This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

SiennaClover wrote:http://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/he ... _1_4740581

Welcome to ThisIsMS, Sienna.

For a number of reasons, you may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency:

1) Living at a high latitude, i.e., UK (inadequate UVB light)
2) Pigmented skin (in the photos and as Bangladeshi-born, you seem to have darker skin, which requires more exposure to synthesize Vit D)
3) Housebound

Since, as a non-UK citizen, you do not qualify for the NHS (From my reading of their guidelines for vitamin D testing and treating, I don't think they are great help anyway.), I encourage you to obtain a private vitamin D blood test (the "25-hydroxy D").

At the very least, read through the information at the California-based GrassrootsHealth website (http://www.GrassrootsHealth.net). Perhaps there is some way even to take their $70 vitamin D test (which entails putting a few drops of blood on the special blotter card, which is mailed in).

And then there is the fact that MS patients do not respond to vitamin D in the same manner as healthy people:

Multiple sclerosis patients have a diminished serologic response to vitamin D supplementation compared to healthy controls. (May 2016)
P Bhargava, et al.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26286698

Background: Vitamin D insufficiency is a risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS), and patients do not always show the expected response to vitamin D supplementation.
Conclusions: Patients with MS had a lower increase in 25(OH)D levels with supplementation, even after accounting for putative confounders.

I'm with Lynda on this one.
Note that City Assays, Birmingham (a part of the NHS) will do a Vit D blood test for £28 for UK residents, and for £33 for overseas (think about $40). The results come by e-mail.
£6000 (£7200) is high for a mobility scooter in the UK, and her local council should be able to do something about her front path, at no cost to her, if she needs this modified to use a scooter and she is on a low income.
Sounds like she should contact the UK MS Society for some expert advice.
G

late response, this item just appeared in a search.
fyi low serum mag can be expected to exacerbate any other more direct reason for d3 deficit. worth looking into any and all d3 cofactors.