Low Levels of Vitamin D and Crohn's disease. Which Connection? A Review

Abstract

Background: Vitamin D deficiency in Crohn's disease (CD) patients has been extensively stressed by experimental studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyzes. Recently the hypothesis that low levels of vitamin D are responsible for a higher incidence of this pathology has been advanced.Objective: Analyzing the data of the scientific literature to evaluate the hypothesis of a likely correlation between the Vitamin D deficiency and the incidence of Crohn's disease. Methods:By referring to the PubMed database, a review on 16 clinical studies that analyzed the correlation between serum levels of Vitamin D and the incidence of Crohn's disease has been evaluated. Final conclusions:The studies show a high relation between low circulating Vitamin D levels and the active phase of Crohn's disease and strongly suggest that a likely supplementation of Vitamin D would have a strong immunomodulatory effect for this pathology.