{"id":1926,"date":"2019-11-01T20:55:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T20:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2023-05-15T01:10:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T01:10:11","slug":"sunlight-may-help-to-prevent-auto-immune-diseases-by-altering-gut-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=1926","title":{"rendered":"Sunlight May Help to Prevent Auto-Immune Diseases by Altering Gut Bacteria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A fascinating study shows that lack of vitamin D may change the colon bacteria to an overabundance of harmful bacteria to cause inflammation that increases risk for autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, lupus and some types of arthritis (Frontiers in Microbiology<\/em>, October 24, 2019). The researchers also showed that using ultraviolet light to raise blood levels of vitamin D may increase the concentration of healthful colon bacteria that help to control inflammation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study\nwas conducted in the middle of winter with no direct sun exposure. When\ncompared to women who took vitamin D pills, women who did not take vitamin D\npills had:
\n\u2022 much lower blood levels of hydroxyvitamin D,
\n\u2022 a significant, harmful reduction in the variety of different colon bacteria,
\n\u2022 reduced levels of healthful colon bacteria, and
\n\u2022 an increase in harmful colon bacteria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women\nwere then given three one-minute sessions of full-body UVB light exposure in\none week. The women who were not taking vitamin D pills and had low blood\nlevels of hydroxy vitamin D showed:
\n\u2022 a high rise in blood levels of hydroxyvitamin D (while the women taking\nvitamin D pills had no rise in vitamin D at all)
\n\u2022 a marked increase in diversity of colon bacteria, as a marker for an increase\nin healthful bacteria (those who were taking the vitamin D pills had no change\nin their colon bacteria)
\n\u2022 a marked increase in the concentration of healthful Lachnospiraceae bacteria
\n\u2022 an increase of healthful Firmicutes and a decrease in harmful Bacteroidetes\nbacteria in their colons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new\nstudy suggests that lack of skin exposure to sunlight causing a deficiency of\nvitamin D may be one of the risk factors for autoimmune diseases. Other studies\nhave shown that:
\n\u2022 Vitamin D helps to protect your intestinal lining from being invaded by\nharmful bacteria that turn on your immune system to cause inflammation (Autophagy<\/em>,\n2015;12:1057-1058)
\n\u2022 Vitamin D helps to suppress inflammation (Front Immunol<\/em>, 2016;7:627)
\n\u2022 Vitamin D deficiency promotes inflammation that causes overgrowth of harmful\ncolon bacteria (Metabolism<\/em>, 2017;69:76-86)
\n\u2022 Vitamin D pills help to suppress chronic inflammatory diseases (J Clin\nEndocrinol Metab<\/em>, 2018;103:564-574)
\n\u2022 Raising blood levels of vitamin D in those suffering a deficiency increases\nhealthful colon bacteria (Eur J Nutr<\/em>, 2018;58:2895-2910)
\n\u2022 Lack of vitamin D increases risk for colitis in mice (J Nutr<\/em>,\n2013;143:1679-1686)
\nFoods are a very limited source of vitamin D, so you need to get more than 80\npercent of your vitamin D from sunlight (Indian J Endocrinol Metab<\/em>,\n2018;22:249) or pills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoid Large Doses of Vitamin D Pills<\/strong>
\nOne of the main functions of vitamin D is to help keep bones strong and control\ncalcium metabolism. Vitamin D increases calcium absorption in the intestines,\nstrengthens bones by increasing bone remodeling, and increases the effects of\nparathyroid hormones. Other reported functions of vitamin D are controversial,\nand most people do not benefit from taking higher doses of vitamin D (>1000\nIU\/day) or having very high blood levels of that vitamin (>20ng\/ml). Raising\nblood levels of hydroxy vitamin D from 20 to 30 ng\/ml with high doses of\nvitamin D pills increases calcium absorption by only one percent and does not\nincrease bone mineral density or physical function, compared with placebo (Curr Opin\nEndocrinol Diabetes Obes<\/em>, Dec 2016;23(6):440-444).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very high\ndoses of vitamin D can cause nausea, constipation, kidney stones, frequent\nurination, muscle weakness, irregular heartbeats and possibly arteriosclerosis.\nA study from Denmark showed that very high blood levels of hydroxy vitamin D\n(above 140 ng\/ml) are associated with increased risk of premature death (J Clin\nEndocrinol Metab<\/em>, Aug 2012;97(8):2644-52). High-dose vitamin D3\nsupplements (70,000 IU\u00b7wk for 12 weeks) caused a significant increase of a\ntoxic vitamin D metabolite called 24,25[OH] vitamin D, and reduced parathyroid\nlevels and decreased body responses to vitamin D itself (Med Sci\nSports Exerc<\/em>, Feb 2017;49(2):349-356).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Guidelines<\/strong>
\nThe Institute of Medicine recommends that adults need only 600-800 IU of\nvitamin D per day and that blood levels of hydroxy vitamin D do not need to be\nhigher than 20 ng\/ml (Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes<\/em>,\nDec 2016;23(6):440-444). Higher blood levels of vitamin D (greater than 20\nng\/ml) do not make bones stronger than lower blood levels as they do not reduce\nlevels of parathyroid hormone or bone resorption (Curr Rheumatol Rep<\/em>,\nJune 2011;13(3):257-64). Large doses (4000 IU\/day) of vitamin D did not slow\ndeclining physical function in sedentary men over 70 (Journal\nof the American Geriatrics Society<\/em>, 11\/22\/2016). For most people,\nhigh dose vitamin D pills (greater than 2000 IU\/day) will not improve health\nand may harm you (N Engl J Med<\/em>, Nov 10, 2016;375:1817-1820).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Recommendations<\/strong>
\nYou probably do not need to take vitamin D pills if your blood level of hydroxy\nvitamin D is above 20 ng\/ml unless you have a condition that your doctor feels\nputs you at increased risk for the signs and symptoms of a deficiency. You can\ntake up to 1000 IU\/day of vitamin D pills if your blood levels are below 20\nng\/ml.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excess exposure to sunlight can cause skin cancer<\/a>, but most people can meet their needs for vitamin D by exposing a small area of skin to sunlight for short periods as long as they do not damage their skin by burning it. Get out of the sunlight immediately if you feel your skin heating up, burning or getting red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checked 5\/9\/23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lack of vitamin D may change the colon bacteria to an overabundance of harmful bacteria to cause inflammation that increases risk for autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, lupus and some types of arthritis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[134,137,135,136],"class_list":["post-1926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morehealth","tag-auto-immune-disease","tag-skin-cancer","tag-sunshine","tag-vitamin-d"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}