Hep C Tx and Vitamin D

Hi All,

Thanks for your great thoughts about adding supplements, especially Vitamin D to try to get my viral count down by week 12.  Does anyone how much Vitamin D to take?  Is it better to take at night or during the day?  I just bought a Vitamin D3 supplement of 1,000 I/U and plan to start tonight.  I emailed my doctor and the treatment nurse said to start taking the Vitamin D but didn't say the amount.  She said that many of his patients take it and it helps them in many ways.  I would never have been able to ask my doctor without all of your help so thank you.  If anyone can answer my questions, please let me know.

[Bill1954]

Is there any published, peer reviewed data to support the claim that vitamin D somehow increases efficacy of interferon combo therapy? Something other than internet rumor and supplement/vitamin marketing?

Ask your doctor for a 25-hydroxy vitamin D test; that will let you know if you’re deficient before you begin supplementation.

--Bill  

[copyman]

Although Vit D can help with your treatment not sure it will help in your particular case. There have been studies on it. I'm sure there must be more current studies but here is one link I had on file.
http://www.****.com/viewarticle/711902

November 5, 2009 (Boston, Massachusetts) — Supplementing pegylated interferon-alfa2b and ribavirin with a daily dose of vitamin D might increase virologic response rates, according to results of a late-breaking abstract reported here at The Liver Meeting 2009, the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

"Vitamin D is a potent immunomodulator whose impact on virologic response rates of interferon-based treatment of chronic HCV [hepatitis C] is unknown," lead investigator Saif M. Abu-Mouch, MD, from the Department of Hepatology, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, in Hadera, Israel, and colleagues note in their abstract.

"This preliminary study confirms the benefit of adding vitamin D to conventional antiviral therapy in patients with chronic HCV," Dr. Abu-Mouch told meeting attendees.

In the study, 58 patients with confirmed chronic HCV (genotype 1) were randomly assigned to peginterferon-alfa2b (1.5 µg/kg once weekly) plus ribavirin (1000 to 2000 mg/day). Thirty-one patients also received vitamin D (1000 to 4000 IU/day; serum level >32 ng/mL).

The vitamin D group had a higher mean body mass index (27 vs 24 kg/m2; P < .01), viral load (68% vs 58%; P  F2, 55% vs 18%; P < .001) than the group that did not receive vitamin D. Demographics, disease characteristics, ethnicity, baseline biochemical parameters, and adherence to treatment were similar in the 2 study groups.

A rapid virologic response was seen at week 4 in 44% of the vitamin D group and in 18% of the control group. At week 12, Dr. Abu-Mouch told Medscape Gastroenterology, 96% of the vitamin D group (26 of 27 patients) were HCV RNA-negative, as assessed by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, as was 48% of the control group (15 of 31 patients), which was a significant difference (P < .001), he said.

The combination of peginterferon and ribavirin, the standard of care for chronic HCV, achieves a sustained virologic response in 40% to 50% of naïve patients with genotype 1, the investigators explain in a meeting abstract. Vitamin D in combination with peginterferon-ribavirin "may have synergistic effects," Dr. Abu-Mouch said.

Meeting attendee Laurent Tsakiris, MD, from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Melun in France, who was not involved in the study, told Medscape Gastroenterology that "the study is surprising and promising because vitamin D is something very easy to use and there is no toxicity."

"It's also interesting," he said, "that the group treated with vitamin D had more severe disease than the control group. I think this can be considered a strong result from a small study.

The study did not receive commercial support. Dr. Abu-Mouch and Dr. Tsakiris have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

The Liver Meeting 2009: 60th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD): Abstract LB20. Presented November 2, 2009.

[Willy50]

http://www.natap.org/2010/EASL/EASL_26.htm

[Marcia2202]

You need to get your Vitamin D levels tested. If you have normal levels, you should just go on a maintenance dose. If it is too low, you can take up to 5000 IU per day. You should monitor your levels regularly, I'd suggest every 2 months. Once you reach around 60 - 70 ng/ml, you can go on a maintenance dose.

It takes many months to bring it up. My levels were down to 25 before I started tx and it took 8 months for them to come up to optimal levels (50-70) Excess is over 1000 ng/ml.

[Bill1954]

Thank you both.

Bill

[Marcia2202]

excess level is over 100ng/ml    NOT 1000

[Bali05]

oh good , mine is 80

[copyman]

Forgot that links are sometimes voided here. The article I post above was from Medscape