This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

hey guys just a quick question on vitamin d...how do i know im taking the right stuff? i take 1000 i.u. on the back ingredients are calcium barbonate,cellulose gel, stearic acid, acacia, mastodextrin, croscarmellose,sodium, magnesium stearate, corn starch vitamin d3//whats the difference it just straigh d3...thanks guys

You have vit D3 in your calcium pill because D3 is required for the calcium to process in the body. The D is probably a small amount since calcium usually has 200 units per 600 calcium dosage.

You can get D3 separately to take in addition to that included with the calcium pill.

heya does it say "cholecalciferol" anywhere in the ingredients? that is D3, that's what you want in there. the rest is just stuff - fair amount of binders fillers and preservatives from the sounds of it. you can get around some of that by going to a liquid. calcium and magnesium are good to take in conjunction with D. you need D to absorb calcium, but there is a relationship the other way around too. your body needs lots of calcium to make the best use of your D intake. i take a calcium magnesium vitamin D3 liquid, it's chalky but all right. has the right stuff and a good balance of the three supplements.

I thought I’d start a list of links to Vitamin D articles that might help folks assimilate this information faster. It’s not a new topic. You can tell from the dates on some of these articles that it’s been around a while.

The Role of Vitamin D in Multiple Sclerosis

Vitamin D intake and incidence of multiple sclerosis

Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis

Genetic analysis of vitamin D related genes in Canadian multiple sclerosis patients

Vitamin D and Autoimmunity: Is Vitamin D Status an Environmental Factor Affecting Autoimmune Disease Prevalence?

A pilot study of oral calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) for relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis

Mounting Evidence for Vitamin D as an Environmental Factor Affecting Autoimmune Disease Prevalence

That’s just a few. There are a lot more. Infact in some of these pages you can get cites of other artciles that cited that article. If you want me to post more links like this I will.

My gut tells me that Vitamin D is more so linked to prevention and likely does a lot less once you have MS. But, we’re still taking 4000 IU’s of D3 daily. D3 is one of the cheaper supplements that’s on the MS list. Here's the link to the one we take. napay

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My Starting Point
Understanding MS 101: Doctor Talk and People Talk<br /><br />

no jimmylegs it doesn't state that anywhere on the bottle. i have looked everywhere for a liquid for of d3 and can't find it anywhere. even at the major nutrition stores in my area...thanks notasperfectasyou..i will research all those articles

A couple of years ago my neuro's partner (or boss?) advised me to make sure I get enough sunshine (referring to the vit D) and also to take fish oil.

I think they've known about this for awhile. I know I don't get enough D in the winter.

Does anybody know if the full spectrum indoor lights help with vitamin D or is it only the sun that can do it?

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Take care, Ewizabeth Previously Avonex, Rebif & Copaxone RRMS ~Tysabri, 31 infusions, ended 9/09. Starting Copaxone 12/09, waiting for Cladribine to be approved in 2010.

It requires UV radiation. It's possible that tanning beds/booths might do it but not incandescent lights. Here's a good (although somewhat technical) review on vitamin D. http://ajprenal.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/289/1/F8 Note that the full paper is available for free. If the pdf doesn't load automatically, then click on the manual download link.

NHE

here's a bit of info, looks like you'd have to read the label of your full spectrum bulb packaging to look for the UVB wavelengths required for cutaneous vitamin d production

"To fully understand what is meant by full spectrum lighting, we must first divide the category into two parts: a) General Illumination, and b) Specialty Illumination. A general illumination lamp that may be properly termed full spectrum has a CRI (color rendition index) of greater than 90, and a Color Temperature of >5000K (1). The FS designation here only alludes to the range of light visible to the human eye, as it closely emulates natural sunlight and color balance. These devices are not intended as a source of UV irradiation, but do produce small amounts of UVA as a byproduct of their operation. Specialty illumination devices, such as the pet series (Vitalite, et al.) and tubes for seasonal affective disorder (Ott, et al.) contain varying amounts of ultraviolet light in the near (UVA) and possibly middle (UVB) ranges in addition to meeting the general illumination criteria. The de facto standard UVA/UVB ratio is 28:11. Depending on the result required from FS solutions, various distances are used to maximize their effects."
http://users.mis.net/~pthrush/lighting/spectrum.html

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i so agree lyon, i think the low d has many cascading effects!

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hey there lyon well it's so weird isn't it, i mean if you're heat sensitive then maybe australia in the sun isnt the best place for you, but if you want that "vitamin" d3, it should be perfect. and yet there is such a concern with ozone holes down there, i'm suprised they don't have crop dusters sweeping beachgoers with spf45.

in my case yes i felt good in australia but i had previously megadosed vitamin d3 and my serum was up to a *stellar* 150 nmol/l by the time i left canada, so whatever the d3 was going to do for me, it was done or well on its way already.

k that's the short story done, if you want some long story here goes:

while i was in oz, i stopped supplementing everything for a while in order to get some really good unadulterated bloodwork done, and my b12 was at a personal best of 658 (up from a previous <75, from supplementing and dietary changes, not climate of course) but my d3 was down to 112 nmol/l.

at the same time, my serum iron was officially "deficient" and i had to work to build that back up.

i also realised that my serum uric acid was right in the rrms ballpark (194) whereas those pesky "healthy controls" enjoyed levels averaging just over 290. (gout's more in the 360+ arena)

so d3 is only one of multiple factors in my case, and therefore i'm sure if i upped my d3 and ignored b12, iron, uric acid, not to mention any other variables i haven't yet found out about, i'd still be in trouble. but i am pretty darned sure i've seen studies that showed reduced relapse rates in supplemented, post-dx ms patients. all they have to do to go further, is figure out what ELSE is wrong at the same time. it's such a bugger of a learning curve though! (...also as previously mentioned, serum calcitriol - active hormone form of d3 - more than doubles in late pregnancy; it is a coincidence this is a time when female ms sufferers are protected from attacks?)

and just in closing i want to reiterate for the sake of any new readers that i consider ms to be a multifaceted condition with certain facets applying to smaller groups of afflicted individuals within the overall patient group, therefore one solution will never, and doesn't have to, work for all patients, and i don't consider my answers to be necessarily all relevant to everyone else out there!

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yep the various levels, tests, lab values, etc etc, are a pain to comprehend. then try getting it all across to your health care ppl, one by one, on an ongoing basis.

re: iron and the legs of jimmy: BINGO!!!!! [edit jan 14 2008: iron was not the complete story. see full jan 14 post in regimens, mega D (actually, i guess it will be a jan 15 stamp for the thisisms time zone) for details. short story: zinc also a factor]

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