SAN FRANCISCO—Low vitamin D blood levels are associated with a significantly higher risk of relapse attacks in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who develop the disease during childhood, according to a study from the University of California, San Francisco.
The study demonstrates that an increase in vitamin D levels by 10 nanograms per milliliter of blood (ng/mL) corresponds with a 34-percent decrease in the rate of subsequent relapses. Raising the vitamin D level of a person with MS by 15 ng/mL, which requires about 2,000 international units of vitamin D supplementation a day, could theoretically cut a patient’s relapse rate in half, the researchers wrote.
“This is an exciting finding because it indicates that it is very possible for vitamin D supplementation to have a profound impact on the course of this disease,” said senior author Emmanuelle Waubant, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology at UCSF and director of the Regional Pediatric MS Center at UCSF Children’s Hospital.
