Vitamin D is a biomarker for autoimmune, neurological and psychiatric diseases - Jan 2022

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Serum Vitamin D as a Biomarker in Autoimmune, Psychiatric and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Diagnostics 2022, 12, 130. https:// doi.org/ 10.3390/diagnostics12010130

Autoimmune

Depression Schizophrenia


Giulia Bivona , Caterina Maria Gambino 1,+, Bruna Lo Sasso 1, Concetta Scazzone 1, Rosaria Vincenza Giglio 1, Luisa Agnello 1 and Marcello Ciaccio 1,2/*
Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, Institute of Clinical Biochemistry, Clinical Molecular Medicine and Clinical Laboratory Medicine, University of Palermo, 90127 Palermo, Italy; giulia.bivona at unipa.it (G.B.); cmgambino at libero.it (C.M.G.); bruna.losasso at unipa.it (B.L.S.); concetta.scazzone at unipa.it (C.S.); giglio.rosaria.vincenza at gmail.com (R.V.G.); luisa.agnello at unipa.it (L.A.)
Department of Laboratory Medicine, University Hospital "P Giaccone", 90127 Palermo, Italy * Correspondence: marcello.ciaccio at unipa.it; Tel.: +39-0916553296

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone regulating calcium-phosphorus homeostasis, immune response and brain function. In the past thirty years, an increasing number of cohort studies, metaanalyses and randomized controlled trials (RTCs) evaluated the serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], which is considered the Vitamin D status biomarker, in patients affected by neurological, psychiatric and autoimmune diseases. Although an association between low 25(OH)D serum levels and the prevalence of these diseases has been found, it is still unclear whether the serum 25(OH)D measurement can be clinically useful as a biomarker for diagnosis, prognosis and predicting treatment response in neurodegeneration, mental illness and immune-mediated disorders. The lack of standardized data, as well as discrepancies among the studies (in the analytical methods, cut-offs, endpoints and study sets), weakened the findings achieved, hindered pooling data, and, consequently, hampered drawing conclusions. This narrative review summarizes the main findings from the studies performed on serum 25(OH)D in neurological, psychiatric and autoimmune diseases, and clarifies whether or not serum 25(OH)D can be used as a reliable biomarker in these diseases.
 Download the PDF from VitaminDWiki

A biomarker is used to identify, monitor and predict treatment responses

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VitaminDWiki - Autoimmune category

• 204 items in Autoimmune category
• Vitamin D and   MS    Asthma    RA    Diabetes    Gut   Allergy    Hay Fever    Lupus    Psoriasis
• Predicted 95% autoimmune cured by HIGH-DOSE vitamin D - 2014
• 10% of the UK have Autoimmune Diseases - Lancet May 2023 PDF is behind a paywall
  • Increase in 20 years : coeliac disease 2.19 X. Sjogren's syndrome 2.09, and Graves' disease 2.07
  • All 43 references are FREE on-line
• Autoimmune diseases fought by Vitamin D, especially if have more than 40 ng – Sept 2022
• The BEST Nutrient for Autoimmune Conditions (Vitamin D) - video May 2022
• The number 1 Deficiency behind All Autoimmune Diseases (Vitamin D) video - Dec 2023
• Autoimmune disease clusters run in families having low D
• How Vitamin D reduces inflammation, improves immunity and fights autoimmunity – review Dec 2018
• 120 doctors and 20,000 MS patients using high dose Vitamin D Dec 2018
• Vitamin D has treated Multiple Sclerosis and autoimmune diseases for 16 years – Coimbra April 2018
• Vitamin D Receptor is associated in over 58 autoimmune studies
• More autoimmune disease if higher pollution or lower UVB - Feb 2023
• Many autoimmune diseases associated with low vitamin D or poor Vit D genes – July 2019
  

See also web: consensus that ~50 diseases are autoimmune, ~50 more are suspected:

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VitaminDWiki - Autoimmune Diseases and Vitamin D Receptor (Restricts D to cells)

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VitaminDWiki - Overview MS and vitamin D contains:

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
  
  
  There is less of an effect recently - air conditioning now allows people to stay indoors

  
  
  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: Increasing levels of Vitamin D is associated with lower MS risk, as well as lower risk of many other diseases

  
• 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

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VitaminDWiki - Depression summary

• Low vitamin D is associated with most types of depression, Including: Seasonal Affective Disorder. manic depression, bipolar disorder, dysthymia, Depression during/after pregnancy, Seniors, Suicide
• Depression substantially reduced by Vitamin D, Omega-3, Magnesium, etc – many studies
• Depression 1.6 X more likely if low Vitamin D, taking Vitamin D reduces depression – umbrella of meta-analyses – Jan 2023
• Depression: Low vitamin D in the strongest of 11 risk factors – Jan 2023
• Yet another study confirms Depression is treated by weekly Vitamin D (50,000 IU)– RCT Dec 2019
• Depression treated by Omega-3 (again) – meta-analysis Aug 2019
• Supplementing with Vitamin D (or getting more sun) decreases most types of depression as well as drugs
• Omega-3, Magnesium, and St. Johns' Wort also decrease depression
  • Speculate that some combination (Vit D, Omega-3, Mg, St John's) will decrease depression even more
  • Note: Both Omega-3 and Magnesium increase the amount of vitamin D which gets to tissues
• Antidepressants reduce cellular Vitamin D, increasing fractures, CVD, etc. - Oct 2022
• There are 270 items in the Depression category in VitaminDWiki

Some recent publications

• Depression in seniors greatly reduced by Vitamin D (50,000 IU weekly) – meta-analysis June 2023
• Depression reduced if take more than 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily – umbrella meta-analysis – Jan 2023
• Post-partum depression and low Vitamin D - many studies
• Depression: Low vitamin D in the strongest of 11 risk factors – Jan 2023

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VitaminDWiki - Intervention of Vitamin D for Depression

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VitaminDWiki - Meta-analyses of Vitamin D and Depression

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VitaminDWiki - Depression and Vitamin D Receptor

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VitaminDWiki - Rheumatoid Arthritis category

118 RA items     See also Overview Rheumatoid Arthritis   Autoimmune  Inflammation   Pain - Chronic

    Highlights of RA studies in VitaminDWiki
RA worse if low Vitamin D

• Rheumatoid Arthritis score extrapolates to zero at 51 ng of Vitamin D (India) – June 2024
• Rheumatoid Arthritis is more severe if low vitamin D – July 2023
• Rheumatoid arthritis pain was 5.8 X more likely if low vitamin D – Aug 2017
• Adaptive and innate immune system, vitamin D genes, and Rheumatoid Arthritis – June 2019
• Rheumatoid Arthritis strongly associated with low vitamin D – meta-analysis April 2016
• Rheumatoid Arthritis associated with lower vitamin D and higher latitude – meta-analysis Jan 2016

10 RA and Vitamin D Receptor (auto-updated)

RA Treated by Vitamin D

• Several rheumatic diseases treated by high-dose vitamin D, but made worse if Calcium was added – April 2022
• Rheumatic Diseases often treated by Vitamin D, may need 40-60 ng – Oct 2021
• Rheumatoid Arthritis pain reduced by monthly 100,000 IU of Vitamin D – Oct 2018
• Rheumatoid arthritis reduced by 440,000 IU of Vitamin D over 4 months – Oct 2015
• Connective tissue disorders (Lupus, RA, etc) treated by vitamin D – May 2016
• 43 percent of Rheumatoid Arthritis patients have Vitamin D prescriptions (15 countries) – June 2017
• Big increase in vitamin D supplementation in just 2 years after Swiss rheumatology report – Dec 2013
• High dose vitamin reduced pain of fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis - July 2015
  • Note: Vitamin D receptor problems (such as RA) are best treated by infrequent large doses of Vitamin D

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VitaminDWiki - Overview Schizophrenia and Vitamin D contains

14 reasons to think that schizophrenia is associated with low vitamin D
1) 97% of patients with schizophrenia are vitamin D deficient
2) Schizophrenia varies with latitude (UVB) by 10X (controversy)
3) Schizophrenia is more common in those with dark skin (when away from the equator)
4) Schizophrenia is associated with low natal vitamin D
5) Schizophrenia has been increasing around the world when vitamin D has been decreasing (controversy)
6) Schizophrenia is associated with low birth rate, which is associated with low vitamin D
7) Schizophrenia is associated with Autism which is associated with low vitamin D
8) Schizophrenia Bulletin Editorial (Jan 2014) speculated that Vitamin D could be a major player
9) Schizophrenia 2X more likely if low vitamin D - meta-analysis
10) Schizophrenia increased 40 % for Spring births after Danes stopped vitamin D fortification
11) Schizophrenia is associated with season of birth
12) Schizophrenia is associated with poor Vitamin D Receptor genes
13) Schizophrenia risk is decreased if give Vitamin D after birth
14) Schizophrenia symptoms reduced when Vitamin D levels are restored