Ok, so supplements are all the rage these days and it always feels like someone is trying to sell you something. On top of that, you can’t even walk out of a health food store without being bombarded with aisles of options for supplements, leaving you feeling with the FOMO (fear of missing out) on some health benefit.
When you have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, there’s already so much going on in your life and you are likely already taking many medications, that adding more pills just doesn’t sound like fun. Thankfully, there really aren’t that many supplements you should actually be taking. Especially, when you’re thinking about taking supplements within the realms of what the science shows is of most benefit.
So I have made a list and also have a link for you to be able to access high grade products that have been tested by third party organizations to validate their quality.
Here is my list of recommended supplements that almost all patients with Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) should be taking to optimize their health. These are science backed with good evidence to support their use.
As a note, it’s always a good idea to notify your Gastroenterologist that you want to take these and ask them if there is any reason not to. Sometimes you may need higher dosing and/or different formulations depending on your needs. But these are basic recommendations that are safe for most patients.
Fletcher, J., Cooper, S. C., Ghosh, S., & Hewison, M. (2019). The role of vitamin D in inflammatory bowel disease: mechanism to management. Nutrients, 11(5), 1019
Hanai, H., Iida, T., Takeuchi, K., Watanabe, F., Maruyama, Y., Andoh, A., … & Koide, Y. (2006). Curcumin maintenance therapy for ulcerative colitis: randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 4(12), 1502-1506.
Hwang, C., Ross, V., & Mahadevan, U. (2012). Micronutrient deficiencies in inflammatory bowel disease: from A to zinc. Inflammatory bowel diseases, 18(10), 1961-1981.
Iqbal, U., Anwar, H., & Quadri, A. A. (2018). Use of curcumin in achieving clinical and endoscopic remission in ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The American journal of the medical sciences, 356(4), 350-356.
Kilby, K., Mathias, H., Boisvenue, L., Heisler, C., & Jones, J. L. (2019). Micronutrient absorption and related outcomes in people with inflammatory bowel disease: a review. Nutrients, 11(6), 1388.
Meeker, S., Seamons, A., Maggio-Price, L., & Paik, J. (2016). Protective links between vitamin D, inflammatory bowel disease and colon cancer. World journal of gastroenterology, 22(3), 933.