Am strongly considering stopping Copaxone at the end of this year - I understand the cost of it is going up quite a bit next year and so is the catastrophic coverage gap in RX supplemental insurance for those of us who are on Medicare and of course we also have the current financial crisis - so my question is - what vitamins /and or/ supplements do you take and have you noticed a difference ?????

Thanks -

I didn't know the cost was increasing!

Geez,It's already 2100 a month! I didn't know Copaxone was going up again either.
As far as vitamins, I take Cranberry tablets, Flaxseed/Fish Oil , D-Mannose, Vitamin C, Calcium, Vitamin D3. I rarely get bladder infections now that's the only thing difference I've noticed.

Reference for price increase?

Hi. I'm on vitamin/mineral therapy and Rebif. I got some good ideas from Reversing Multiple Sclerosis, by Celeste Pepe. You can get the book at Amazon. Good luck!

I didn't know about this increase either....

Before you take ANY vitamins or supplements check with your neuro and NMSS has good information on the topic too.

Good Luck.

After checking with the NMSS I strongly suggest you do your own research of the medical literature in PubMed -NLM. The medical literature and what they say is in conflict in most things.

I have always thought of vitamins and supplements as complementary only but having recently stopped my Avonex shots after over 10 years I have come to rely on them more. Some medications taken for other conditions also have some very strong neuroprotection properties. My age 65 and my lack of recent MS activity (+MRI & no NEW symptoms) has made this a risk I am willing to take at this time of my life.

It is a matter of risk, lifestyle, costs, personal preference and your ability to make decisions based upon incomplete and admittedly weak info.

You need to learn "how MS progress" and what stage of MS concerns you.

http://home.ix.netcom.com/~jdalton/ms-two-stages.pdf

Targeting both the inflammatory stage of MS and the neurodegenerative stages makes good sense. I have not had a new lesion or shown any enhancing lesions for 6 years. I am now looking at preventing neurodegeneration.

I have done about 10 years of reading NLM abstracts and very recently had many things I discovered confirmed by some very recent good studies.

In other words things have gone from test tubes, to mice/rats and now human studies on MS folks.

I can help either by starting some new threads or private email. It can get VERY VERY VERY messy by posting here. It is VERY VERY VERY hard to stay on topic on an open forum. I would greatly prefer to do it that way so more can be exposed to these things. However someone will have heard of someone who they knew who said that someone told them that they took a vitamin/supplement pill and grew a new head or some valued body part fell off.

The first rule is of course DO NO HARM. So talking it over with some doctors
is a necessity. I saw mine yesterday and we agreed on 98% of things but there was that other 2%.

I have put some very interesting things in my web storage area. It is a collection of MS related full studies and articles I sometimes reference in my postings. I have no medical training but these things seem interesting.

http://home.ix.netcom.com/~jdalton/

This posting of mine on another board "MS refugees" contains a lot of good for MS Supplements/Vitamins info.

http://www.msrefugees.proboards82.co...ay&thread=3770

THIS IS A 3-(THREE) PAGE posting you must type next page number into the box at left bottom corner.

Good luck. Take one baby aspirin before reading and two after.(A tree bark supplement)

jackD

[QUOTE=jackD;382410]After checking with the NMSS I strongly suggest you do your own research of the medical literature in PubMed -NLM. The medical literature and what they say is in conflict in most things.

You have alot of great info, hank you for sharing.

Head on over to the Rocky Mountain MS center. it lists all the complimentary meds, and vitamins with studies on how each affects what.

Vit D3 is gonna be your best friend. Multivit and a good diet will do wonders for ya.

I have great insurance so I have no plan on stopping due to cost, but HATE HATE HATE this stuff.

I have dramatically cleaned up my diet. I no longer eat anything processed, or full of chemicals. If I want chicken tenders, I make um. If I want a salad, I make one. If I want pop corn, I pop it. I have noticed a big upswing in how I feel since removing chemicals. I am NOT advocating any special diet over another, or a restrictive anything. just plain simple food like we did in the old days. no more prepackaged ravioli. nothing from a can. If I want soup, I make it. LOADS more work, but worth it.

I follow the Swank diet for MS - I consider that similar to supplement because I'm using food in it's natural state to treat.

I also take the following for MS. I take a few others, but the MS-related ones are the most important to me:

fish oil (for it's antiinflammatory affects)
grape seed extract (for it's ability to help keep blood vessels intact and less permeable)
Vit D (numerous studies showing it's importance)
Multivitamin
Baby Aspirin
Chondroitin (to help keep those joints well lubricated and because of a small study showing benefit to MS)

I also try to cook with ginger and turmeric regularly because both are proven antiinflammatory agents. I used to take them in capsule form, but find I enjoy it more when I cook with it.

Do they help? Not a clue! I take them because I hope that they will help in the long run. It definitely is worth the time to investigate any potential supplements you will take as well as checking out particular suppliers - so you can make sure you get what you are paying for. I fell into the trap of taking so many that it was total overload. I try to limit what I take now so that it's more manageable.