Vitamin D deficiency and IBS?

[rustydog]

I’m determined to get to the bottom (pardon the pun!) of my IBS this year as it’s taking over my life and am looking into lots of things that may help.

Obviously, like most people I google a lot. I keep reading that many IBS sufferers are deficient in vitamin D and a supplement would be beneficial.

I’m always very wary to try anything new as I fear they may make my symptoms worse. I’ve asked my gp for a blood test but he says they don’t do them on the NHS and that most people are deficient so he advised I take a supplement anyway.

So, I’m just wondered if anyone has had any luck or improvements in symptoms when taking a supplement?

[linc2u]

Not sure about vit D but appreciate what IBS can do to you. Have suffered for over 2 years and had some tests but nothing definite shows up . Wondering about taking the York intolerance test but some reviews are very negative.

[rustydog in reply to linc2u]

I did the York test years ago but I can’t remember the results. I’ve thought about redoing it but like you I’ve read a few reviews and they weren’t great. It’s very expensive too!

[Doggie123-UK]

My GP prescribed vitamin D3 as one of my blood tests showed I was deficient in vitamin D, can't really tell at the moment whether they are helping as I was prescribed other new meds at the same time, don't know why your GP said the NHS doesn't do blood tests or prescribe vitamin D as mine did. (blood test was done due to a chest infection, I suffer from emphysema as well as ibsc/diverticulitis)

[rustydog in reply to Doggie123-UK]

I’ve recently changed my gp and was booked in for a blood test to check for coeliac today, I asked if they would also check my vit d levels and they said yes, so that’s a result!

[Hidden]

Great that you are taking your IBS seriously. You may find this article of interest:

sickofibs.com/ibs-symptoms/...

Alison

[rustydog in reply to Hidden]

Thank you Alison

[rustydog in reply to rustydog]

Just looked at your website, it’s great, really informative 🙂

[Hidden]

Many people in the UK will be low, if not deficient in vitamin D and IBS is very common so I'm not convinced any correlation isn't just coincidence. My GP checked my levels, but I had gone to see him with other symptoms, not about my IBS, and it was part of a whole battery of blood tests he ordered. Same surgery would not re-test though, even a whole year later to see how my levels were - my rheumatologist just stuck it on the list with my usual bloods taken when I saw her. I took 20,000 units twice weekly for 3 months, then 1,000 units daily for the next nine months. My levels had climbed from deficient to the heady heights of insufficient. I can't say the vitamin D had any effect whatsoever on my IBS symptoms.

However, I was diagnosed with another health condition last October and my rheumatologist while diagnosing had put me on naproxen. She prescribed omeprazole with it - and that took my IBS symptoms away overnight. After 25 years + of IBS-d daily (and often nightly!), suddenly back to normal again. I've googled a bit and it seems that some people with sudden very urgent diarhhoea have excess acid. I read an article that stated that years ago you would have routinely been tested for excess acid, but now the focus is on cancer, crohn's, colitis, coeliac etc. When these are ruled out you are given the IBS label. Omeprazole, of course, damps down the acid in your stomach. Less acid, no symptoms - maybe a link there?!

[rustydog in reply to Hidden]

Funny you say that as I’ve just been reading an article on stomach acid. I’d been googling symptoms of this as I have a kind of regurgitating/burping/bubbling in upper digestive system after I’ve eaten. But because I also get a lot of lower bloating and wind I’ve assumed it’s a lower digestive complaint but maybe not?! I will definitely mention this to the gastroenterologist when I see him in a couple of weeks.