This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello. I'm new here. I have an undiagnosed condition. First it was possible rheumatoid arthritis...but the panels came back negative. Then it was fibromyalgia, but a rheumatologist my mother sees said it's not likely because I'm male. Then there was a mention of possible MS. I'm going to my local doctor today. A little scared. I've been describing my symptoms for a long time. Never really got an answer. I joined here to really just be able to talk. Nobody around me can really understand what I'm going through. My friends, my family, they just want to say I'm irritable or I'm just worn out our stressed. But when they say that they don't realize it makes me feel worse. I'm just beginning to understand the symptoms I feel. Maybe it's not MS...Maybe it is...Maybe I can just get feedback here to understand it if it is.

Hello Sovereignty,

I wish you all the best on your upcoming Drs. appointment.

There is a diagnostic criteria for MS, The revised McDonald Criteria. This criteria relies heavily on MRI evidence and part of the criteria requires all other possible causes for a person's symptoms be ruled out. There are numerous other things that cause the same type of symptoms as MS, some of those include other health conditions, some medications, vitamin/mineral deficiencies and mental health issues.

Sovereignty wrote:Hello. I'm new here. I have an undiagnosed condition. First it was possible rheumatoid arthritis...but the panels came back negative. Then it was fibromyalgia, but a rheumatologist my mother sees said it's not likely because I'm male. Then there was a mention of possible MS. I'm going to my local doctor today. A little scared. I've been describing my symptoms for a long time. Never really got an answer. I joined here to really just be able to talk. Nobody around me can really understand what I'm going through. My friends, my family, they just want to say I'm irritable or I'm just worn out our stressed. But when they say that they don't realize it makes me feel worse. I'm just beginning to understand the symptoms I feel. Maybe it's not MS...Maybe it is...Maybe I can just get feedback here to understand it if it is.

Welcome to ThisIsMS, Sovereignty. We are good listeners – feel free to talk.

If you have not had a general physical exam, I suggest you see a GP or internist (not a specialist who will likely interpret your symptoms only as being in his specialty) and start there. If you have not had a vitamin D test called "25-hydroxy D," I urge you to ask for one (and ask for your own copy of any test results so that you have the actual test result numbers).

Misdiagnosed Vitamin D Deficiency (9 min.)
with James E. Dowd, MD, FACR, ABIHM:


Interviewer: Because of what you said where a lot of doctors still aren't seeing this as a need to get tested for, vitamin D deficiency is probably still misdiagnosed as a number of other things… Is that correct?
Dowd: Yes, it probably is overlooked in a number of different diseases. Chronic pain, something that's rising significantly in the United States right now. There was a study that was done looking at chronic pain and they found that patients who had low vitamin D levels, below normal, were using twice as much pain medication as the patients in the pain clinic who had normal vitamin D levels. So there's a correlation there with how much pain you experience among patients with chronic pain.

@0:55 Another example of a disorder that is sometimes misdiagnosed and is vitamin D deficient is fibromyalgia, which is one of these chronic pain disorders….

@1:25 I'm not saying that everybody with fibromyalgia has vitamin D deficiency, but probably 70% do because 70% of the population is deficient

@1:43 There are occasional patients with fibromyalgia where that is the primary driver of their pain and fatigue and misery; and when you correct that they get dramatically better.…

Interviewer: Could a person be deficient and not really know it? And is there any harm in that?
Dowd: In fact, most patients who have vitamin D deficiency don't know it – either don't know it because they don't know what symptoms are associated with deficiency, or they don't know it because they just feel fine and they've never measured… Symptoms unfortunately are often a fairly late sign in any disease process or deficiency or imbalance. Just because you don't have any symptoms doesn't mean that you're not at risk.