http://ms.about.com/b/2009/02/09/the-vitamin-d-and-multiple-sclerosis-link-a-cure-for-ms-not.htm
(16) Jim Dyer says:
I want to start with a disclaimer that I am not a doctor, and that I am not giving medical advice.
I am a medical malpractice attorney in Tucson, Arizona, diagnosed with PPMS three years ago. I was told there was no effective treatment. I read hundreds of articles and studies. I ran across a META study by the Harvard School of Public Health. The study analyzed data from the “Nurses Health Studies” (230,000 nurses) for the last 20 years, and found that nurses who took any amount of vitamin D daily had a 40% lower incidence of MS.
I found another study, a mouse study, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Colleen Hayes, PhD was able to completely stop the development of EAE (the mouse model for MS) by pre-treating the mice with calcitriol (hormonal vitamin D) before injecting the mice with human myelin to induce the EAE (The presence of the foreign myelin triggers an immune response that over-reacts and attacks the nerves of the mice as well. The vitamin D completely stopped the white blood cells from attacking the native nerve tissue of the mice).
I contacted these researchers, discussed their findings, and with the help of some dosing recommendations from articles by Michael Hollick, M.D. and Colleen Hayes, PhD, raised my 24(OH)D (vitamin D blood level) to approx. 100nml/L. I kept my blood level in that range for 10 months, and had a gadolinium MRI, which showed no active MS lesions (I had active lesions when diagnosed a year earlier).
The Harvard School of Public health the published another study based on blood samples obtained from the department of defense. The study found that those individuals with the highest 25(OH)D levels had a 62% lower incidence of MS than individuals with the lowest 25(OH)D levels.
Another “study” was published by the University of Wisconsin. This study was composed of 12 individuals with RRMS, and no control group. The study was only 28 weeks long, and found that people with MS can take HUGE doses of vitamin D (resulting in 25(OH)D levels as high as 3 ½ times the upper limit of normal– over 350 nml/L) with no side effects. MRIs taken at the end of this short (28 week) study revealed that 4 participants had no active lesions, and the remaining 8 had a 50% reduction in the number of active lesions.
I had another gadolinium MRI in June 2008 (18 months after the fist “clean” MRI), and there were no active lesions. I had a third MRI in July, 2009, and I still have no active MS lesions. I have maintained my 25(OH)D level>100 nmll/L throughout, and have obtained serial 25(OH)D levels and blood calcium testing, and have had no increase in blood calcium or other side effects. Based on some advice I receive from Dr. Cannell of the “Vitamin D Council, I have been maintaining my 25(OH)D level right around 150. Your blood level really shouldn’t ever be over 200. Maintaining this level requires first getting your blood level up (with a combination of supplements and/or UVB lights), and then taking 10,000 – 15,000 IU per day. To initially raise your blood level, take 100,000IU. You can find 50,000 IU vitamin D3 online from a couple of sources by “Googleing” “50.000 IU vitamin D3 price”. 5000 IU capsules for maintenance are available on line at vrp.com (vitamin Research Products), or in tablet form at Vitamin Warehouse stores.
The research from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Wisconsin shows that vitamin D has an immunomodulating effect that stops white blood cells from attacking native tissue. Raising my 25(OH)D level stopped the progression (at least radiographically) of my MS.
In February of this year, British Researchers found that the gene they believe to be primarily responsible for MS is regulated by vitamin D. I did some more research on this with a microbiologist/geneticist, and we learned that the mechanism the British researchers found involves white blood cells. If there is not enough vitamin D in the blood, the white blood cells cannot differentiate between foreign attackers and native(nerve) tissue. (The abstract of the article is included above – the last 2 articles open with adobe).
- My own extensive research has led me to this understanding of the nature of MS:
1. There is a genetic component that makes certain individuals susceptible to MS (see the article by the British researchers).
2. A susceptible person contracts chicken pox, any herpes virus, or any other virus that goes in to a dormant state and lives in the system, later leading to outbreaks of “shingles” in many individuals. All of the herpes viruses live forever in the nervous system once the disease is contracted).
3. There are by-products given off by these viruses as part of their existence. The white blood cells sense these in the blood, and try to attack, but attack the nerve cells instead (the viruses are inside) and demyelinate and damage the nerves.
4. As shown by the mouse studies and the new British gene study, an adequate vitamin D blood level “trumps” the nervous system forever (you may recall that chicken pox never goes away, but remains dormant in the nervous genetic defect, and provides an immunomodulating effect that stops the white blood cells from attacking the native nerve tissue.
I have not attached copies of the studies to this blog. If you would like to read them, and then decide for yourself whether vitamin D may help your MS, write me at jdyer at kss-law.com.
Best Regards, Jim Dyer