Could I have MS?

[coley]

I am a 41 yr old white female. After having my 3rd baby 1 1/2 years ago and going through a very stressful ordeal with her (she's had 3 open heart surgeries). I have been having strange episodes. Somedays I wake up and can barely make it down the stairs, cant stay awake, diagnosed with tendonitus in my foot, knees get numb sometimes, and blurry vision occasionally. This will last for weeks then for weeks some of the symptoms completely go away. My new thing lately,are very stiff painful fingers, and balance issues (mild) and occasions of dizziness. I did have back surgery about 6 years ago for herniated disc. Could it be MS even though I dont "always" feel these symptoms? I am in Dubai and my Primary dr does not listen and says it is stress due to the issues with my baby. I am confused........
I have also noticed my short term memory is horrible and has been progressively getting worse over the year and a half. I cannot even remember a phone number that I repeat to myself several times. Looking back I guess I have had on and off mild symptoms for about 7 years. Before my back surgery I couldnt move, function, sleep, etc.... from the nerve pain. I had an MRI back then of course before my surgery and dr never mentioned MS to me.

[jimmylegs]

hi there coley, it's very hard to say whether you have ms, but based on what you described i urge you to have a zinc test done.

i have had the same cognitive problems, horrible re phone numbers etc, and they were definitely related to zinc deficiency. i suspected zinc, had the test done, fixed a serious deficiency, and now my brain's all better.

the fact that your episodes have occured after three pregnancies strongly suggests zinc impairment to me. pregnancy places a high demand for zinc on the mother's body.

also, since your youngest child has required multiple surgeries, i am sitting here wondering if your zinc status may have been dangerously low even after your second pregnancy.

the 'normal' range for zinc is 11.5-18.5 umol/L. 'healthy controls' sit at more like 18-20 umol/L. if you get a test done, do not take 'it's normal' for an answer. there was a member here whose lab used 10-20 umol/L as their 'normal' range. the lab told this member their serum zinc was normal. when the lab was pressed for actual results, it turned out this person's level was 10.083 umol/L. deficient by research standards, and far off the healthy upper end of the normal range.

fyi:
Zinc and copper in pregnancy, correlations to fetal and maternal complications
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1067748

Serum zinc and serum copper concentrations during early pregnancy in 84 consecutive primigravidae were correlated to other haematological factors and were also correlated to complications of labour and/or complications affecting the infant. ...One infant showed a congenital heart defect (ventricular septum defect and preductal coarctation of aorta). Her mother showed the lowest serum zinc concentration recorded in the 13th week, but no other abnormal findings. Compared to women with abnormal labours and/or immature infants, mothers with normal deliveries and normal deliveries and normal infants showed significantly higher serum zinc values (p less than 0.001) and significantly lower serum copper concentrations (p less than 0.025) during early pregnancy. A notably high incidence of complications affecting mothers and infants has been recorded among women with low serum zinc. Similarities to effects of experimental zinc deficiency in animals are striking. If a low serum zinc reflects a state of deficiency, and this seems to be the case, zinc deficiency is probably common.

the good news is, zinc does a LOT of different things in your body. if you find your levels are indeed low, it is such an easy problem to resolve, and then a whole bunch of other processes can work properly also.

i'd strongly suggest a serum zinc test for you, and having the doc to check your kids' zinc levels too! fyi last study i saw on zinc levels in healthy children, the average serum zinc level was 20.5 umol/L. if you want that abstract to take to the doc i can link you up to it. hope that helps.

[coley]

Thank you Jimmylegs for the quick reply. I did have bloodwork done 3 months ago and the only low vitamin I had was d3 (it was 7) and b12. I vaguely remember her saying my Zinc was fine, but I do not know what the numbers were. I will call her tomorrow and see if I can find out. Very interesting though! My baby was born with what is called Shone's Complex. Her 1st surgery was for Coarctation of the Aorta which is one mentioned in your article. I am just tired of feeling crappy all the time, I need to be well for her! I hope to get more reply's as well.

[jimmylegs]

hi coley, no problem

wow! your vit d3 was 7 ?!? what were the units? (either way that is awfully low though).

assuming your zinc status is in fact poor, then improving zinc levels should help your body utilize vit d3. personally, since fixing my zinc deficiency, my bloodwork shows that i get triple the effect from taking vit d3 supplements, compared to when i was zinc deficient. it's like i was wasting 2/3rds of the vit d3 i took before! :S

i looked up shone's complex and noted the Coarctation of the Aorta you mentioned, listed as one of the cardiac defects.

i went digging and found out what that one woman's zinc level was, the one whose child had the C o A defect - luckily it was mentioned in this WHO document on zinc:
http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/eh ... Part_1.pdf (this just has the start of the report)
http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/eh ... Part_2.pdf (this is the file with the info below)
"8.2.6 Reproduction
An association between low serum zinc levels and reproduction was made when one of 83 infants in a series of studies (Jameson, 1976) showed a congenital cardiac malformation, with a ventricular septum defect and coarctation of the aorta. The infant’s mother had shown the lowest serum zinc level (12.2 μmol/litre) in the 13th week of gestation, but all other laboratory findings were normal."

interesting. notice they are not saying 'deficient' levels were associated with this defect - just 'low'. given a 'normal' range of 11.5-18.5, this mom's value of 12.2 μmol/litre does qualify as 'normal' and 'low' - not 'deficienct' (barely).. but it is most certainly at the very low end of 'normal'.

i do hope you can get access to your zinc result, because as you can see the 'normal' range is far too wide. it encompasses typical smaller ranges seen in a number of degenerative diseases, including ms.

i will be very interested to hear if you can obtain your own lab result and compare. and i'm sure others will chime in here also. take care