High Dose Vitamin D for Autoimmune Disease

May 28, 2016

High Dose Vitamin D for Autoimmune Disease


Reference: DermatoEndocrinology,


Autoimmune illnesses have been associated with Vitamin D deficiency, if not resistance. Taking vitamin D has been a mainstay of treatment for decades in the functional medicine world, as we have reacted to the dramatic increase in autoimmune disease in the last 70 years. Now, four in ten women have one of the 140 presumed autoimmune illnesses, and many have more.


This study was an open label study of 25 folks with either vitiligo or psoriasis, two illnesses strongly linked to Vitamin D deficiency, and gave them 35,000 iu a day for six months. To avoid trouble with calcium and kidney stones, they were told to avoid dairy and high calcium foods and to drink 2.5 liters of water a day. Their calcium, parathyroid hormone, Vitamin D levels were monitored. No one got kidney stones or high blood calcium.


What they did get was response.  All 9 of the psoriasis patients had PASI scores show improvement. Fourteen of the sixteen vitiligo patients had at least 25% improvement in pigmentation area. The study was open-label as the authors did not feel they could ethically randomize someone to no treatment when their information was that there was some deficiency. The blood level of Vitamin D rose progressively to 106-130 range. The parathyroid hormone level dropped in half.


This is very interesting. Now, some 2776 genes have Vitamin D receptor activity, which accounts for about 10% of human genes. There is clear evidence that Vitamin D levels relate to relapse rates for RA and for Multiple Sclerosis. And there is a fair amount of accumulated evidence that many of us have a defective genetic tendency to process Vitamin D into its active forms, and that this tendency tends to result in autoimmune diseases. It's hard to tease out because the problem is likely the conversion of Vitamin D inside cells to its active form. This is hard to measure. The premise of these authors in this study was to provide a much higher dose of Vitamin D in order to flood the body with sufficient substrate so that inside cells, a sufficient dose of active Vitamin D was achieved. The authors speculate that watching the parathyroid hormone level may be a means of assessing the body's assessment as to whether it has had enough Vitamin D.


www. What Will Work for me. I'm in. I personally took 20,000 IU for two years to see how long it would take to get my level to 100. It took 2 years. I know that Vieth gave high doses to active MS patients (40,000 IU a day) and showed no toxicity and brain lesions dropped in half. What I like is the protocol for observing for safety. This paper gives us reasonable grounds and method for a more aggressive avenue to reduce autoimmune disease activity.


Pop Quiz

‪1. Vitamin D affects about 20% of the human genome.     T or F                        Answer:  False. Just 10%

‪2. In this small study, 9 of 9 psoriasis patients improved. T or F                        Answer:  True

‪3. And 75% of vitiligo folks had at least 25% reduction in skin area that was depigmented. T or F              Answer:   True

‪4. There was no documented bad side effect of calcium seen when all the study subjects did what?        Answer:  Avoided high calcium food and drank 2.5 liters of water a da

‪5. Folks with autoimmune disease may be Vitamin D resistant, because they may have a gene that is less active than normal. T or F                         Answer:   That's the speculation.

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