This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

i loved australia the sun had its high beams on and i was never that brown in my whole life before or since - it was GREAT ...
i miss the sun worship. and now that i'm back in the frozen north i take a drop of hi-test d3 liquid roughly once a week. my one drop = 25,000IU and i make sure to take calcium mag and zinc each day too.
and since i'm here in all the snow ... lew where can i get me some grey flannel skis? sounds like an interesting challenge hehehe

My husband has MS and so does his sister. Many of those in his family (including my husband) who have had their Vitamin D levels checked have had low levels of Vitamin D. My daughter also had very low levels which were checked by her endocrinologist. She has Graves Disease which also has a connection to low Vitamin D. Everyone should have their levels checked - especially people with "autoimmune" diseases.

Physicians need to request this test for their patients. I had to ask my doctor and my husband's doctor to test our levels. And then, many doctors do not even know the correct test to request.

While this is interesting news, I can't help but read words like "appears to be", " most likely" and " seems to be"!! In other words, another theory in the long list of theories held about the origin and cause of MS.

If only someone could take this information and scientifically prove it, the MS world of medicine would take a giant leap forwrad. Let's hope this will happen here.

Harry

They seem to have a hard time proving anything. Talks cheap.

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Had ms for over 19 years now.

Gee, maybe after Revimmune this time, if I need it, I will just take a bunch of Vitamin D to prevent from reactivating.

I am willing to bet I get the least amount of naturally occurring Vitamin D than anyone on here who is not in a chair permanently already.

The more I read about the whole Vitamin D thing in functional medicine and MS the more I think it may be a major issue for not just MS but the whole populous.

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Had ms for over 19 years now.

I believe this is a very important research finding. Good news for us who have been following Ashton Embry's Best Bet Diet. Ashton proposed years ago based in part on some of Dr Ebers earlier work that MS could end up being a long latency vitamin D deficiency disease. Even more of a reason to keep my kids on the vitamin d supplements.

what about the people that are in the sun all the time and their d levels are at the max but still get ms?

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Had ms for over 19 years now.

I think it's important to understand what this research claims- it's looking at MS prevention thru pregnancy and childhood intervention with vitamin D supplementation. Here's a breakdown of the study -

1) So far, the largest genetic correlation researchers have found towards developing MS comes from chromosome six (which contains the gene variant known as DRB1*1501)

2) The researchers found that proteins activated by vitamin D in the body bind to a particular DNA sequence lying next to the DRB1*1501 variant, in effect switching the gene on, making MS more likely to occur.

3) In people with the DRB1 variant associated with MS, vitamin D plays a critical role- if too little of the vitamin is available during childhood, the gene may not function properly later.

4) The researchers hypothesize that this gene-environmental interaction may affect the ability of the thymus. The thymus produces millions of different T cells, each designed to recognize a specific pathogen, but there is a risk that one type might mistakenly identify one of the body's own myelin and create MS.

Ebers has been looking at vitamin D and this specific gene for years- he hasn't been looking for "a cure" or "the one reason MS occurs." This is just another piece of the puzzle...and gives more weight to the vit. D discussion.
AC

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Husband dx RRMS 3/07
dx dual jugular vein stenosis (CCSVI) 4/09
dual stents placed 5/09
CCSVI in MS

I think I posted this in Summer 2007, but given today's research the talk by Professor Ebers may be of interest.

Ian

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Apologies for jumping in but this has been the first article that has compelled me to post instead of just lurking; does anyone know what Vitamin D supplement I should buy my 3 year olds? I have MS and I live in the UK (dim and dark North!) and feel this is something I cannot afford to ignore. I am unsure at what level I should be giving children so young and where I would be able to get it but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry if this is not an appropriate question to ask and please disregard if this is so however I ask out of concern for my children.

Many thanks

Jo

JoR you should be able to get a nice tasty baby liquid. do not neglect to balance any d3 supplementation plan with calcium and magnesium and zinc, all at appropriate levels for tiny bodies. you cannot give it all at the same time either because the minerals need some alone time with your body, it can't all be d3 interactions you know!
i think you'd be safe to say that if adults take 4000IU per day and weigh an average of 70kg, then scale back the dosage of d3 and the minerals relative to the kg weight of your child.
if you can't get an off-the-shelf liquid that fits the bill, you may be able to get the chemist to dilute a stronger liquid for you.
just be careful - that kind of thing you may need to keep in the refridgerator so it's not so easy to keep up high or locked.
if they are old enough to take pills it's really easy to get 1000 or 2000IU pills that are small and simple to take.
monitor the little ones' bloodwork to ensure it gets where you want it to be, but does not go too high. in one study where vitamin d3 status in adults was measured, the group with the lowest incidence of ms had serum levels 100 nmol/L and higher. if levels go too high you can expect side effects like hypercalcaemia and such so probably best to keep the max level under 150 until there is more research completed on optimal d3 status.

Hey Robbie...
Glad you're posting videos, since typing is getting harder for you. It's always good to see you. You bring up a really important question-
Why would folks who get plenty of sunshine get MS? I asked the same question about my husband, who grew up in the California sun, and was very outdoorsy. He even has basal cells (pre-skin cancer) to prove it!
I guess what the study is showing is that in people who have this genetic variant, a lack of vitamin D in their mother's wombs or childhood can turn on the MS process which will show up later in life.
This is just a good reminder for pregnant Moms to get enough vitamin D, and for Moms with MS in the family to make sure their kids get it, too. It's more about an ounce of prevention....

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Husband dx RRMS 3/07
dx dual jugular vein stenosis (CCSVI) 4/09
dual stents placed 5/09
CCSVI in MS

JoR--Before you begin administering D3 to your 3-year-olds, it would seem wise to find an endocrinologist to order tests to learn their D3 levels. (JimmyLegs can teach you all about Vitamin D and which exact test to request.)

And welcome to the site! You'll find a friendly, helpful community here.

I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but here's another recent article on vitamin D...


Lack of sunshine found to trigger MS

Research finds people with gene variant who lack vitamin D, produced from sun exposure, can develop condition

Women who are not exposed to sufficient sunshine in pregnancy may be at risk of giving birth to a child who will get multiple sclerosis in adulthood, research reveals today.

Oxford University researchers have identified a link between a shortage of the "sunshine vitamin" – vitamin D – and a specific gene which appears to be involved in the onset of the devastating and incurable disease.

Women are already urged to take folic acid in pregnancy to reduce the chances of a child being born with spina bifida. The research findings suggest that vitamin D could before long be advised for pregnant women as well – especially those who do not get much exposure to sunlight. The researchers think it is possible that vitamin D could play a part in other diseases whcih affect the immune system too.

"Our study implies that taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy and the early years may reduce the risk of a child developing MS later in life," said lead author Dr Sreeram Ramagopalan. "Vitamin D is a safe and relatively cheap supplement with substantial potential health benefits. There is accumulating evidence that it can reduce the risk of developing cancer and offer protection from other autoimmune diseases."

Their work, published today in the journal PLoS Genetics, breaks new ground by revealing the interaction between a gene and an environmental factor – in this case, exposure to sunlight.

It has long been suspected that sunshine played a part in the condition's development. MS, the most common disabling neurological condition, affects 85,000 mainly young adults in the UK and 2.5 million worldwide and is markedly more common in cloudy northern climates. Scotland has a significantly higher concentration of MS cases than England.

A gene variant known as DRB1*1501 has been implicated in MS. While one in 1000 people in the general population develop the disease, it is one in 300 among those who have one copy of this gene variant and one in 100 of those who have two copies.

The Oxford study has found a direct relationship between vitamin D, produced in the body as a result of sun exposure, and this gene variant. In effect, proteins activated by vitamin D in the body switch the gene on. It appears, they say, that if people get too little sunshine, the gene may not function properly.

This interaction between gene and environment – so-called "epigenetics" – is being seen as increasingly important by scientists: that genetic make-up is not set in stone from conception, but is influenced for better or worse by the world around us.

"Epigenetics will have important implications, not only for MS, but for other common diseases," said Professor George Ebers, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford, where the work was done. "For mothers, taking care of their health during their reproductive years may have beneficial effects on the health of their future children or even grandchildren."

· This article was amended on Friday 6 February 2009. George Ebers does not run the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford. This has been corrected.