TY - JOUR T1 - Managing vitamin D deficiency in inflammatory bowel disease JF - Frontline Gastroenterology JO - Frontline Gastroenterol DO - 10.1136/flgastro-2018-101055 SP - flgastro-2018-101055 AU - Ole Haagen Nielsen AU - Thomas Irgens Hansen AU - John Mark Gubatan AU - Kim Bak Jensen AU - Lars Rejnmark Y1 - 2019/01/07 UR - http://fg.bmj.com/content/early/2019/01/07/flgastro-2018-101055.abstract N2 - Management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, is generally cumbersome for patients and is a massive health-economic burden. In recent years, the immunomodulating effects of vitamin D have gained a huge interest in its possible pathogenic influence on the pathophysiology of IBD. Vitamin D deficiency is frequent among patients with IBD. Several clinical studies have pointed to a critical role for vitamin D in ameliorating disease outcomes. Although causation versus correlation unfortunately remains an overwhelming issue in the illusive chicken versus egg debate regarding vitamin D and IBD, here we summarise the latest knowledge of the immunological effects of vitamin D in IBD and recommend from available evidence that physicians regularly monitor serum 25(OH)D levels in patients with IBD. Moreover, we propose an algorithm for optimising vitamin D status in patients with IBD in clinical practice. Awaiting well-powered controlled clinical trials, we consider vitamin D supplementation to be an affordable and widely accessible therapeutic strategy to ameliorate IBD clinical outcomes. ER -