Very skeptical that high-dose vitamin D3 has a major impact on MS. If you look at the latest update to the Facebook page, it is now saying high-dose vitamin D3 with betaseron works to reduce MRI lesion counts which is not a good measure of the impact of MS on patients.
The recent
study by Colleen Hayes found that there is something in MS that blocks the conversion of the circulating form of vitamin D3 to the bio-active hormonal form of vitamin D, calcitriol. To the extent that this is also true in MS, not just EAE, then no amount of vitamin D3 supplementation is going to have a significant impact on the disease.
A group of us are working to promote and fund proper clinical trials of the Hayes protocol to determine what dose of calcitriol is needed in pwMS and the safety of that dose.
In her EAE study, the combination stopped EAE and kept it in remission in 100% of her mice. Her evidence is solid science, not anecdote, but the question still remains on whether this will work in pwMS.
High doses of vitamin D3 have been tested to as much as 280,000 IU/week without significant impact on MS.
In a 28-wk protocol, 12 patients in an active phase of multiple sclerosis were given 1200 mg elemental Ca/d along with progressively increasing doses of vitamin D3: from 700 to 7000 μg/wk (from 28 000 to 280 000 IU/wk).
Source URL:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/3/645.longPMID: 17823429
Journal Title: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Journal Date: 09/01/2007
Journal Issue: 3
Journal Volume: 86
Journal First Page: 645
Abstract URL:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.govhttp://ajcn. ... 5.abstractArticle Title: Safety of vitamin D3 in adults with multiple sclerosis