Vitamin D supplementation for the prevention or depletion of side effects of therapy with alemtuzumab in multiple sclerosis
Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management Volume 2019:15 Pages 891—904, DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/TCRM.S188941
Hans-Klaus Goischke
Independent Research, Internal Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine, Social Medicine, Bad Brückenau, Bavaria, Germany
Alemtuzumab appears to be a chemotherapy drug used to treat Multiple Sclerosis and various Cancers
Many of the diseases can be prevented and/or treated by Vitamin D without the use of Alemtuzumab
- Chemotherapy and vitamin D - many studies
- Chemotherapy drugs often reduce Vitamin D levels, restoring levels helps– Aug 2018
- FDA Approves Lemtrada™ (alemtuzumab) for Relapsing MS - UPDATE Nov 2014
Overview MS and vitamin D contains the following summary
Clinical interventions have shown that Vitamin D can prevent, treat, and even cure Multiple Sclerosis, at a tiny fraction of the cost of the drugs now used to treat it, and without side effects.
- Fact: Low Vitamin D results in higher risk of getting MS
Increase latitude leads to decreased Vitamin D, which leads to increased risk of MS
Dark skinned people are far more likely to get MS (dark skin people typically have low vitamin D)
Elderly (who typically have low vitamin D) are more likely to get MS
Is there increased risk in people who already have diseases associated with low vitamin D - TB, for example ? ? ?
Women typically have 3X increased MS risk then men (note: women typically have 20% lower levels of vitamin D than men)
Exception: women in very sunny climates and dark-skinned women have the same MS risk as men
Obese are 60% more likely to get MS
Multiple Sclerosis 42X more likely if light brown skin and smoke (both associated with low vitamin D) – July 2020
MS recurrence is much higher in spring - the lowest time of the year for vitamin D
increase in clouds/rainfall (which reduces available Vitamin D) is associated with increased risk of MS (Scotland, Western Washington)
MS incidence has increased 70% in a decade while the incidence of vitamin D deficiency doubled
Less MS in those with outdoor occupations PDF file, not a web page - Fact: MS uses up Vitamin D
- Fact: Lower vitamin D (due to MS using up Vitamin D while fighting the disease) results in many other health problems (such as broken bones), so depleted vitamin D levels must be restored.
- Fact: Vitamin D looks so promising for preventing and treating MS that there were 25 INTERVENTION clinical trials as of Feb 2014
- Fact: Vitamin D reduced the MS relapse rate far better than Fingolimod which is now used for that purpose.
- Note: Fingolimod costs $25,000/year while vitamin D, which works better and has no side effects is 1000 times less expensive.
- Fact: 98% of the genes affected by Interferon are also affected by Vitamin D
- Note: 1 week of Interferon = $4,700, 1 week of vitamin D 10,000X lower cost
- Fact: MS Doctors in Brazil recommending 40-100 ng/mL of Vitamin D
- Fact: Many MS forums are recommending vitamin D to treat MS, with some taking 5,000 to 10,000 IU daily
Observation: Risk of going from pre-MS to MS reduced 68 percent with 7100 IU vitamin D – RCT Dec 2012- This is an observation instead of a fact - it has not yet been confirmed.
- Fact: VERY LARGE doses of vitamin D have CURED 2,000 people of MS in Brazil
- Controversy: UVB fron sunlight or UVB bulb may be BETTER than Vitamin D for reducing the risk of getting MS
- Hypothesis: In addition to Vitamin D there are many other photoproducts produced by UVB that may promote health.
Summary: lack of consensus on how much to prevent, treat, or cure MS.
- Coimbra Protocol (using Vitamin D) is safe and effective for Multiple Sclerosis and Autoimmune diseases – April 2022
- 54,000 IU of vitamin D daily with no Calcium (1,000 IU per kg: Coimbra protocol) – July 2024
- How much Vitamin D to prevent many diseases - such as MS
- How much Vitamin D is needed to treat MS? There is currently no agreement
The recommendations range from 40 to 100 ng - which can result of a dose ranging from 3,000 to 20,000 IU/day - How Vitamin D is needed to Cure MS?: It appears that 20,000-140,000 IU daily may be needed to CURE the disease
You must be under the supervision of a doctor who knows what to watch for in your individual situation.
High doses of Vitamin D cannot be used as a monotherapy.
You will need to adjust the cofactors: Typically increasing Magnesium and Vitamin K2, and reducing Calcium intake.
Your doctor will monitor these and might increase your intake of Vitamins B2, C, as well as Omega-3 - Epstein-Barr virus increases risk of Multiple Sclerosis by 32X - Jan 2022
- Multiple Sclerosis treated by Vitamin D, recommends investigating high dose Coimbra - Oct 2021
- Multiple Sclerosis patients had fewer COVID-19 problems (Note: many MSers take Vitamin D) – April 30, 2021
- Vitamin D Resistance hypothesis confirmed by Coimbra high-dose vitamin D protocol – April 2021
- Multiple Sclerosis relapses cut in half by 100,000 IU of Vitamin D every 2 weeks– RCT 2019
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki
Purpose of review: Not only the multiple sclerosis specialist but also the general neurologist and primary care practitioner are increasingly aware of possible adverse events (AEs) by treatment with alemtuzumab (over 47% risk of secondary autoimmune-mediated diseases). Vitamin D supplementation’s effect (VDS) to reduce these autoimmune AEs is poorly performed in routine practice. This article seeks to justify why this simple, inexpensive, patient-friendly therapy should be seriously discussed.
Recent findings: Patients who have developed autoimmunity also show a high basal level of IL-21, a cytokine which increases the growth of auto-reactive T-cells.
For side effects such as
- thyroid dysfunction,
- autoimmune thrombocytopenia,
- autoimmune hemolytic
- anemia,
- autoimmune hepatitis,
- diabetes mellitus type 1, and
- alopecia areata/alopecia totalis,
VDS may have an impact on the immunological mechanism, in particular lowering levels of IL-17 and IL-21.
Summary: The potential role of vitamin D in influencing autoimmune diseases is evident. If a life-threatening side-effect can be prevented by high-dose VDS, it is ethical to initiate this add-on therapy despite contradictory results in studies on the effectiveness of VDS.