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Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a concern. Article in USAToday.

'Vitamin D tests soar as deficiency, diseases linked'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/200 ... ests_N.htm

jimmy

In answer to your question........ perhaps the african americans are more deficient as their skin pigmenation means they need more sun? And therefore once they move away from their natural environment (for want of a better term) they suffer a big loss in vit d provided by the lower sunlight levels. If that makes sense....??!!

My origin is meditterranean and my folks moved to the uk years ago so the same could apply to me, albeit at a comparatively lower rate.

J.

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i think people have different genetic disease islands that stick out when our nutrient waters recede. some small percent have the ms island, some have cancer island, some have 'more susceptible to toxins and/or infectious disease' island, etc. and the more kinds of imbalances you have, the more islands show up. which is why a deficiency of one thing in a large population can have a variety of resulting health effects. i don't think there's ever going to be one answer that addresses every single case of ms, and i don't think vitamin d deficiency would make everyone have ms. a human being is a pretty complicated system, there are too many variables to get it down to one. too reductionist to think otherwise, i reckon.

Cheer there are some proteins called heat sock proteins.
They regulate partly the way fatique comes and affect the body some hours after meals usualy with high ambients so if MSers eat frequently foods that contain them they are more prone to fatique in hot climates than other people, by the way bread is a big source of those proteins.

I'm sure it's not just vitamin D deficiency. I agree it's a mix of things.

With the neuroprotection that vit D offfers lacking, this is just one component of the slippery slope.

Thank you for the tip, Dim-
Hope all is well for you and your wife in Greece.
You mean "heat shock proteins"... I'm learning about them.

http://www.antigenics.com/products/tech/hsp/

"Heat shock proteins (HSPs), also called stress proteins, are a group of proteins that are present in all cells in all life forms. They are induced when a cell undergoes various types of environmental stresses like heat, cold and oxygen deprivation."

The weather is quite warm in southern California now, and Jeff feels the fatigue most in the afternoon, after working for several hours. He takes a short "siesta" and feels better, but he wold love to get his energy levels up. He doesn't eat any bread or gluten and wheat products at all. He eats mostly fish, eggs, salads, veggies, fruits, nuts and chicken.

Keeping him cool seems to help a bit-
best,
AC

just wanted some thoughts.. i recently had my neuro run the vit d level..it came back low..i take about 2000-3000iu daily of vit d3 and 4000iu in the winter. my neuro wants to put me on vit d2 50,000iu a week bill..should i agree to this or is there any real difference?? thanks for responding in advanced.

what was your low number again? 50s? 60? 70s?
and this was after taking good-sounding dailies for how many months/years?
d2 is fine if you're a plant. getting 50,000IU d2 in pill form is pretty easy which may be why you're getting that suggestion.
d3 form is what human skin makes when exposed to sunlight. in my experience, d3 is available in an extremely potent liquid form with a three month shelf life. you eke a drop out of a syringe and that's your 50,000 for the day (or in your case it would be week).
i am quite interested to hear how many weeks this script of 50,000iu lasts for, and what the plan and timing for followup testing might be.
cheers

legs they didn't tell me..this was over email. the nurse said that i was a bit low. i haven't got the script yet so i will keep you posted. i asked for d 3 if available but i dont think i will get it. i want the d 3 and not d 2 but we will see..i will post when i find out.

k good luck H

For what it is worth, I also was prescribed vitamin D at 50,000 IU per week by the neurologist at Vanderbilt. He told me to have my levels checked, which I did. My GP told me that the levels were somewhat low and that he had no problem with 50,000 IU per week. But I stupidly forgot to ask what the levels actually were. I'll check on that tomorrow. But my point is that it is becoming more common to prescribe vitamin D (for many diseases/ailments including MS)
Lori

hey lori..yeah i saw moses at vandy..apparently thats what they do..i just sent an email to see what my levels were.

my vit d level was 32...is this moderate or super low??

super low if it's 32 nmol/L. as in nowhere near good enough to forstall osteoporosis, probably not even rickets for that matter.

moderate if it's 32 ng/mL (79 nmol/L), okay perhaps for preventing or somewhat mitigating osteoporosis. since you've been supplementing so assiduously, i think you must be at 32 ng/mL. it's odd that you have been working at it and are still only at 32/79. you've been taking d3 so far, right?

any road, 32 ng/mL would still be considered low if you're talking immune system health. with weekly doses of 50,000 they are probably aiming you for 50 ng/mL in short order.

your docs must be up on all this, but to briefly revisit d2 vs d3:
1998 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9771862

2004 http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/conten ... 89/11/5387

The relative potencies of vitamins D2 and D3 were evaluated by administering single doses of 50,000 IU of the respective calciferols to 20 healthy male volunteers...
Vitamin D2 potency is less than one third that of vitamin D3. Physicians resorting to use of vitamin D2 should be aware of its markedly lower potency and shorter duration of action relative to vitamin D3.