Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group vitamin D for the immune system?

someone had asked, why D? found this article regarding D and MS. same could apply to other autoimmune diseases perhaps?

just think its interesting that so many here have low D issues.

or maybe its just a common thing in general but only those of us with chronic illness that get tested?

either way, interesting ideas:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-david-perlmutter-md/vitamin-d-benefits_b_818912.html

This concept is very interesting. I read about a man in BC about 5 years ago who put his MS into remission by taking 40,000 IU a day!!!! Jeepers creepers, that's a lot.

Warm hugs,

Kat, I've heard 50,000 as a therapeutic dose. I wonder if you need to take so much because its such a hard thing to get into your body? Strange thing is that other papers talk about only needing 20 minutes of sun a day for the body to make enough. I have heard there is quite a lot of research going on with vit D at the moment to see what healthy levels really should be.

Hi, my Mum takes 4,000 IU a day as a maintenance dose. Interestingly, she told me last week that it was when she started the Vitamin D, along with her Strontium and prescription calcium, that her osteoporosis began to resolve.

I would think a dose as high as 40,000 or 50,000 IU a day might be more to deal with a specific issue, such as an autoimmune disease. Don't know enough about it at this point to say for sure, however.

Warm hugs,

last visit with my endocrinologist, my D is now up to 57 i think, i want to keep doing the 50,000 weekly, 3000 daily, until its a bit higher. he explained to me that we just need to be careful that it doesn't get too high, can then affect the calcium levels, don't remember the details, but we check PTH every 6 months and that's supposed to be a good indicator that i'm not taking too much D, could go look it up, probably will later to remember all the details. just remember his logic made sense at the time and i just have to monitor all my blood levels to make sure everything is in balance.

Good thinking, Sue. Thanks for posting that. It would never have occurred to me!

Warm hugs,

ok, thought i had to be somewhere at 3, but not til 3:30, so did a little searching. i still don't completely understand the intricacies of it all, and i know i didn't do a very good job at explaining it, but the general gist is correct. and here's a link regarding PTH, reading this might help as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parathyroid_hormone

mostly i'm glad i go to an endocrinologist so i can do things like D safely and under the guidance of someone who knows what to be careful of. though i started going to him because of my thyroid, he's helping me with my D, blood sugar, etc. a very nice and smart man!

I just called around to find a UVB bed, and went today. We shall see. I've been taking 5000 of D a day because my D is low, but the Doc didn't recommend what dose I should take. Will have to ask next time.

It felt really good to be warm for 9 minutes!

Hi Sue,

My first Rheumy just wrote a report that indicates that vitamin D defficencey is one of the symptoms of AS - due to the changes in the bone structure. I don't have the report with me so I can't provide an exact quote.

James

thanks for that information! i think that will be very useful, hope it becomes mainstream knowledge!

i do remember very early in my time here alohaben saying that AS is a bone sucking disease. and me thinking well i do have osteopenia and low D.......

of course with there being other causes to both and so many people without AS having these issues. but still, all very interesting. i guess its when you put all the clues together, get a whole picture, that's the thing.