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jimmylegs wrote:there's so much more than vit d3 going on too. geez, somebody throw some money at me to run studies of nutrients in ms patients :S

Unfortunately Jimmylegs there is no money to be made from D3 and zinc, magnesium, calcium, selenium etc so no one will fund and conduct studies. These vitamins and minerals are cheap, lets advise pwMS to take them, in order to acheive a sensible target range.

MarkW

oh there is so much research on nutrition out there. the money has to come from somewhere one day i'll apply hehe

Hello Jimmylegs,
I hope someone gives you money to set up a project. The difficult thing to determine is which doses and which minerals to test. Say you start with D3 and Zn what doses do you test? I read findings which show pwMS have different absorption so the general nutrition data may not be precise for pwMS.
Kind regards,
MarkW

heya! somehow i missed this. i would test an array of doses, combos and responses in patients and controls, then compare. man oh man, i could play with that kind of study for the rest of my life.

A review of D in MS. Remember D2 is not the same as D3..................MarkW

Mult Scler. 2011 Dec;17(12):1405-11. Epub 2011 Oct 13.
Prevention and treatment of MS: studying the effects of vitamin D.
Munger KL, Ascherio A.
Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA. kgorham@hsph.harvard.edu
Abstract
Observational studies suggest that adequate vitamin D nutrition may reduce the risk of MS and affect the course of the disease. Inherent limitations in these studies, however, preclude a causal interpretation. Randomized controlled clinical trials are the next step to addressing whether vitamin D prevents MS or can favorably affect the course and progression of MS. Here we briefly review the current literature on vitamin D and MS, both as a risk factor and potential treatment for MS with a focus on the issues and challenges in designing prevention and treatment clinical trials.
PMID: 21998006 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

EHC range is 100 to 200 nmol/L of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in blood. Sounds good to me.
MarkW

My opinion is simple - just take 5000iu of D3 a day. The neuros will catch up in 5-10 years.............MarkW

Curr Opin Neurol. 2012 Jun;25(3):246-51.
Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis: epidemiology, immunology, and genetics.
Simon KC, Munger KL, Ascherio A.

Source
aDepartment of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health bChanning Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School cDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW:
This review provides a brief update of new research findings on the role of vitamin D in multiple sclerosis (MS).

RECENT FINDINGS:
Evidence continues to accumulate supporting a protective role for vitamin D in MS risk and progression. Notable recent findings are that high 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] at the time of a first demyelinating event predicts a lower MS risk and a decreased risk of MS among offspring whose mothers had high predicted 25(OH)D levels. While a small vitamin D intervention study did not find an association between vitamin D and MS progression, this study had little statistical power, and larger trials will be needed to assess the therapeutic potential of vitamin D. Recent immunological studies also show modulation of the immune system by vitamin D that may be favorable for preventing or slowing the progression of MS. The demonstration that rare variants in CYP27B1, which encodes the enzyme that converts vitamin D to its active form, are strongly associated with MS risk supports a causal role of vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for MS.

SUMMARY:
Research on the nature of the association between vitamin D and MS risk and progression continues to progress; however, additional research on the timing and dose-response relationship will be crucial for designing future prevention and treatment trials.

PMID: 22547098

More data on reasons to take/monitor Vit D3 in pwMS. MarkW

J Neurol. 2012 May 16. [Epub ahead of print]
Vitamin D levels in Hispanics with multiple sclerosis.
Amezcua L, Chung RH, Conti DV, Langer-Gould AM.
Source
Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA, USA, lamezcua@usc.edu.
Abstract
Vitamin D has been associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) and several markers of disease state in whites. There are limited reports of vitamin D's influence in MS in ethnic groups, such as in Hispanics. In this study, we compared vitamin D levels in Hispanics and whites with MS and tried to determine whether season or increasing disability influence hypovitaminosis D in Hispanics with MS. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels and clinical characteristics were compared in a cross-sectional sample of Hispanics (n = 80) and whites (n = 80) with MS recruited from the University of Southern California. Serum 25(OH)D levels were significantly lower in Hispanics than whites with MS (mean and standard deviation 25.1 ± 9.4 and 37.3 ± 19.8 ng/ml, respectively; p < 0.001). Hispanics were significantly more likely than whites to be vitamin D insufficient (≤30 ng/ml; 70 vs. 41 %, respectively; p < 0.001) and deficient (≤20 ng/ml; 40 vs. 14 %, respectively, p < 0.001). In Hispanics, serum 25(OH)D levels were not influenced by season (p = 0.8) or higher physical disability (EDSS ≥6, p = 0.7). We found that the relationship between vitamin D and MS differs by Hispanic ethnicity. Hypovitaminosis D was significantly more common among Hispanics than among whites with MS, and the majority of Hispanics were vitamin D insufficient. Interestingly, there was no association between vitamin D levels and season or increasing disability in the Hispanics. Our findings imply that factors influencing vitamin D levels and possibly vitamin D requirements may vary by ethnicity in patients with MS. These results should be confirmed in larger, prospective multi-ethnic cohort studies.


PMID: 22588255 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Vitamin D3 > 100mmol/L means lower exacerbation rate. Please get your level checked and increase it to above 100mmol/L.
The cost is only cents/pence a day ...............MarkW

Neurology. 2012 Jun 13. [Epub ahead of print]
Lower serum vitamin D levels are associated with a higher relapse risk in multiple sclerosis.
Runia TF, Hop WC, de Rijke YB, Buljevac D, Hintzen RQ.
Source
From the Department of Neurology, MS Centre ErasMS (T.F.R., D.B., R.Q.H.), Department of Biostatistics (W.C.J.H.), and Departments of Clinical Chemistry and Internal Medicine (Y.B.d.R.), Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
There is increasing evidence that vitamin D can be protective against the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), but it may also be beneficial for the clinical course of the disease. Our objective was to prospectively investigate if 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25-OH-D) levels are associated with exacerbation risk in MS in a study with frequent serum measurements.
METHODS:
This was a prospective longitudinal study in 73 patients with relapsing-remitting MS. Blood samples for 25-OH-D measurements were taken every 8 weeks. Associations between 25-OH-D levels and exacerbation rates were assessed using Poisson regression (generalized estimating equations) with the individual serum levels as time-dependent variable.
RESULTS:
During follow-up (mean 1.7 years), 58 patients experienced a total of 139 exacerbations. Monthly moving averages of 25-OH-D levels were categorized into low (<50 nmol/L), medium (50-100 nmol/L), and high (>100 nmol/L) levels. Exacerbation risk decreased significantly with higher serum vitamin D levels: respective relative exacerbation rates for the medium and high-level category as compared to the low-level category were 0.7 and 0.5 (p value for trend: p = 0.007). The association between 25-OH-D concentrations and exacerbation rate was log linear without a threshold. With each doubling of the serum 25-OH-D concentration the exacerbation rate decreased by 27% (95% confidence interval 8%-42%, p = 0.008).
CONCLUSIONS:
Our finding that higher vitamin D levels are associated with decreased exacerbation risk in relapsing-remitting MS suggests a beneficial effect of vitamin D on disease course in MS. However, the possibility of reverse causality cannot be ruled out completely. Randomized intervention studies are therefore needed to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation in MS.
PMID: 22700811

More reasons to take Vit D and give it to future generations if you have MS and other immune-mediated diseases in your family. Vit D3 is cheap and safe so please just take it. Abstract below.
MarkW
PS Full paper is free at http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pd ... -10-69.pdf

BMC Med. 2012 Jul 6;10(1):69. [Epub ahead of print]
Month of birth, vitamin D and risk of immune mediated disease: a case control study.
Disanto G, Chaplin G, Morahan JM, Giovannoni G, Hypponen E, Ebers GC, Ramagopalan SV.
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND:
A season of birth effect in immune-mediated diseases (ID) such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes has been consistently reported. We aimed to investigate whether season of birth influences the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and systemic lupus erythematosus in addition to multiple sclerosis, and to explore the correlation between the risk of ID and predicted ultraviolet B (UVB) light exposure and vitamin D status during gestation.
METHODS:
The monthly distribution of births of patients with ID from the UK (n = 115,172) was compared to that of the general population using the Cosinor test. Predicted UVB radiation and vitamin D status in different time windows during pregnancy were calculated for each month of birth and correlated with risk of ID using the Spearman's correlation coefficient.
RESULTS:
The distributions of ID births significantly differed from that of the general population (P = 5e-12) with a peak in April (odds ratio = 1.045, 95% confidence interval = 1.024, 1.067, P <0.0001) and a trough in October (odds ratio = 0.945, 95% confidence interval = 0.925, 0.966, P <0.0001). Stratification by disease subtype showed seasonality in all ID but Crohn's disease. The risk of ID was inversely correlated with predicted second trimester UVB exposure (Spearman's rho = -0.49, P = 0.00005) and third trimester vitamin D status (Spearman's rho = -0.44, P = 0.0003).
CONCLUSIONS:
The risk of different ID in the UK is significantly influenced by the season of birth, suggesting the presence of a shared seasonal risk factor or factors predisposing to ID. Gestational UVB and vitamin D exposure may be implicated in the aetiology of ID.
PMID: 22764877 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

First step is to take Vitamin D3. My advice:
- Take 5 to 10,000 IU a day of D3. It is very cheap and safe for adults.
- Target range is 100 to 150 nmol/L of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in blood (40-60ng/ml).
(maximum level of 200 nmol/L of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in blood (80ng/ml) is recommended by Essential Health Clinic in Glasgow.)

MarkW

Here's a couple of excerpts from a recent news article about a study published in the journal Neurology that says that taking Interferon-B for M.S. greatly increases Vitamin D levels:

Interferon-beta caused patients to become far more efficient at making vitamin D in their skin, senior researcher Professor Bruce Taylor said.

MS sufferers taking the drug had nearly three times as much vitamin D from the same amounts of sun exposure than those who didn't take interferon-beta, he said.

The article also says:

Interferon-beta only reduced the risk of having an MS attack if patients had sufficient levels of vitamin D in their system, Prof Taylor said.

Since other studies have shown that increasing your vitamin D level reduces relapse rates and new lesions: http://www.vitamindandms.org/ ...I wonder if its possible that Interferon-B may work BECAUSE it increases vitamin D??

Read the news article here:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/85066 ... d-by-study

And the second question would be why this relationship between vitd levels and the effect of interferon has not been reported before now. I find it difficult to belive that vitd samples has not been taken during the 15 years of ongoing interferon trials.

i'm enjoying this so much

i know zinc makes the d3 level jump up, ie triple the dose-response in my case (because i started out so very, very zinc deficient...)

here's me recently trying to establish a connection between zinc status and innate human interferon biosynthesis, in a rather thready fashion...
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/regimens- ... ml#p193290

so. my hypothesis is, if interferon raises D3 levels, and zinc might feasibly raise interferon levels, this all hangs together not too badly. could be part of the reason why adding zinc helped elevate my d3 levels. and here i was thinking it was purely more efficient hydroxylation in the liver. shame on me, i know how versatile you are, zinc ;)

searching further, this looks interesting...

Zinc supplementation enhances the response to interferon therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11555194

i'd suggest because they'd have their own increased bio supply, PLUS the pharma product as well?

so very interesting.