This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

okay. good to know h.pylori is not part of the picture.

i hope you can get the zinc test ASAP.

are they going to run a magnesium test? (it's gold for anxiety)

Latest lab results...

Vitamin D, 25 OH Total: 23 (30-100ng/mL reference)

higher 25-OH-D levels were associated with a reduced hazard of relapse. This occurred in a dose-dependent linear fashion, with each 10nmol/l increase in 25-OH-D resulting in up to a 12% reduction in risk of relapse. Clinically, raising 25-OH-D levels by 50nmol/l could halve the hazard of a relapse.

you're right NHE, and i've also seen research suggesting that 130 nmol/L is considered a minimum to minimize risk of certain cancers.

toni i can check back but i suspect all your CBC results are consistent with the low ferritin. try to get your ferritin level up over 100 (i'll check to make sure the units match yours properly)

if you have trouble absorbing vit d3 you may need to supplement zinc. fyi zinc helps stabilize blood sugar (get the glucose into cells, and help insulin work better)

re vit d3 and zinc, great! please consider a new iron supplement though, to increase ferritin.

also, there is such thing as too much zinc (and too much anything else for that matter).

interested to hear the results!

Factor # 1 : Your Insulin Level
Insulin is absolutely essential to staying alive, but the sad fact is that most of you reading this have too much floating around, and it is pushing you towards chronic degenerative illness and increasing the rate at which you age.
Most adults have about one gallon of blood in their bodies and are quite surprised to learn that in that gallon, there is only one teaspoon of sugar! You only need one teaspoon of sugar at all times -- if that. If your blood sugar level were to rise to one tablespoon of sugar you would quickly go into a hyperglycemic coma and die.
You body works very hard to prevent this by producing insulin to keep your blood sugar at the appropriate level. Any meal or snack high in grain and sugar carbohydrates typically generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To compensate for this your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, which lowers your blood sugar to keep you from dying.
However, if you consume a diet consistently high in sugar and grains, over time your body becomes "sensitized" to insulin and requires more and more of it to get the job done. Eventually, you become insulin resistant, and then diabetic.
If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or are overweight, it is highly likely that you are eating too many grains -- yes, even unrefined whole grains -- as this is the most common culprit causing your insulin level to become abnormal.
Compounding the problem, when your insulin levels rise due to an excess of carbohydrates, they send your body a hormonal message telling it to store fat while holding on to the fat that is already there. So not only will excess carbohydrates make you overweight, they will effectively hamper your weight loss efforts too.
Your Fasting Blood Insulin Test
To find out your insulin levels, you need to get tested by your doctor. The test you need to ask for is a fasting blood insulin test, The test is done by just about every commercial laboratory and is relatively inexpensive.
Facts about Your Fasting Insulin Test:
• This test is profoundly useful. It's one of the least expensive tests in traditional medicine, yet it is one of the most powerful. A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally you'll want to be below 3.
• You can safely ignore the reference ranges from the lab as they are based on "normals" of a population that has highly-disturbed insulin levels.
• This is a great test to do BEFORE you start your program as you can use it to assess how well you are progressing in the program.
• If your level is above 5 you will want to consider significantly reducing most sugars and grains, even whole wheat grains, until you lower your level. Once you've normalized your insulin level you can reintroduce grains into your diet at a lower level to optimize your health.
• Exercise is of enormous benefit in improving the sensitivity of your insulin receptors, and help normalize your insulin level far more quickly

toni i bet your skin would sort itself out once your zinc deficiency is addressed. "Mild zinc deficiency is characterized by increased infections, slow healing of wounds, decreased sense of taste and smell, skin rashes, poor night vision, growth retardation, poor appetite and bad breath. Severe zinc deficiency causes skin problems, diarrhea, hair loss, mental disturbances and severe or recurrent infections. Since the average intake of dietary zinc in the US is below the RDA, many people have mild zinc deficiency. "

(i think the bad breath bit could possibly be related to high ammonia expiration)

if you can't get the UA and NH3 labs really quickly, it would be more of an academic exercise once you start supplementing to correct the zinc problem.

when i originally asked for a zinc test and it came back low, my doc said take 100mg per day for one month, then re-test.

FYI i personally found that taking 100mg zinc all at once made me nauseous. i can deal with 50mg at a time, with food.

hth!

I've been following this thread and I'm glad to see so many people have read it. ToniH, I know you may not like me but do me a favor and read pg. 24 of Dr. Burrascano' Lyme Treatment Guidelines.
http://www.lymenet.org/BurrGuide200810.pdf

You will see that it states one of the classic rashes associated with the Bartonella Like Organism is red papular eruptions. This is one of the main signs! and you have it on a picture. If this is bartonella you are making yourself worse with steroids.
Additionally, check out the babesia page on The Columbia Lyme and Tick Born Disease Research Center website
http://www.columbia-lyme.org/patients/tbd_babesia.html

You will see ' Because the Babesia organisms cause lysis of red blood cells, patients will frequently develop hemolytic anemia, as well as lymphopenia and thrombocytopenia'


I'm trying to help you but I hope this thread gets many many more views. Columbia is a very reputable university and hospital, they wouldn't have this center if this wasn't a huge problem. It is not unusual for an MS patient to have all 3 just as my cousin does. It is a very difficult treatment but most people get better but not before getting worse in some cases. Obviously, the longer you've been sick the longer and harder it takes to get better. Just trying to help someone, anyone. Minocycline + Copaxone would cover lyme, bartonella and ms.