LATEST VITAMIN D NEWS
Title: Study Explores Link Between Sunlight, Multiple Sclerosis
Comments: Vitamin D is important, but it seems that it may not only be synthesis of vitamin D that supports the immune system when one exposes one's skin to the sun's UV rays. This study begins to investigate other immune-supporting compounds and the effects on multiple sclerosis.
Excerpt: "For more than 30 years, scientists have known that multiple sclerosis (MS) is much more common in higher latitudes than in the tropics. Because sunlight is more abundant near the equator, many researchers have wondered if the high levels of vitamin D engendered by sunlight could explain this unusual pattern of prevalence. Vitamin D may reduce the symptoms of MS, says Hector DeLuca, Steenbock Research Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but in a study published in PNAS this week, he and first author Bryan Becklund suggest that the ultraviolet portion of sunlight may play a bigger role than vitamin D in controlling MS."
... The ultraviolet (UV) portion of sunlight stimulates the body to produce vitamin D, and both vitamin D and UV can regulate the immune system and perhaps slow MS. But does the immune regulation result directly from the UV, indirectly from the creation of vitamin D, or both?"
Full article available at: http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/News/2010/03/Study-Explores-Link-Between-Sunlight-and-Multiple-Sclerosis/, Beckland, B., DeLuca, H., March 23, 2010, Featured In: Disease Research | Academia News, Bioscience Technology, Provided by: University of Wisconsin-Madison
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I have MS and have noticed thatinspite of taking 50,000 ICU of Vitamine D a week I cannot build up my Vitamin D level. I seem to expend more that I take in. Everone that I talk to I tell them to take Vitamin D and Viamin C on a regularly basis since they are so important 4 the immune system and it you have MS you cannot get enough
Hi, some things to ponder: maybe you have more going on than just a D deficiency as the article in the link above seems to suggest. Maybe show the article to your doctor and see if he/she would advise brief, daily sun exposure, which I hear is typically shunned for MS patients. Perhaps you are on glucocorticoids? Studies have shown that drugs such as glucocorticoids that MS patients take inhibit vit D. See this in my profile in the section on "Tips to take to your doctor" and you'll find a reference to a journal article that talks about medications and vit D inhibition.
You could be low on one or more of the vitamin D co-factors. See Dr. John Cannell's website, www.vitamindcouncil.org. His email is info@vitamindcouncil.org (on his website). The co-factors are magnesium, zinc, boron, vitamin K, and very, very small amounts of vitamin A. He says that when magnesium is low in the body (may not show up on a blood test), you will not be able to absorb vit D efficiently and D will not work as efficiently.
A friend with MS who was taking vitaminD and high doses of calcium ended up with high blood calcium. No-one can say for sure what caused the high calcium, but he is on low calcium and low D now. Be sure your doc checks your calcium regularly. His doc somehow overlooked it fora year. I've read studies of other MS cases where large doses of vitamin D are given successfully. It's so difficult to pinpoint. I feel sorry for both the patients and the doctors.
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