Vitamin D metabolites as clinical markers in autoimmune and chronic disease

[PlateletGal]

Vitamin D metabolites as clinical markers in autoimmune and chronic disease.

Journal: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009 Sep;1173:384-90. Authors: Blaney GP, Albert PJ, Proal AD.

Affiliation: Stillpoint Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

This was e-mailed to me through co-cure, an organization that keeps physicians, researchers and patients in on the latest research for (mostly) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia.

For a link to this article on vitamin D deficiency and DYSREGULATION... check out:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19758177




Reversing Bacteria-induced Vitamin D Receptor Dysfunction Is Key to Autoimmune Disease:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19758226


Dysregulation of the vitamin D nuclear receptor may contribute to the higher prevalence of some autoimmune diseases in women:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19758159

[Leigh1234]

Hey Corvin,

How's it going?

Got some test results today. My D1,25 is 74 and D-OH is 27 (these were measured on the same day by Quest). I hadn't been taking any Vit D for at least a month, no dairy or fortified foods, very little sun. So I guess my D ratio is only 2.74. What do you think? Still wondering about that ACE level (45) especially since I'm on steroids which should lower it.

Would love your thoughts on this! Thanks again for your help. Hope you're hanging in there...

Leigh

[Corvin]

I meant VDR "agonist" I always get that mixed up :)

[Corvin]

Some of those other white cells you mentioned will be low or high from one test to another for me too, I was to lazy to mention it in my last post. There was some other proteins of some kind that were elevated too, I have no clue what they are exactly, they called them alpha 1, and alpha 2. Then the common ones like ESR, CRP, WBC, D-dimer, and ACE. I asked my PA before I had the bronch scope what all this means, and she said it just means you have inflammation in your body, and it's not specific to any one thing. I think you just have to biopsy something, and hope you find something. That's the way it was for me anyways. Another thing I should ask them about is on my bronch washings the report said, "rare red blood cells". I don't know what that's supposed to mean, maybe they had some biofilm tubules coming out of them :) That's actually not really a joke.

I think all those things could be explained by Th1 disease, which Sarcoidosis is a part of. I don't know that any of them are specific to Sarcoidosis. The spleen, liver, and hypercalcemia things would be a little more than the others possibly. I had a 5mm hypodensity on my liver, and I have sigmoid diverticulitis, and lymph nodes that weren't big enough to be considered lymphadenopathy, but were more numerous than normally seen on the back of the abdominal wall. One of my herx symptoms is my liver is sore all the time, so I would say I have liver involvement, which is almost as common as the lungs.

That's what I like about the MP, I don't have to chase my tail around in a circle anymore. Trevor Marshall is right about Sarcoidosis, so I believe he's right about Vitamin D too. With Sarcoid even Pulmonologists recommend avoiding Vitamin D because it can lead to hypercalcemia, I think that Vitamin D dysregulation was already recognized in Sarcoid is what helped Trevor make his discoveries about Vitamin D, if he would have had Lyme, or MS, I don't think there would be an MP today. I suppose who ever first discovered Sarcoid patients over produced 1,25D should get his/her props too. But Trevor figuring out that the chronic pathogens use the VDR to overcome innate immunity, and found an antagonist to reactive the VDR is pretty awesome. Without that knowledge the abx's would be worthless unless the person is still in the early stage of disease, for most of us Th1 patients though that would have been when we were still teenagers.

[heather7628]

it is heather again.  I thought it might be lyme disease, because I do find ticks on me frequently through the summer.   Last summer I pulled a tick off my head, didn't think anything about it until my lymphnodes in my neck swelled up.  I kept a sore on my head for three months and my lymphnodes stayed swollen for about the same.  I went to the dr, and since i live in georgia they just treated my with doxycycline. they say lyme disease is not down here.  That was a week after lymphnodes swelled.  I do remember this happening when I was 17, now 33, I ran a fever every night for a month. The dr.'s could not find anything wrong with me.  For over ten yrs now I have been to several dr's just trying to find out what is wrong.  I have every symptom for hyperthyroid but the TSH test is normal (1.03).  The dr even said my thyroid was enlarged.  I have lost all of my teeth, 21and 24 yrs old.  They just brushed away.  I have had countless abnormal EKG's but they do the chest x-ray and say everything is fine.  I am concerned because I have always been dizzy and the dr's said it was caffeine.  That is understandable.  But now my son is dizzy and passing out and I do not allow my kids to drink caffeine.  His pediatrician said it was normal when they started puberty.  I am worried though whatever is wrong with me I might have given to him.  My youngest son was born with PAC's premature atrial contractions and a heart murmur.  The most I have ever weighed was 125lbs when I was nine months pregnant with my first son.  I am completely lost.  Was really hoping that the vitamin D would fix everything.  Still HOPING,  I do not want to go through my thirties like I did my twenties.  honest to goodness I do not even go out in public anymore because i look like a heroin addict.  I have sores on my skin and last time I weighed myself I was 103lbs.  Ijust keep losing weight.  I have been accussed of drugs anorexia bulimia.   I even convinced myself of being anorexic even though I know I need to gain weight, I have never even looked at myself as being fat.  My legs look like a war zone with the scars I have left from scratching.  If anyone knows what I need to ask the dr to test for please let me know.

[Leigh1234]

Hey Corvin,

Thanks for the info. I knew what you meant with the thyroid! :) Yes, I think that's how they figure out the ratio. So ours is the same. According to my hematologist, anything above 2.5:1 or so is unusual. I always used to have low Lymphs too. Right now they're low again. With steroids, my neutrophils have come up (used to be low) and eosinophilis have come down (used to be very high). Inflammatory markers are normal now, too, but my whole body is inflamed, it seems! As soon as I get below a certain amount of steroid, my rashes get bad again, GI stuff, aches and pains, that kind of thing. More than anything I feel sort of "allergic" in a weird way. My total IgE is high, so technically I am reacting to something, but so far nothing typical has turned up on allergy testing...

I'm still taking a little more than a "physiologic/replacement" dose for the Addison's, trying to taper down to something more reasonable. Just found out I have osteoporosis and degenerative arthritis (presumably from steroid over-treatment) at the ripe old age of 29. Gotta love it.

I've never had a bronchial washing b/c to date, I've never really had any lung symptoms. So my CD4:CD8 is plasma.

Sarc sure would explain a lot of what's happened. Don't know if it would be the cause of the problems or just another one to add to the group...there is definitely a genetic tendency in my family for the autoimmune endocrine stuff, and I've had some weird genetic tests (mutations) come back positive recently...who knows. I've read that Sarc runs in families, too...

As far as possible symptoms would go, these are the things I think might qualify for Sarc - would love to know what you think.

-"a few hypodense lesions" on my spleen 2.5 years ago (CT scan), "too small to characterize but may represent cysts or granulomas".
-MRCP 1 year ago showed "an area of poor enhancement in the liver, possible hemangiomata".
-same MRCP showed "probable C-section scar" in uterus (I've never been prego or had a C-section).
-diagnostic laparoscopy 1 year ago found most of the colon adhered to the pelvic sidewall on both sides. No endometriosis, just adhesions.
-recent lip biopsy showed "foci of moderate chronic inflammation" in salivary gland. It's healed and is now a very hard fibrous lump.
-recent colonoscopy showed "scarring and fibrosis" in sigmoid colon (all of my EGDs/colos show "chronic inflammation" everywhere.
-Addison's, hypothyroidism, premature menopause, pancreatitis, rashes, eye pain and vision changes, atrophic gastritis, lots of GI stuff, joint/bone pain, feeling yucky...etc
-Recent 40 point drop in PTH (used to be low/normal, then went high and stayed there, just fell to the bottom of the normal range - all this time D-OH has been low or low-normal)
-Ca has started climbing recently although I don't supplement at all anymore and don't eat dairy. Now it's at the top of the normal range. It used to be high w/Addison's crisis and/or preceeding Pancreatitis, but otherwise was always low.
-some other stuff I can't remember right now...

Thanks again. Hope you're doing o.k. today.

Leigh

[Corvin]

Correction on my last post, I meant T3, and T4, not TSH.

I went back, and looked at my test reports from last April, and Mayo did a T and B cell quantitation, from my bronch washings(BAL), and this is what it says:

%CD3 (T Cells) 95%
%CD4 (Helper Cells) 81%
%CD8 (Suppressor Cells) 22%
%CD19 (B Cells) 0.00%
%CD16+CD56 (NK Cells) 5%

But then in the notes it just says "no established reference value", and that's it. So I'm not sure what it all means. I guess 81% would be about four times the value of 22%, so my ratio would be 4:1 also. But that's just my own speculation, from looking at the results, maybe that's not how you figure the ratio. My Lymphocyte% in relation to WBC will be low sometimes too, but then you can check it a month later, and then they'll be in range again. I remember Marshall talking about CD4/CD8 before, but my memory is pretty worthless anymore, I'll have to go back, and try and find it again.