The Vitamin D and Multiple Sclerosis Relationship
Twenty five people with MS took part in a study to see if vitamin D had any affect on the symptoms of MS.
Sixteen percent were given 14,000 IU of the nutrient and forty percent took around 1,000 IU per day for a year.
At the end of the year the study results pointed to the higher dose of this nutrient as a factor in helping to prevent relapse.
MS specialists usually recommend the lower dose, so the study will help impact the treatment of this disease.
There is no recommended daily allowance (RDA) established for this essential nutrient.
It can build to toxic levels in your body, so you do need to educate yourself and use caution when taking this nutrient or any other dietary supplement.
The Institute of Medicine suggests that people under the age of fifty should take 200 IU daily.
People age fifty to seventy have a suggested intake of 400 IU.
Anyone over the age of seventy should take 600 IU.
MS specialists recommend from 1000 to 2000 IU per day.
When you Increase Vitamin D, multiple sclerosis symptoms can be greatly reduced or the disease can relapse.
The above study involved participants who suffered from the relapsing form of MS.
This means that the symptoms of this disease present and then relapse.
This is considered a milder form of the disease and suffered a relapse every other year.
The study started out giving some participants up to 40,000 IU daily for six months, gradually lowering the doses to 14,000 per day over the next six months of the study year.
Other participants followed their doctor's prescription for an average of 1,000 IU per day.
Both groups of participants also took a calcium supplement to help with absorption of the vitamin.
The links between Vitamin D and multiple sclerosis became clear.
MS is a disease that is one of the autoimmune system.
T cells that play a prominent role in the defense of the body when attacked by disease seem to be affected by high doses of this nutrient.
Calcitiol is a substance in the blood that is a indication of the presence of the nutrient in the body.
Usually a level below 50 nml/l (nanomoles per liter) is indicative of poor health.
MS participants did better when the level was 100 nml/l.
If you have MS, particularly the milder form that relapses, it would be in your best interest to discuss the amount of supplementation that could be taken.
This will ensure that the risk of consumption would not outweigh the benefits of taking Vitamin D for multiple sclerosis.