Vitamin D cannot be used as a DMARD to manage rheumatoid arthritis

It may have lots going for it, but vitamin D cannot be used as a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) in rheumatoid arthritis, a research team concludes in Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology.

Previous studies have looked at the use of vitamin D as a DMARD in rheumatoid arthritis and have had differing outcomes. So researchers took an overview of all of the relevant research about pain relief, disease activity, functional status and flare rate.

They found that correcting vitamin D deficiency may have a beneficial effect on pain perception. And achieving good levels of vitamin D concentration in the body could bring on immunomodulatory activities of vitamin D and therefore favourably impact on disease control. But the verdict is still out: “The current evidence is still not strong enough to support the use of cholecalciferol as a DMARD in rheumatoid arthritis, and further studies are required to clarify this issue.”

Click here to read the original research.

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