In MS cases, 1/6 noted clinical improvement over 2-8 months with Biotin 300 mg/day This is exciting not just for the improved people but potentially for a group that might not further deteriorate. Suggestion was to take 100-300 mg/day which might be tough considering commercially available Biotin comes in 10 mg (10,000 mcg). Vitamin D has promise to help, particularly since deficiency is so common and it helped to prevent relapses in pregnant women in a study this year. B12 helped nerve regeneration in Bell’s palsy and ulnar nerve transfer surgery so might be important to take at least 1000 mcg/day of it as well – though by self failed to help MS (though deficiency makes MS worse)
Sedel, F., Papeix, C., Bellanger, A., Touitou, V., Lebrun-Frenay, C., Galanaud, D., … & Tourbah, A. (2015).
High doses of biotin in chronic progressive multiple sclerosis: a pilot study. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.
Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders(2015) 4, 159–169
open access full article!
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211034815000061/pdfft?md5=66d99fdbc7511bdf1f2be0ebcf9004ad&pid=1-s2.0-S2211034815000061-main.pdf
- Randomized double blind trial of 154 patients
- 300 mg Bioitin for 48 weeks
- Used EDSS disability scores and expected of 1 point for disability ranged 0 – 5.5 (max 20% improved) and 0.5 point for subjects over 6 (max 8% improved)
- Depending on analysis type, 13-15% achieved above results as view by videotaped performances. (P = 0.0051 – 0.0093)
- Side effects – 5% became hyperthyroid so will need to be tested
Comment – study design looked good and given that it took 2-8 months to become apparent as well -suspect placebo did not cause results. Biotin off ebay comes at 10 mg (10,000 mcg) which would mean taking 10-30 capsules/day. Hopefully with this result, higher doses will become apparent.
Vitamin D
Low levels of Vitamin D are associated with more MS problems:
Runia, Tessel F., et al.
Lower serum vitamin D levels are associated with a higher relapse risk in multiple sclerosis.
Neurology 79.3 (2012): 261-266.
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ludwig_Kappos/publication/259826330_Vitamin_D_as_an_Early_Predictor_of_Multiple_Sclerosis_Activity_and_Progression/links/0c96052e6281699179000000.pdf
High Dose Vitamin D affects T cell, implicated in the disease:
Bhargava, Pavan, et al.
High-dose vitamin D supplementation reduces IL-17-producing CD4+ T-cells and effector-memory CD4+ T-cells in multiple sclerosis patients (S38. 001).
Neurology 84.14 Supplement (2015): S38-001.
http://www.neurology.org/content/84/14_Supplement/S38.001.short
In a pregnancy study, high dose vitamin D reduced relapses:
Etemadifar, Masoud, and Mohsen Janghorbani.
Efficacy of high dose vitamin D3 supplementation in vitamin D deficient pregnant women with multiple sclerosis: Preliminary findings of a randomized-controlled trial.
Iranian Journal of Neurology 14.2 (2015).
http://ijnl.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijnl/article/view/707/572
- subjects took 50,000 units vitamin D3/week – in Canada it is marketed as Osto-D2 50,000. I use it in people who can’t remember to take pills daily – they take it once/week. Here everyone is somewhat deficient unless taking supplements as no light 6 month/yr. A recent Finnish study (worse off than we) 73% pregnant women were found deficient:
Jalkanen, A., et al.
Multiple sclerosis and vitamin D during pregnancy and lactation.
Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 131.1 (2015): 64-67. - A study not yet published is giving 5000 u vitamin D/day to MS patients
B12
As mentioned above, B12 helps nerve regeneration and deficiency aggravates MS. However,massive doses by self did not bring clinical improvement in MS:
Kira, Jun-ichi, Shozo Tobimatsu, and Ikuo Goto.
Vitamin B 12 metabolism and massive-dose methyl vitamin B 12 therapy in Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis.
Internal Medicine 33, no. 2 (1994): 82-86.
http://www.life-choice.net/us/images/uploads/B12%20and%20MS.pdf
A study not yet published has found in MS low levels of Folate, Magnesium, Quercetin, Lutein-zeaxanthin, and Vitamin E. What this mean we don’t know yet
MS Linked to Lower Levels of Key Nutrients
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/840812#vp_1
(will need to register to get into that site but doesn’t cost)
Zinc Sulphate
Came across this new study while researching this article. They found
zinc sulphate (220 mg containing 50 mg zinc element) helped reduce depression levels in MS:
Salari, Soheila, et al.
Zinc sulphate: A reasonable choice for depression management in patients with multiple sclerosis: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
Pharmacological Reports Volume 67, Issue 3, June 2015, Pages 606–609
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1734114015000067
Comment –
If I had MS I would take:
- Biotin 100 mg/day (don’t think I could take more than 10 pills/day but I guess could take more)
- Vit D 5000 u/day or 50,000 u/ once weekly
- Vitamin B12 1000-2000 u/day
- Folic acid 0.5 mg/day
- Maybe vitamin E 100 mg/day and if constipated some milk of Magnesia
- zinc sulphate 220 mg (containing 50 mg zinc element)/day- don’t want to take any extra here as can cause nerve damage at high dose
- I would also stick to a vegetarian diet as a very old Canadian study found, if caught early, little disease progression in those on a low fat diet:
Ghadirian, Parviz, Meera Jain, Slobodan Ducic, Bryna Shatenstein, and Richard Morisset.
Nutritional factors in the aetiology of multiple sclerosis: a case-control study in Montreal, Canada.
International journal of epidemiology 27, no. 5 (1998): 845-852.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/5/845.full.pdf