Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in Boston studied patients with MS, finding that those with higher levels of vitamin D fared much better than those with lower levels.
Recent studies shed light on the role vitamin D plays in multiple sclerosis (MS) and fibromyalgia—two chronic, incurable, and often debilitating conditions. In a study published in JAMA Neurology, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in Boston studied patients with MS, finding that those with higher levels of vitamin D fared much better than those with lower levels. They examined the vitamin D levels of 465 participants who were followed over a five year period as part of a study to monitor patients given Betaseron, an FDA-approved MS drug. They discovered that increasing vitamin D levels within the first 12 months of drug therapy resulted in a 57 percent lower risk of relapse. According to the study, patients with low vitamin D levels early on in the course of the disease had a higher risk factor for long-term MS progression.
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