Methods: 1 year, double blind, placebo controlled, randomised study in 66 MS patients. The primary outcomes were T2 burden of disease (BOD) on MRI scans, proportion of patients with serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) 85 nmol/l or intact parathyroid hormone (PTH) 20 ng/l, and number of adverse events. Secondary outcomes were number of MRI enhancing T1 lesions and new T2 lesions, annual relapse rate, changes in the Expanded Disability Status Scale score, timed 25 foot walk test and timed 10 foot tandem walk tests.
Conclusion: Vitamin D3 add on treatment to IFNB reduces MRI disease activity in MS.
“This study investigated vitamin D3 as an add-on treatment to interferon-β1b in 66 patients with relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS). Patients were randomly assigned to receive placebo or vitamin D3 (20,000 IU once weekly) for a year. At the end of the study, patients in the vitamin D group showed improvement on MRI measures.This study contrasts to a recent previous paper which showed no effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on MS-related outcomes in patients with RRMS. One possible explanation is a potential synergistic effect of vitamin D and interferon-β1b. However, a key issue is the small sample sizes (<100 patients) used in these trials which make them underpowered and unreliable to address clinical outcomes. In this regard, a Phase II trial (SOLAR), assessing the efficacy of vitamin D as an add-on treatment to interferon-β1b, is currently recruiting patients with RRMS, which is estimated to include 358 patients and to be completed in 2014.”
Do you think extra vit D may make a difference to the health of PPMS'ers?
Yes
Can we take a full week's dose of vit D once a week instead of 5000 units a day?
Yes I think taking vit D will be of benefit to everybody, it has a whole host of positive effects associated with it
Some of the vit D experts do take a large dose once a week, so I think that will be fine. Longer periods in between doses (for example a month) may not be as effective.
If we're taking 5000 iu's daily, then we're taking 35,000 ius per week, rather than 20,000 as in the study.
Shouldn't we stick with the daily dose then?
Re: "Shouldn't we stick with the daily dose then?"
I would. There is evidence that MS'ers are more likely to adhere with daily medication than weekly medication. In addition, the daily does not result in spiking of levels.