MS Symptoms?

[FLJhawk]

Just as a note, my numbness comes and goes. For a week ending a week ago, much of my body felt a bit numb. Then, quickly, it all went away. Yesterday, I had a return of some slight numbness to my wrist area, the site where I first noticed symptoms over a year ago and which a neuro dismissed as being nothing to worry about. I will also have numbness in my big goes that come an go, sometimes in a single day.

There may be something going on with you, and the best way to know is to get an MRI. I had to exagurate some chest tingly sensations to get to the ER to get an MRI finally done, as my PCP and neuro didn't think I had a problem. Well, I did, and they jumped into action after seeing the MRI results! I can still pass most neuro exams, and show pretty much no abnormalities during my PCP physicals, but I do show slight abnormalities in my evoked potentials and nerve conduction tests.

Keep working with your doc and realize that they will often write off very mild MS symptoms. Perhaps you can nip this disease in the bud with your supplements. Try to also get on LDN and/or Malic Acid, as well as the D3, etc. Good luck!

[CristinF]

Thanks for your response, FLJhawk. It's so hard to know what's going on. I'm right around the age for perimenopause (42) and these symptoms could just as easily be chalked up to that as a vitamin deficiency or MS--it's very frustrating! I'd be more adventurous with my supplements if I wasn't currently breastfeeding. If the numbness keeps up, I'll probably be visiting the neuro...

[jimmylegs]

fyi these dietary measures for menopause look pretty much like my dietary approach for ms

http://www.livestrong.com/article/32095 ... menopause/

zinc is a factor for both menopause and ms too:

The influence of menopause and habitual smoking upon serum zinc, serum copper and the cardiovascular and immune parameters of women.(there are non-smokers in there too)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12659696

[CristinF]

Thanks for the info, jimmylegs. I have to say, I'm starting to feel a little bit discouraged. I really thought the numbness going away was a good sign--now that it's back I'm having a hard time believing this all has to do with some deficiency--I mean, how deficient could I be that I'm just blasting through my reserves in, like 3 days???. BUT, on a brighter note, the calcium/mag. reg. the doctor put me on really seems to be quieting the nightime jerkiness and twitching AND when I went to look up the zinc dosage yesterday, I realized that I've only been taking half a dose of my prenatal vitamin (which put me below 50% on all my B's, zinc, D, etc.), so maybe the numbness returning has something to do with that.

I've upped my zinc again and now am just waiting to see if that improves things. I've tried cutting and pasting my labs, but it isn't working--are there any specific results I can give you? (He did a CBC, B12, potassium, etc.--no zinc, no D, no magnesium...). Thanks so much for your help. You really are a nutrition supergenius.

[jimmylegs]

hey there i think it unlikely that the state of your zinc reserves would be any good after a decade of pregnancy and breastfeeding withdrawals, not to mention taking the prenatal at 50%. give it a couple days with the zinc level increased, plus your multi at the suggested dosage, and we'll see how you go. hope you can get the doc to order you tests for serum zinc, D3, and serum mag! if you like i could look at the b12 level - please make sure to include the units, okay? chin up Cristin!

[CristinF]

Well, the good news is that the numbness is gone again! That's pretty consistent with the way things have gone--after the stomach bug, it took about 2 days for the numbness to go away, too. (Although it did take about three weeks of fairly heavy supplementation to make it go away the first time). I started the extra 25 mg of zinc (yay, Jimmy!!) at the same time as the extra 50% of the prenatal, so it's hard to know for sure which one is working, but I'm betting on the zinc! Either way, I'm definitely going to keep them both up.

This is exactly what it says on the lab report: "B12, serum 590 pg/mL (200-1100)" I don't know what you mean by "units," so if there's something else you need, let me know. The only thing on the report that was even close to being below range was on the hematology report. The MCH level was 26.5 pg with a normal range of 27-33 and the hemoglobin was 11.8 g/dL with a range of 11.7-15.5. My blood is always a little messed up, though, because of this benign thalassemia trait I carry that (from what I understand) makes my red blood cells smaller than normal (but fine).

Thank you so much for all your help--I'm feeling more hopeful this morning!

[jimmylegs]

yayyy!!!

thanks for the units (which = units of measurement - pg/ml in this case).

so, that means you're not exactly speaking my language - have to convert to pmol/L for that. so here goes: 590 pg/mL x 0.738 = 435 pmol/L.

personally i prefer to keep my levels up over 500 pmol/L. for you, that would be aiming for at least 678 pg/mL.

whoever got that 200 result at the low end (i refer to your lab's 'normal' range) is walking a fine line. 200 x 0.738 = 147.6 pmol/L. that's reeeeeally low. i would expect whichever patient that got that result, to be showing blood abnormalities eg increased mean corpuscular volume.

you want your hemoglobin up to at least 13. if your iron or protein status is off, that could be why hemoglobin is low.

as for which one is helping, i don't care as long as you feel better.. and it's probably a little bit from column a and a little bit from column b.

get a zinc test if you can, you don't have a baseline level but i can tell you what to aim for (you don't want to go too high). if you get a test, ensure you take no supps for 5-7 days before the test.

[CristinF]

How much B12 do you think I should take a day to get my levels up? I had tried taking extra, but it was making me super twitchy, so I stopped. The mega vitamin I was taking a few weeks ago had 50 mcg, and that seemed to be okay, but when I went above 100, things got a little weird (initially, I tried 1,000--yow!). Do you think just eating more animal protein would help? The doctor's got me drinking all this milk...

[jimmylegs]

heya! well why not try adding in more animal foods rich in iron and zinc and b12? it might do the trick for both b12 and hemoglobin, and in the long run you could probably wean off the zinc supplements too.
here's the top of the pile for all three nutrients together

http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000 ... 00000.html

hope you like shellfish b/c clams and oysters are looming large! other than that, how do you feel about pub grub? liver and onions, anyone? steak and kidney pie praps, m'lady?

[CristinF]

Holy surf and turf! Guess I'm gonna have to get me a better set of knives...

I have always been exceptionally fond of fried clams...

[jimmylegs]

enjoy!

[CristinF]

Jimmylegs, I just wanted to thank you again and let you know that things are going SO much better! I've stuck with my vitamin regimen and pretty much all my symptoms have resolved. It turns out, I don't think it was the B vitamins that were making me so twitchy, but that GNC "Active" multi. I switched to this:

http://www.drweilproducts.com/drw/u/PRD ... tamin.html

plus extra zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium and the crazy twitching went away. Also, I started drinking 16 oz. of coconut water (which, as you know, super-supplement-genius, is really high in potassium) and that took care of the lightheadedness--I think my electrolytes were just totally out of whack.

Again, I can't thank you enough--you totally saved me a trip to the neurologist (and countless hours of worry!). Thanks for everything--

Cristin

[jimmylegs]

that is awesome, cristin! so good to hear!! keep up the good work