Vitamin D absorption is diminished in patients with Crohn’s disease, researchers find

ScienceDaily (Jan. 18, 2011) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have for the first time shown that reduced vitamin D absorption in patients with quiescent Crohn’s disease (CD) may be the cause for their increased risk for vitamin D deficiency. The findings, which currently appear online in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, also showed that the only way to determine absorption efficiency is to perform a vitamin D bioavailability test.

Vitamin D is ingested in the diet as well as synthesized in the skin from UVB irradiation from the sun. People living in areas that receive less sunlight have lower circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels and have higher prevalence rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In addition, both children and adults with IBD have an increased incidence of vitamin D deficiency. In particular, patients with CD have an increased incidence of vitamin D deficiency, relative to both patients with ulcerative colitis and the general population.

Ten normal subjects (50 percent female) and 37 CD patients with quiescent disease (51 percent female) were included in this study. A vitamin D bioavailability test was performed on all subjects. After a baseline blood draw, all subjects were then given a single 50,000 IU oral dose of vitamin D2 in a capsule formulation and had their blood drawn 12 hours later to determine serum vitamin D2 which reflected their vitamin D2 absorption capacity. The researchers found that CD patients had on average a 30 percent decrease in their ability to absorb vitamin D2 when compared to normal subjects.

 

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