Vitamins & Nutritional Supplements for Ulcerative Colitis

UC is linked to an increased risk of colon cancer. Studies have found that people with UC who take folic acid supplements or who have high blood levels of folic acid have a reduced risk of colon cancer compared with people who have UC and do not take folic acid supplements. Although these associations do not prove that folic acid was responsible for the reduction in risk, this vitamin has been shown to prevent experimentally induced colon cancer in animals. Moreover, low blood folic acid levels have been found in more than half of all people with UC. People with UC who are taking the drug sulfasalazine, which inhibits the absorption of folic acid, are at a particularly high risk of developing folic acid deficiency. Folic acid supplementation may therefore be important for many people with UC. Since taking folic acid may mask a vitamin B12 deficiency, however, people with UC who wish to take folic acid over the long term should have their vitamin B12 status assessed by a physician.

Alcohol consumption is known to promote folic acid deficiency and has also been linked to an increased risk of colon cancer. People with UC should, therefore, keep alcohol intake to a minimum.

Preliminary and double-blind trials have found that fish oil supplementation reduces inflammation, decreases the need for anti-inflammatory drugs, and promotes normal weight gain in people with UC. However, fish oil has not always been effective in clinical trials for UC. Amounts used in successful clinical trials provided 3.2 grams of EPA and 2.2 grams of DHA per day—the two important fatty acids found in fish oil...