Odds for getting MS

[teacup]

My children already have an increased chance of getting MS simply because I have it.
It appears that there may be some protection against being DX if the correct dose of vitamin D is taken. I'm in the process of having my 3 kids' vitamin D checked and so far my daughter's result came back low.

My question, does having low vitamin D level increase her chance even more of getting MS?

I'm still trying to figure out the connection between low vitamin D and MS.

Obviously I'm encouraging all my children to take extra vitamin D but how much is enough?

Worried mom. Feedback appreciated.

[0485c10]

Recently there have been a few articles on the vit d connection and MS. Scotland has the highest rate of MS in the world & there government has just legislated to put vitamin D supplement in water and food--so there is a massive country wide "trial" going on to determine if low vitamin d is a part of the equation making ms podsible---

and there was a recent article that published the study of people moving from a high sunlight area(Iran) to a low sunlit area (sweden).

iran has a low incidence of MS but the iranians who had low vitamin d levels ended up with a greater preponderance of MS than the swedes who have a higher rate of MS, when the iranians with low vit D moved to sweden....

BTW-if you go to my home page, where i post hyperlink to articles of interest-on 2/15/2011 there were quite a few articles on vitamin D and MS....you might be interested in reading those, along with all the other ones you have read by this time.

BTW x2 Nothing in medicine is 100% certain, the only thing in medicine that is 100% probable is death after that it is just what has the highest odds. Somethings we just won't know

i think your making good decisions for your kids, those are the odds i would bet on. there have also been a few articles on fat metabolism being a possible cause of MS--so don't let them go to a no fat diet or a high fat diet.
or smoke!

[chalknpens]

I'm the only person in my family with a diagnosis of ms. I have eight siblings, scores of cousins and hundreds of second cousins. Two of my four grandparents emigrated from Scotland, and one had Parkinson's. I don't drink, smoke, or live the wild life.

So what does that mean for my kids? Will telling them not to smoke or eat fatty foods prevent ms? I didn't smoke (but several of my ms-free sibs did.) I'm not obese (but several of them are.)

Bring your kids up the way you believe is healthy, but please don't harp on them about making "the right" choices. Enjoy them for who they are and for who they will be. Forget feeling guilty about the odds ... you didn't choose this for yourself, and your grandparents are not to blame either.

It is what it is. Live your life the best you can, and trust that they will do that, too. Love them, rather than just raise them.

As soon as I found out my vitamin d was low I put my boys on 1000 iu/day just as a preventative and our gp said that was probably a good idea. I take 5000/day and brought my vitamin d up to 47 in November from a low 9 in February.

[0485c10]

As starry1 posted, its rather important that you consult with your doc before you try increasing vitamins. I know there are some bad effects that can happen with too much of some vitamins, i don't know if that exists or what they are for vitamin d, but your doc will know.

its always a bummer when i think i'm doing something good and then find its not as good to be doing as i thought.

[Hawkgirl]

There's a girl I went to high school with, and she responded to something I'd posted on Facebook about MS. She said she was sorry for me and knows a little about what I'm going through because her dad and two brothers have MS. !!??!! Are you kidding? I thought, that can't be right. She must be mistaking MS for some other illness. So I PM'd her, and she said, yes her dad and two of her brothers have multiple sclerosis. She asked me how I got dx'd and that. She said she'd been a little concerned. !!??!!

Now obviously she's not going to pour out her heart to me. We weren't friends in HS and I have never seen or heard of her since graduation. But OMG! If you have that many family members with MS, wouldn't you become an expert in it? Wouldn't you be watching everything like a hawk ... yourself, your kids? She just seemed so blase about it. But as I say, maybe she didn't want to pour her heart out to me.

So this girl's dad and her brothers ... I don't remember her brothers but it's possible they were a couple years ahead or behind. And then I have another childhood friend whose dad has MS. And that got me thinking, I was exposed to a lot of people who ended up with MS!

I still think it's caused by a virus. Most people are exposed to it, but most people don't catch it. Something in my genes made me subsceptible to it. Maybe even low vit.D? Just my theory.

[teacup]

Thanks so much for all your informative responses. 0485c10 I will take a look at your vitamin D information.

I don't talk at all to my kids about MS but finding out that my daughter is low in vitamin d has really concerned me. I do plan on have both my sons tested and will try as hard as I can to make them take a D supplement whether or not they are low. It's harder when the kids get older... they don't listen as much! Mine are 16, 19 and 22 so of course mom doesn't know anything

[palmtree]

This is very troubling to me. I've been thinking the same thing lately. That ms is caused by a virus. My fatigue feels like a virus.
And it runs in families. I have an aunt who died of ms. There has been so much speculation that ms is genetic. Except for one little detail.....MY AUNT WAS NOT BLOOD RELATIVE!

I couldn't bear it if I found out I was contagious and I gave it to my son.

[Hawkgirl]

I truly believe that until they find out what causes MS, they will not find a cure.

And sometimes I wonder <tin hat alert> if anyone is even looking for a cure. It is so much more profitable for us to be on "maintenance" meds. But just wait til we have socialized health care! Then we will be receiving "end of life" counseling at every neuro visit, because we are so dang expensive to the taxpayers. Either that or researchers will really buckle down to looking for a cure, because just maintaining us is so expensive to the taxpayers. </tin hat>

I will be very upset if any of my kids ends up with MS. Or my DH. I would hate knowing it was because of me. My only hope is that if MS is a virus, the majority of people seem to be immune.

I ought to be stuffing them with vit. D (because everyone in our family hates milk), but I am barely able to remember to give them a daily Flintstones vitamin or tell them to brush teeth before bed.

teacup, I'm surprised you don't talk to your kids about MS. Don't they wonder what's going on with you? My kids are 10, 6, and 2, but they all know that mom has "that disease" that makes her tired, clumsy, weak, or whatever the flavor of the day is. They had been watching me do my shot since my oldest was a baby. Hopefully soon one or all of them will watch as I get my Tysabri infusion (depending on scheduling).

[0485c10]

If you go to my home page where i keep a list of interesting articles about MS, i just added a link to a blog 'the scotsman dot com' where David Coyle just added a blog today starting....

Monday, January 2, 2012
"It is said that Prevention is better than cure, so it worries me that the pages of this newspaper have recently reflected the opinions of supplementing food with vitamin d in an attempt to stop more Scots developing
MS is somehow a plot to medicate its population against its will or a waste of public cash."

check my home page under the links of 12/15/2011 to read the blog.

[palmtree]

I think I'll take some vitamin d right now. On the subject of talking to my kids about ms, I've decided not to.

My son has been fascinated with genetics since he was in 6th grade. He has studied it so much that he's terrified of all the diseases he's susceptable to. His family tree has diabetes
Asthma, heart disease, stroke, alcoholism and now ms. He's already told he has a high possibility that he has anklyosing spondylitis, another auto immune disease. My virtue of being human we have ancestors that give us genes. If we think about it too much well never have any peace of mind.

[SNOOPY]

I still think it's caused by a virus. Most people are exposed to it, but most people don't catch it.

palmtree:

I couldn't bear it if I found out I was contagious and I gave it to my son

Multiple Sclerosis is not contagious. People do not get MS by being exposed to someone who has the disease. You cannot get or pass the disease by coming into contact with others who have the disease.

There are many theories about this disease. This disease has been around a very long time and much about it is still unknown.

History of MS:
http://www.firelady40.com/ms/mshistory.html

[MyGirlsMom]

I too wonder about what my kids will end up with....I worry at times about my biological child and what "we gave" her and I worry about my adopted daughter, but then we don't have birth family history, so then I worry what to worry about! It is what it is...my DH's favorite statement.

We have decide to give our children Vitamin D3...they both take a daily supplement of 400-500 mg of children's chewables in addition to what they get in milk.

In my family, the only other person with MS was my father's sister. He was one of four children and all of since died except my father (he will be 80 this year and he was 10+ years younger than his closest sibling.) All of his siblings have had multiple children and there are now several generations and nope, no other MS. I try to think about how my aunt's (who had MS) children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have not had MS...that helps me not to worry too much about my kids.

We all in life end up with something and ours just happens to be MS. Some days I deal with that better than others....just depends on the day and how I feel.

Hawkgirl, I love reading your posts! You are a clever and witty writer and I seriously think you should consider writing a book. Yeah, I too have young children (11 and 9), so I don't know when you'd find time to get that done, but you should really consider it.

[Dawnrnuk72]

My neuro told me that my children only have like a 2% greater chance of getting MS than the general population. That made me feel a 'bit' better. Like snoopy said, they don't know a lot about MS but they do know that 1. It's autoimmune (body attacks itself) and 2. It's genetic. Meaning that people who share the same genes are equally susceptible.

I have a 1st cousin with MS and a 2nd cousin. Same side of family. I also have another autoimmune disease, under active thyroid. Neuro also said having one autoimmune disease makes you more susceptible to getting another.

How many of you have more than MS?

[Hawkgirl]

Monday, January 2, 2012
"It is said that Prevention is better than cure, so it worries me that the pages of this newspaper have recently reflected the opinions of supplementing food with vitamin d in an attempt to stop more Scots developing
MS is somehow a plot to medicate its population against its will or a waste of public cash."

That's interesting. Governments have a long history of adding things to our food and water: iodine and fluoride come to mind. We actually moved recently from a town that did *not* add fluoride to their water, to a town that *does* add fluoride to their water. I will say that the water in our new town is disgusting and IMO undrinkable. It just tastes bad. I don't know if it's the fluoride (unlikely) or the source.

SNOOPY, if they don't know what causes MS, then how can they know it's not a virus and that it's not catchy--to a small number of people who are predisposed to get it? Have they 100% ruled out that MS is a virus?