical studies showing that optimum levels of vitamin D can help manage your disease and allow your meds to be more effective with far fewer instances of relapse.

Many people with UC are deficient in vitamins and minerals as a result of the disease, but supplements alone are rarely able to get you into remission and maintain remission (people claim but they are often trying to sell you a product).

Also inflammatory bowel disease is drastically different for every person. What works for one person often won't work for anyone else, so beware when people tease you with a diet or supplement that is "THE CURE!"

You have to become an expert on *your* disease. Find out what foods bother you and which ones don't. Decide what, if any, supplements to take and see how they affect you (I take several). Figure out what triggers your symptoms (stress? certain foods or alcohol? exhaustion? hormones? Etc.)

And most importantly, find a doctor you trust and work with them. When you agree on a treatment plan, follow it.

FSLondon said...
UC with rectal sparing does certainly exist and is not always the result of use of rectal meds. I also have UC with rectal sparing and have since diagnosis. My very experienced GI said it's unusual and he hasn't seen it often, but it exists. He did say GIs with less experience might never see it.

Yeah, funnily enough I have found that out now. A poster on the Crohn's board got a UC diagnosis but had an atypical distribution of it being in the rectum and ascending colon/caecum but nowhere else. I did a bit of googling and found this study.

/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24619632

They are Asian patients and there's only 240 of them, so it might well be quite different if you took 240 Americans and examined their initial colonoscopies. But still: UC is UC, no matter where it occurs in the world.

healseeker said...
I've been taking vitamin D3 for 10 years and my blood level is 67 and I take about 6,000IU/day and haven't had UC in a very, very long time. I've done many other things as well but I'm sure that ONLY the D3 wasn't the reason it's gone but might play a contributing factor-who knows...

Thank you very much heal seeker for your helpful post. Can I just ask:
1) What other supplements / dietary things and/or drugs are you taking that you think MIGHT have contributed to you having a long period of non-active UC (i.e. remission?)
2) How long have you been free of UC symptoms - years?
3) What brand of vitamin D3 are you taking?
4) Did you have low vitamin D levels in your blood before starting to supplement?

Sorry for so many questions, would be great to hear your input.

Regarding SPF50, I use the No7 brand (it is hypoallergenic but you're right that it contains lots of ingredients, some of which may be harmful) - I don't use it mainly to reduce skin cancer risk as I am quite tanned due to being South Asian so slightly less at risk of it (but I know anyone can get it) but mainly for preventing wrinkles and hyper pigmentation.

healseeker said...
I still take supplements like Coq10, chromium, selenium, alpha-lipoic acid, B vitamins, iodoral, calcium, choline, iron and C & E vitamins. I haven't had symptoms in 10 years but just take them for health. No drugs for anything.
I have a hunch that the one thing I took to get rid of UC was activated charcoal capsules because it makes sense of how it works in the colon. It's been quite a long time and I can't recall other supplements I took while doing that but I think that was separate

Ah thank you for sharing this info. I certainly can't take vitamin C tablet as it always causes me to have a massive flare (along with most vitamin c containing fruits e.g. oranges, kiwis etc). Thanks again