Patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS) can improve their health by taking more Vitamin D, a study by Harvard Researchers from the School of Public Health found.
"For patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), low levels of vitamin D were found to strongly predict disease severity and hasten its progression.... The findings suggest that patients in the early stages of MS could stave off disease symptoms by increasing their vitamin D intake." Karen Feldscher wrote in the Harvard Crimson.
Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at HSPH and lead research author said the findings can particularly improve the health of many MS sufferers.
“Because low vitamin D levels are common and can be easily and safely increased by oral supplementation, these findings may contribute to better outcomes for many MS patients,” wrote the lead author.
MS is a central nervous system disease that causes problems with muscle control and strength, vision, balance, feeling, and thinking. It’s estimated by the World Health Organization that roughly 2.5 million people in the world have MS.
Writing for the Harvard Crimson on Monday 20 January, 2014, Feldscher said previous research indicated a connection between low levels of vitamin D and risk of developing MS or having MS symptoms worsen, but she said those studies also included patients with longstanding MS whose vitamin D levels could partly be a consequence, not a predictor, of disease severity.
The new study, was published in JAMA Neurology, formerly Achives of Neurology on Monday January 20, 2014, looked at vitamin D levels among patients at the time of their first symptoms, she said.
“The benefits of vitamin D appeared to be additive to those of interferon beta-1b, a drug that is very effective in reducing MS activity. The findings of our study indicate that identifying and correcting vitamin D insufficiency should become part of the standard of care for newly diagnosed MS patients,” said the lead author, Ascherio.
In UK the result of the study will be interesting to the Multiple Sclerosis Society who are working hard to create awareness, fund research, give grants, campaign for change, provide information and support, invest in MS specialists and lend a listening ear to those who need it.
Among the many studies over MS is that by Dr Jeremy Chataway of the University College London NHS Foundation Trust who is running a three year trial project, which will test the safety and effectiveness of three different drugs against a placebo in 440 people with secondary progressive MS.
There are currently no treatments that can slow or halt the progression of disability in MS, the MS Society says.
To change this, they set up the UK MS Clinical Trials Network (CTN) that helped develop a groundbreaking phase II clinical trial called MS-SMART.
Meanwhile, Lexie Henderson, an Alternative therapist, who says she helps control the symptoms, told Woolwich Online that MS has as yet no known western cure and can only be managed.
Henderson said a patients's psychological make-up helps him get by the symptoms."Internally we can cure anything when we disassociate with the mind because basicaly all illness originates in the mind through an imbalance of emotions. When we address the imbalance we address the cause stopping symptoms."
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