Vitamin D and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

From John Cannell, MD
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

Low Vitamin D levels associated with increased disease severity in childhood Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).

Childhood SLE is a tragic disease, one of the autoimmune diseases that have risen to epidemic levels in our children in the last 20 years. Afflicted children develop debilitating kidney, joint, bone, heart, blood, and lung disease; almost all require immunosuppressants (prednisone and hydroxychloroquine) to ward off looming debilitation and death.

Dr. Tracey Wright and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found severe Vitamin D deficiency was five times more common in SLE children than in controls (37% vs. 9%), that a measure of SLE disease severity was 2.5 times higher in SLE children with Vitamin D deficiency, that 78% of SLE children who were prescribed Vitamin D were still severely deficient (that is, their pediatricians were prescribing insignificant amounts of Vitamin D while telling them correctly in the case of SLE to avoid the sun), and serum activated vitamin D levels (calcitriol) were significantly lower in SLE kids than healthy controls. (Tragically, the true believers of the Marshall Protocol and I know no scientists who are recommend these children get even less Vitamin D.) The authors concluded, Vitamin D deficiency may be a modifiable risk factor for morbidity in SLE and represents a target for intervention.