Melis Campbell
Of course, all vitamins are important for the intestines. However, a certain vitamin is often scarce but would be particularly good for the intestinal flora. Therefore, make sure you have a good supply of exactly this vitamin!
How vitamin D can regulate the intestinal flora
The further away you live from the equator, the less UV radiation reaches the earth and the higher the risk of suffering from a vitamin D deficiency. The risk of chronic diseases increases, such as the risk of multiple sclerosis or chronic inflammatory bowel diseases.
However, we know that the condition of the intestinal flora also plays an extremely important role in the development of this and many other chronic diseases. Is there a connection between the vitamin D level and the state of the intestinal flora? Would it be enough to bring the vitamin D level up to scratch? And the vitamin D would then automatically regulate the intestinal flora?
To answer these questions, a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada, examined how the intestinal flora reacts to UV radiation. The study was published in Frontiers in Microbiology magazine.
UVB radiation increases vitamin D levels – whether there was a deficiency beforehand or not
21 women took part in the study – all with fair skin types I to III (according to Fitzpatrick). Nine took a vitamin D supplement in the three months prior to the start of the study and subsequently had healthy vitamin D levels. The remaining 12 participants were not taking a vitamin D supplement and all but one participant were vitamin D deficient.
All test subjects received three whole-body irradiations with UVB radiation within a week, i.e. the radiation that (in contrast to UVA radiation) is responsible for vitamin D formation. Vitamin D levels increased in all participants, whether they had previously had deficient levels or not.
UVB radiation increases the diversity of the intestinal flora
The scientists then compared the extent to which the radiation had changed the women’s intestinal flora. It was found that the changes in the intestinal flora were all the more noticeable the more pronounced the vitamin D deficiency was at the beginning of the study.
“Before UVB exposure, women with vitamin D deficiency had a less balanced gut flora, with much less diversity, than women who regularly took vitamin D supplements,” said study author Professor Bruce Vallance.
The UVB light was now able to change and improve the intestinal flora of the women who had previously suffered from vitamin D deficiency in such a way that no difference in the intestinal flora quality of the other group of participants (who had taken the vitamin D preparation) could be seen.
It was also interesting that the intestinal flora of those participants who had not previously had a vitamin D deficiency no longer changed as a result of the radiation. An already healthy intestinal flora cannot be influenced by additional vitamin D doses (in the form of more UVB radiation), which suggests that there are no negative changes to fear.
After just one week, the intestinal flora changes
Study leader Else Bosman explained: “We found in our investigation that vitamin D is the main driver for a change in the intestinal flora, so that sunlight, which leads to vitamin D formation in the skin, is indispensable for intestinal health.”
“What’s particularly impressive about our study is that you could already see such obvious effects after just one week of the study,” says Bosman. However, special lamps were used in the study, which emit UVB radiation in particular, i.e. cannot cause sunburn, so the exposure time from the study cannot be applied to future sunbathing.
Sunbathing or vitamin D supplements?
As before, sunbathing must be adapted to the individual skin type, the time of day, the season, and the latitude in order to find the period of time that is sufficient to optimize the vitamin D level, but at the same time does not cause sunburn.
In winter and with particularly sensitive skin also in summer, it is better to rely on vitamin D supplements. Because food alone can rarely provide enough vitamin D.
Since the study was carried out with female, very light-skinned, and healthy people, further investigations would now have to be carried out with other (and of course also with larger) groups of test subjects, such as dark-skinned people and also with those who already suffer from chronic diseases, says Bosman. Because then it could be shown whether people who suffer from chronic intestinal inflammation, for example, could be helped with UVB radiation therapy.
This is how you optimize your vitamin D level and at the same time restore your intestinal flora
Study results are usually used to develop new medical therapies. But often – and this is also the case in the present study – one can also derive self-help measures from this:
- From our (ZDG) point of view, an alternative to the investigated UVB radiation would therefore be to advise those affected (and of course their doctors) to include BOTH pillars in the therapy of the disease, because of course not only vitamin D influences the intestinal flora:
- First, make sure you have a good supply of vitamin D, i.e. regularly enjoy individually tailored sunbathing and/or use high-quality vitamin D supplements and
secondly, implement measures for a healthy intestinal flora, e.g. B. practicing the right diet for the intestinal flora, taking probiotics, etc.
