This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

I think seeing an endocrinologist to get more information on how my internal body works is a good idea. I think I have vitamin and mineral deficiencies, actually I'm pretty sure I do, plus absorption issues also. I've been taking biotin for about 9 months and thought I'd see a difference in my nails and hair but I haven't. I've tried going mostly gluten free and cutting out most dairy but nothing is helping. If I make an appointment what kind of tests should I ask to have done? Is there a "specialized" MS endocrinologist? Armed with more info would make it easier to move forward. VitD levels get checked every year and they're in the normal range so I take vitD sups to attempt to get mine into the above normal range but it hasn't happened yet.

A list of levels to check would be helpful and much appreciated.

hi

if you could get serum ferritin, serum zinc, serum magnesium, serum copper and serum selenium looked at, in addition to an updated serum 25(OH)vitaminD3 result, that could help. a serum vit b12 level couldn't hurt either.

cutting out gluten and dairy can help mitigate ongoing depletion, but in the best case scenario all that really does is help the rest of your diet meet daily requirements. assuming that diet is sufficiently nutrient-dense, of course.

gluten free diet CAN'T necessarily facilitate replacement of chronically depleted nutrients.

I hadn't heard of biotin being a major nutrient of concern in ms, but I can tell you for sure that since I got sick and started working on identifying and correcting nutrition issues, that my hair, nails, eyes and skin have all improved.

so, testing is smart. and then possibly a short term therapeutic supplement regimen to kick things back into gear and a review of day to day diet to see if any food/fluid selections would benefit from some tweaking

would be smart to have everything optimized for sure!

I am sure there are others here with endocrine expertise that could recommend other specific tests - other than that my regimen thread (link below) has a ton of detail on nutrient testing, including target levels to aim for within the various normal ranges out there.

hope that helps!

I would say that first of all you should test the presence of an autoantibody named anti-Kir4.1

It seems to be present in a subset of MS patients (47%, see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/227 ... t=Abstract), and this means that there could be two different multiple sclerosis types. If you have these antibodies, it seems that a plasma exchange will work, because they are into the blood serum. And of course, the cases in which the problem is in the blood serum are not expected to respond to alternative treatments.

Frodo...can you check the link you've posted? I think its not the correct one, although im not sure.

When you say "plasma Exchange will work", what do you mean exactly?

Is this a routine test offered by labs, or does it require searching for a speciliased facility?

Why these links break and how to fix them.

http://www.thisisms.com/forum/site-supp ... ml#p197371

Hi,

I'd certainly get the amino acid tests done. The nonessential amino acid levels will provide a lot of information to an endocrinologist about a string of pathways. Uric acid levels will help as well. They are roadmaps on how you process things.
I would definitely get tested for mycoplamas, chlamydias, rickettsias and any wretched little bug that anybody has ever suggested may be involved in MS or autoimmune disease. I'm sure they stuff up so many well meaning tests and most can be eliminated by traditional antibiotics given a long enough course.

Regards