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Vitamin D supplementation
  1. Ruth Dobson1,
  2. Hannah R Cock1,2,
  3. Peter Brex3,
  4. Gavin Giovannoni4,5
  1. 1 Department of Neurology, St George’s Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK
  2. 2 Centre for Clinical Neurosciences, St George’s University, London, UK
  3. 3 Department of Neurology, King’s College Hospital NHS Trust, London, UK
  4. 4 Department of Neurology, Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK
  5. 5 Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ruth Dobson, Department of Neurology, Atkinson Morley Wing, St George’s Hospital, Blackshaw Road, London SW17 0QT, UK; ruth.dobson{at}qmul.ac.uk

Abstract

Vitamin D testing and supplementation is of great interest to neurologists and their patients. Recommended nutritional intakes of vitamin D in the UK remain focused on bone health, despite increasing evidence for a role outside this area. Here we discuss how neurologists might approach vitamin D testing and supplementation, focusing on two conditions associated with vitamin D deficiency that have an increased risk of downstream complications resulting from these: multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. We set out a rationale for testing serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and discuss our personal practice in terms of supplementation, with evidence where available.

  • vitamin D
  • multiple sclerosis
  • epilepsy
  • osteoporosis
  • supplementation

https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2017-001720

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors RD, GG and PB conceived the idea for this manuscript. RD initially drafted the manuscript with input from HRC. All authors commented on and amended the initial draft manuscript and approved the final version for publication.

    • Competing interests RD has received sponsorship to attend conferences from Biogen Idec, Novartis, Teva and Sanofi Genzyme. She has received speaking honoraria from Teva. HRC reports personal fees from UCB Pharma, Epilepsy Nurse Specialist Association UK, European Medicines Agency, Special Products and Eisai Europe; non-financial support from GSK; personal fees and non-financial support from Lupin Pharmaceuticals; and grants from NINDS, NIH USA, outside the submitted work. GG has received consultation and speaking fees from Biogen-Idec, GSK, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Genzyme-Sanofi and Synthon BV. He is on the steering committee for studies sponsored by AbbVie, Biogen-Idec, Novartis, Teva and Roche.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed. This paper was reviewed by Emma Tallantyre, Cardiff, UK, and Robin Lachmann, London, UK.

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