Supplements for Ulcerative Colitis

I always recommend a good multivitamin and a multivitamin that's easy to digest. So not necessarily a hard tablet, something that might be a capsule or something that has an oil matrix inside so that the supplement is easily digested and absorbed. The other component is I always recommend calcium and vitamin D, 'cause we know that many patients with IBD are deficient with vitamin D and calcium as well.

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Osteoporosis is one of the most prevalent diseases in the general population and IBD patients are even more prone to osteoporosis because of prednisone use because of poor intake of dairy and just because of malabsorption. So calcium is a critical mineral that patients have to be taking in. And the other component is folic acid which is really important for patients with IBD.

Folic acid, found naturally in foods like enriched grains, legumes and green leafy vegetables, is a B vitamin complex that helps the body digest and synthesize protein. It's also critical to the formation of red blood cells and aids in the production of DNA. Omega three fatty acids such as EPA and DHA, commonly found in fish like salmon or algae based supplements, have been getting a lot of attention for offering a host of health benefits. Although recent studies have cast doubt on whether Omega 3 is useful at preventing a relapse, many experts still believe it to be one of most beneficial natural substances at relieving the symptoms of an on-going flare:

…omega 3 fatty acids have been shown to decrease the pain and inflammation associated with inflammatory bowel disease or any inflammatory disease in general.

Nutrients such as these are essential both for general health… and recovery — even in the most severe cases:

If their symptoms are so active that they're not tolerating things well at all, then may need special refined and defined dietary supplements which may be oral or, if their condition is really severe at that point, they may need special intravenous nutrition, but that's really very rare; but again, the whole focus should be, as rapidly as one can, correcting the inflammation and then one can eat most anything that they would have otherwise tolerated.

For WebMD, I'm Damon Meharg.