Low Minerals

[ArthurJ]

Greetings,
I was diagnosed with MS several years ago and haven't taken any of the MS drugs due to their side effects. I had a neighbor with MS and she used to get awful reactions to interferon. Anyway, I've been doing ok trying to follow a nutrition approach taking vitamin d and several other supplements. Recently, for unrelated reasons, I had an extensive urine minerals test performed by Doctor's Data on my naturopath's recommendation. The results seemed to indicate that I'm low on chromium, vanadium and sulfur. I've been searching online and found that both chromium and vanadium are thought to participate in glucose metabolism. I was really surprised about the sulfur results since I frequently eat red onions have garlic on occasion. The naturopath thought that the low levels of these minerals might be related to a mutation in the MTHFR gene (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase), but my insurance won't cover the expensive genetic testing. I've read that MTHFR mutations can cause elevated homocysteine levels but these have never been checked and my reading suggests that the test results would not be conclusive.

I recently discovered this site and found that it has some great nutrition information so hopefully somebody will be able to make sense out of all of this as it's all a bit over my head.

Thanks, Arthur

[mrbarlow]

Lots and lots of kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, collard greens for sulphur. May help with the other two as well.

[ArthurJ]

Thanks for the reply and the advice on the sulfur rich foods. I've started taking a multivite that has chromium and vanadium and lots of other stuff so hopefully that will help.

Arthur

[Quest56]

I'm sure you know this, but it bears repeating. Taking vitamins and supplements is a good thing, but not as good as getting the nutrients directly from food. I'd suggest always taking supplements in combination with a meal, unless the supplement in question needs to be taken on an empty stomach, and whenever possible, eat nutritious foods.

I'd recommend this link for information on nutrients and supplements (I got it from someone here at ThisIsMS):

Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University

--Tracy