2-Apr-2001
Study points to positive results
from vitamin D supplements for MS sufferers University Park, Pa. --- A
small study conducted by researchers at Penn State and Helen Hayes Hospital
in New York has shown that a daily dose of vitamin D - 1000 IU or two and
a half times the recommended dose for adults -- causes changes in blood
chemistry that indicate positive effects for multiple sclerosis patients.
Dr. Margherita Cantorna, assistant
professor of nutrition, says the study has not been in progress long enough
to observe changes in the clinical symptoms of the disease in the patients
who participated. However, blood samples drawn after just 6 months of Vitamin
D supplementation, show an increase in transforming
In addition, the researchers found
a decrease in interleuken-2 which is associated with the cells that induce
MS. Cantorna's student, Brett Mahon, a doctoral candidate in nutrition,
detailed the study results today (April 3) at the Experimental Biology
2001 conference in Orlando, Fla. The paper, "Altered Cytokine Profile in
Patients with Multiple Sclerosis Following Vitamin D Supplementation,"
is co-authored by Dr. Felicia Cosman, medical director, Clinical Research
Center, S. A. Gordon and J. Cruz, all of Helen Hayes Hospital, and Cantorna.
Mahon is first author.
As a postdoctoral fellow at the University
of Wisconsin, Madison, Cantorna and others had shown, in experiments with
mice, that vitamin D supplementation could completely prevent the development
of MS in susceptible animals.
After Cantorna joined the faculty
at Penn State, she learned of Dr. Cosman's research program which centers
on investigating whether a low level vitamin D deficiency in MS patients
might account for the incidence of brittle bones. Cantorna asked Cosman
for blood samples from the participating patients to see if the same changes
she had observed in mice also occur in humans who receive vitamin D supplementation.
She found that the results were,
in fact, similar at the blood chemistry level. Multiple sclerosis is an
autoimmune disease in which the victim's own immune system attacks the
spinal cord and brain.
The disease afflicts about 350,000
people in the United States alone and its cause is thought to be a complex
interaction of genetics and environmental forces that are not completely
understood. Cantorna and others hypothesize that one crucial environmental
factor involved in the development of the disease is the amount of sunlight
a person receives.
Exposure to sunlight catalyzes the
production of vitamin D in the skin. In low sunlight, the skin produces
significantly less vitamin D.
In support of a connection among
sunlight, vitamin D and multiple sclerosis, Cantorna points out that the
incidence of the disease is nearly zero near the equator and increases
with latitude in both hemispheres. In addition, Switzerland has high MS
rates at low altitudes and low MS rates at high altitudes. Ultraviolet
light is more intense at higher altitudes, resulting in the skin manufacturing
more vitamin D.
Other evidence of an MS/vitamin D
link comes from Norway where MS rates are higher inland than on the coast
where larger quantities of fish are consumed which are rich in vitamin
D.
While Cantorna's research and MS's
geographical distribution suggest a connection between vitamin D and MS,
she cautions that the vitamin's exact role is still unclear.
"I think that if you are an MS patient,
it would be best to continue to follow your personal physician's advice,"
says the College of Health and Human Development faculty member. Since
vitamin D can be toxic in high doses, it would not be a good idea to begin
taking vitamin D pills available over-the-counter in large amounts.
"On the other hand, since adequate
amounts of vitamin D are difficult to get from diet and because MS patients
often have to stay out of the sun, you might want to consider taking a
vitamin D supplement at the current recommended daily requirement level.
There are potential benefits for bone health and for the immune system
as well."
The project was supported by two
grants from the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation -- one to Cantorna
and the other to Cosman.
growth factor beta-1 (TGF-Beta)
which is associated with the remission and suppression of the immune response
which produces symptoms in MS patients.