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Does anyone know if there's any correlation between the birth control pill and MS? I've heard something about it before and just started looking into it a bit and just read they think they might be related because the prevelance of MS increased over the years from the introduction of the pill?

When I was diagnosed, I had just gone back on the birth control pill after having my first child ( around when she was a year, I also had just weaned her and was going back to work (stressful) so it could have been a number of things.) However, I had my second daughter 10 months ago and am weaning her and thinking of going back on the pill again, so needless to say, I'm a little worried. Does anyone believe the pill is safe or not for women with MS?

Any input is appreciated!

Thanks!

I was on the pill (dianette) for many years and I actually got more symptoms when stopping it. So I reckon the pill actually helped my MS. (well dianette did anyway...don't know about the others)

I've never been on the pill and still wound up with MS...

never been on the pill and still MS.

Ann

I felt better when I was on the birth control pill than I did when off it. Keep in mind that correlation is not causation.

this older topic came up in a search, and i thought i would connect to a more recent related post:
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/natural-a ... 24605.html

main point, specific nutrients of concern for ms patients are reduced when on OC meds. potential role in women's increased susceptibility?

personally, once out of parental reach i have been by and large anti pharma. typically a 'put up with the pain' rather than take a painkiller type. loved escaping the abx cycle associated with earlier chronic UTI issues, via pbx, herbs, and finally zinc.
so i was off OC drugs and onto an IUD long before most women would have such a procedure.

so, drug induced nutrient depletion has not been part of my own scenario. the decade and a half of vegan diet certainly took its toll, however. my version of vegan diet would certainly have been insufficient in at least three of the four nutrients mentioned in the study above. i hadn't grown up in a household that had placed any emphasis on dark leafy greens, and i actively/idiotically avoided nuts in an ill-informed attempt to reduce fairly non-existent dietary fat. and i didn't even like brazil nuts, which would have been hands down my best option for maintaining selenium levels.

i suppose many roads lead to rome; perhaps it's a matter of effecting a 180, no matter which road each of us finds ourselves traveling.

thought i would check for any updates re the above.

interesting/known to some extent, would be good to learn more along these lines... :

Chu, A., Petocz, P., & Samman, S. (2017). Plasma/Serum Zinc Status During Aerobic Exercise Recovery: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 47(1), 127-134.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.100 ... 016-0567-0

"Females generally have lower serum zinc levels compared to males [38], which is driven by the different distribution of sex hormones as exemplifed by the interaction between the use of oral contraceptive agents and serum zinc concentrations."

YES a systematic review from 2016 that saved me some time lol

Dante, G., Vaiarelli, A., & Facchinetti, F. (2016). Vitamin and mineral needs during the oral contraceptive therapy: a systematic review. International Journal of Reproduction, Contraception, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 3(1), 1-10.

A decrease in the serum concentrations of zinc, selenium, phosphorus and magnesium have been reported in OC users. Such reductions were proportional to the duration of contraceptive use. These reductions may imply a reduction in the probability of having a pregnancy and/or an increase of serious illness for the unborn. In this regard, a supplementation with the above compounds could be useful in OC users, namely for reducing side effects.

next, selected articles through the years. have not checked refs for the above, just using a scant handful of top google scholar results roughly by decade. just wanted an idea of how far back the thinking goes.

Halsted, J. A., Hackley, B. M., & Smith Jr, J. C. (1968). Plasma-zinc and copper in pregnancy and after oral contraceptives. Lancet, 2, 278-279.
http://www.popline.org/node/469683

"Zinc plasma-concentration diminished in those taking oral contraceptives from an average normal of 96 µg/dL to 69 µg/dL, and in the pregnant patients to 250 µg/dL."

wording suggests that 250 should be a 25. no full text for me on this one though. can't check. perils of scanning/text recognition/etc

Hess, F. M., King, J. C., & Margen, S. (1977). Effect of low zinc intake and oral contraceptive agents on nitrogen utilization and clinical findings in young women. J Nutr, 107(12), 2219-2227.
http://bit.ly/2l24VD1
"Clinical problems developed in all the subjects with serum zinc levels below 50 µg/dL during the study; three of the six with serum zinc levels above 50 µg/dL also complained of clinical symptoms. The results suggest that zinc deficiency through depletion of accessible body zinc stores developed during the 35-day study."

Crews, M. G., Taper, L. J., & Ritchey, S. J. (1980). Effects of oral contraceptive agents on copper and zinc balance in young women. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 33(9), 1940-1945.
http://bit.ly/2l24VD1

"Plasma concentrations of zinc were not different for the two groups (Table 5), but the plasma copper level was significantly higher
(F < 0.01) in the oral contraceptive users. The copper values are comparable with other reports (1, 3, 5). Plasma zinc concentrations
are in the range of other reports (3, 6, 9). Values in this study are in the upper range of reported concentrations and may reflect the
blood handling procedures used."

so in this one, control group zinc copper ratio was 151/131 = 1.16:1, very close to healthy optimal 1.1:1. OCA group zinc to copper ratio ended up at 130/200 = 0.65:1. that's fine if you're talking copper:zinc ratio. not zinc:copper.

now if someone would just have a look at serum zinc in OCA+, OCA-, MS, and healthy controls, that could be interesting. til then,

Bredholt, M., & Frederiksen, J. L. (2016). Zinc in multiple sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. ASN neuro, 8(3), 1759091416651511.
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10. ... 1416651511

"The result of the meta-analysis shows a reduction in serum or plasma Zn levels in patients with MS with a 95% CI of [−3.66, −0.93] and a p value of .001 for the difference in Zn concentration in μM."

and now, for something where you can see the actual levels...

Ghazavi, A., Kianbakht, S., Ghasami, K., & Mosayebi, G. (2012). High copper and low zinc serum levels in Iranian patients with multiple sclerosis: a case control study. Clin Lab, 58(1-2), 161-164.
http://bit.ly/2lwAcyR

Table 1
..........................MS...:...................SPMS...:.................RRMS...:..............Controls
Zn level (µg/dL)...40.17 ±31.89a........23.12 ±10.59c.......42.06 ±32.94.......127.77 ±42.2
Cu level (µg/dL)..114.05 ±42b.........126.14 ±44.20.......111.22 ±39.45.........91.3 ±37

note the completely inverted copper zinc ratios, bad for RRMS and TERRIBLE for SPMS
zn:cu
Controls.....127.8/ 91.3 = 1.4 (pretty high to my eye, unusual)
RRMS..........42.1/ 111.2 = 0.38 (awfully low, needs to be more like 1.1)
MS..............40.2/ 114.1 = 0.35 (splitting the difference between RRMS and SPMS)
SPMS..........23.1/ 126.1 = 0.18 (makes sense that this one is worst of all)

from other sources, optimal = 1.1

yikes, this crew *wishes* they were playing with the +/- 50 µg/dL groups above :S

overall, in this last study, looks like MS patients of all stripes tended to have even lower zinc levels than women on OCA meds in the studies above.

remember that so-called new 'inhalational' alzheimer's study? because i do... crap ratios all across the board. except i used cu/zn in that review so aiming for 0.7-1.0 as the sweet spot: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/natural-a ... ml#p245062