Vitamins and Supplements

People with MS generally have difficulty absorbing many vitamins and minerals from their food, and this is why it is important to take supplements as well as eating well. Vitamins work together to protect and rebuild the body so it is important to take the right doses not to overdo or ignore any. It is widely believed that disorders are the result of metabolic imbalance . So, if we correct the metabolic imbalance, we can fix the disorder. my homeopath mentioned this to me once when I told her I was finding it impossible to put on the weight I had lost. She said that people who cannot put weight on/shift it, had an imbalance in their body; and that once that had been put right (with the right balance of vitamins and minerals), they would reach a healthy weight.

I take a range of vitamins. I mostly follow the guidelines set out in Judy Graham’s book. I have played around with dosages, replaced some with others and added a few more after reading about them. The list is still evolving. The ones I take at the moment are listed below along with the dosage I use, (and reference to those that Judy Graham suggests in brackets), but I recommend you request a general blood test from your GP to see what your vitamin levels are like before you start taking them. It would be best to see a trained nutritionist who can give you a list of vitamins more specific to your needs. Everyone is different.

Having read a lot about digestion and how an impaired digestion leads to degenerative diseases, I stopped taking vitamin supplements for a while believing that my body was finding it hard to absorb them. I have just started taking them again, by blending them into my morning green smoothie.

I take these with meals unless stated otherwise:

Vitamin C – up to 1g per tablet, 1 tablet three times a day (As JG suggests)

Vitamin D – 4000 – 9000 iu once a day, depending on the weather (higher if cloudy/in winter)

B Complex – 1 tablet 3 times a day (As JG suggests)

B6 – 50mg twice a day (JG: 50mg once or twice a day, no more)

b12 (not Cyanocobalamin -poorly absorbed make sure it’s Methylcobalamin – much better absorbed, absorption improved when held in mouth so dissolves into mouth tissues, not normal digestion.) JG: Vitamin b12 injections – once a week or more often of hydroxycobalamin

Zinc (Orotate)– 15mg twice a day (As JG suggests) Why Orotate? Click here

Magnesium 50mg a day (As JG suggests)

Manganese 5mg twice a day (As JG suggests NB: I have not found these under one of the more trustworthy brands)

Selenium 200ug once a day (JG:50ug twice a day)

Lecithin granuales three times a day (JG: 2 tablets of 200mg, 3 times a day)

Co-enzyme Q10 30mg a day (As JG suggests NB: I have not found these under one of the more trustworthy brands)

Acidophilus twice a day (or similar product) – (JG: up to 3 doses of 500mg a day)

MSM 1000mg twice a day

Wheatgrass 10g twice a day (see wheatgrass page)

I no longer take the following:

Fish oil, because I have learnt that it is impossible to get this in supplement form without it being rancid.

Spirulina because it is hard to find pure – buy it organic and from a safe source such as Hawaii – not grown in China – where Spirulina sources have been shown to always be in highly polluted areas, and Spirulina absorbes everything around it.

NB: Many vitamin brands are not to be trusted. Good quality vitamin distributors include BioCare and Solgar. Vitamins containing yeasts are to be avoided. If you take quality vitamins, you can take weaker doses as they are far stronger than the standard ones. The dosages I use are lower than the ones JG suggests because of this. If you get yours from another source, follow her higher doses. Vegetarian capsules/ the pure oils are available if you wish to avoid gelatine which is often in commercial vitamins, but the good vitamin brands make theirs without it.