In Brief: High Doses of Vitamin D Not Very Helpful in Treating Multiple Sclerosis

High doses not better than low dose in vitamin D2 treatment of RRMS according to astudy published in Neurology[1].

"…No significant treatment differences were detected in the primary MRI endpoints."

That begs the question: What is the efficiency of a low dose treatment? Low dose being usually understood as less than 800 IU/day.

Believe or not, a straight answer is elusive. Studies[2]  discussed their ability to raise the blood level of Vitamin D supplements to remedy the low level of serum vitamin D in the blood (25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH)D), but few discussed what this remedy accomplishes in terms of slowing down Multiple Sclerosis..

We found a study that confirms expectation of vitamin d as a T-cell modulator. That could be good for any auto-immune disease, as  promised in an article of the British Journal of Pharamcology [4]:

"…Emerging evidence suggests that Vitamin D Receptors plays important roles in modulating cardiovascular, immunological, metabolic and other functions…"

However, the dubious efficacy of Vitamin D was further confirmed in a study published in Neurology.org [5]

"…While the high-dose group did reach higher levels of vitamin D, _**there were no significant differences between the groups in regard to MRI changes…"**_

This raises further questions about healing a disease that destroys a nutrient through re-compensating to the nutrient loss.

Note that nobody talks about Vitamin D and progressive MS

Talk to your Doctor

_**Sources:**_

1. [Neurology][1] ; ""A randomized trial of high-dose vitamin D2 in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis"
2. [Multiple Sclerosis][2] ; "Vitamin D status and effect of low-dose cholecalciferol and high-dose ergocalciferol supplementation in multiple sclerosis" ; 2009
3. [Vitamins and Hormones][3] ; "Vitamin D as a T-cell modulator in multiple sclerosis." ; 2011
4. [British Journal of Pharmacology][4] ; "Potential for vitamin D receptor agonists in the treatment of cardiovascular disease." ; 2009
5. [Neurology.org ][5]; " Multiple sclerosis and vitamin D" ; Andrew J. Solomon; May 2012

Technorati Tags: [In Brief: High Doses of Vitamin D][6], [MS Relapses][7], [Progessive multiple sclerosis][8], [RRMS][9], [Treating Multiple Sclerosis][10]

[1]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22025459
[2]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19383644
[3]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21419282
[4]: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19371337
[5]: http://www.neurology.org/content/77/17/e99.full.pdf
[6]: http://technorati.com/tag/In+Brief%3A+High+Doses+of+Vitamin+D
[7]: http://technorati.com/tag/MS+Relapses
[8]: http://technorati.com/tag/Progessive+multiple+sclerosis
[9]: http://technorati.com/tag/RRMS
[10]: http://technorati.com/tag/Treating+Multiple+Sclerosis

URL: http://www.medinewsdigest.com/?p=4661