Low vitamin D, but not tobacco use or high BMI, is associated with long-term disability progression in multiple sclerosis.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in the context of multiple sclerosis.

Low vitamin D levels, tobacco use and high body mass index (BMI) have been linked to adverse disease outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS), but their influence on long-term disability progression remains unclear.

Who Took Part

The study group was 88 patients.

In this prospective study, a cohort of 88 patients with relapsing-remitting MS completed a randomized controlled study on ω-3 fatty acids between 2004 and 2008.

In 2017, a follow-up study was conducted among 80 of the participants, including disability assessment by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

What Was Measured

Low vitamin D levels, tobacco use and high body mass index (BMI) have been linked to adverse disease outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS), but their influence on long-term disability progression remains unclear.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Body Mass Index, Disease Progression, Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting, Tobacco Use and Vitamin D.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Disability progression and Lifestyle factors.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 88 patients in people with multiple sclerosis.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2021 (Multiple sclerosis and related disorders), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, Multiple sclerosis research.