A Simple Protocol Is Stopping the Progression of MS

Vitamin D is known to stimulate the production of regenerative substances in the brain. Tatyana Soares/Shutterstock

John Ottwell was driven by desperation five years ago to search online for a non-pharmaceutical treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). That’s when he stumbled onto a social media page about the Coimbra protocol.

He read testimonies that convinced him it was worth a try,  since his multiple sclerosis (MS) only continued to decline after his diagnosis, even with medication. He ended up in a wheelchair and in mental and physical misery. “The neurologist says to you there is no cure. The best hope for you is slow progression,” Ottwell said. “It’s a terrible, terrible disease.”

His neurologist had told him medicine might slow progression by 40 percent. Yet his physical and emotional health were instead rapidly declining, and the side effects of pharmaceuticals were as wretched as the disease. In April 2017, he started the Coimbra protocol—high dosing of vitamin D—with nothing to lose.

It wasn’t long after that when he was not only sharing his own testimony but introducing others to the protocol and sharing their stories. This included a young man who was playing piano after being unable to lift up his own head and a woman who woke up blind on her 40th birthday going back to work, walking four miles a day and sharing an MRI brain scan that shows no signs of having had the disease.

Vitamin D is a hormone that is produced in the skin when it’s exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D is also found in lesser amounts in food. Higher vitamin D levels lower the risk of developing multiple sclerosis, and boosting vitamin D also appears to be beneficial for curbing disease relapses—and even putting symptoms into remission. The Coimbra protocol is based on one of the highest prolonged doses of vitamin D.

“Within 41 days of starting the protocol, I wanted to go outside and scream, ‘It works. It works. Oh my God, it works,’” Ottwell said. “When I got well, I knew I had my life’s calling. I thought, ‘Everybody’s going to listen to me.’”

It hasn’t been easy, though. He’s been mocked and called into question because he isn’t a physician.

Ottwell is frustrated because some MS patients demand published studies of the protocol. There isn’t one, though there’s plenty of evidence and published research on vitamin D preventing MS and relapses of the disease.

“People will say the meanest things,” he said. “They’ll repeat the same things their doctors have told them. I say, ‘That’s not true. Research it yourself.’”

Nevertheless, he isn’t deterred from “shaking the pharmaceutical industry by the core” and spreading the word on the Coimbra protocol. He started a YouTube channel and Facebook group to publish interviews with doctors who are using it to treat their patients, as well as people who are experiencing dramatic symptom reversals.

“No, I don’t have on a white coat that says Dr. Ottwell,” he said. “One reason [the Coimbra protocol] is going to take off is, Big Pharma is filling us with drugs, and we’re not getting better. My job is to go up against them.”

What Is the Coimbra Protocol?

Dr. Cícero Coimbra, a neurologist and professor at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil, refined the protocol after using vitamin D—10,000 international units (IU) per day—on patients with Parkinson’s disease starting in 2001. He was particularly interested in vitamin D because the hormone is known to stimulate the production of regenerative substances in the brain.

A dose of about 10,000 IU per day is safe to use without medical supervision. This is the amount made by the body when exposed to about 20 to 30 minutes of midday sun.

Using medical literature on the effects of vitamin D on the immune system, Coimbra began treating MS patients with higher amounts of the hormone, which came to be known as the Coimbra protocol. His approach is based on a therapeutic dose of 40,000 to 300,000 IU per day, regular lab tests, medically supervised care, and support supplements that vary by patient.

He was especially interested in MS because it’s the most common neurological disease. A 2019 study in the journal Neurology estimated that there were more than 900,000 adults living with MS in the United States—more than twice the number reported in a 1975 national study.

On his website, Coimbra states: “When we started with vitamin D and found out that it was effective, we made a life choice. We left academia behind—this thing of drugs here, drugs there, launches of drugs, testing of new drugs, allegedly satisfactory successes. We put it all aside and thought only of the interest of the patient who was there, at our office, in that moment... It has been very gratifying.”

Ottwell’s Story

As Ottwell points out, patients like him don’t care about the studies when the disease is raging.

“When you hit that wheelchair, you don’t give a rip about anybody’s study,” he said. “You just want to get better.”

He has been told to be grateful because MS isn’t a “death sentence.” As far as Ottwell is concerned, that makes it worse.

“It’s a suffering sentence. You can lay in a nursing home for 10 years immobilized,“ he said. ”It’s a terrible disease, and it slowly robs you of physical abilities, mental abilities. It’s a slow torture.”

Ottwell, a 57-year-old former antiques dealer, had many symptoms for 15 years before his diagnosis, including an impinged nerve that resulted in hand surgery yet returned a couple years later.

It wasn’t until he staggered into an emergency department in St. Louis with stroke-like symptoms that he got an MRI and a diagnosis.

His first thought was that he could work through his MS if that was the worst it would get. Even his wife commented that he looked happy after finally knowing there was, in fact, a reason for all his symptoms and doctor visits.

Unfortunately, Ottwell’s disease became worse. Within a year and a half of his diagnosis and on a common MS medication, Copaxone, he was in a wheelchair. The side effects of the drug, administered three times a week by a shot in his stomach, made him feel like he was constantly fighting influenza. At times, he thought he’d rather die than continue to suffer.

Involuntary movements happened frequently for Ottwell, who struggled emotionally as the disease destroyed his body and he realized there was nothing he could do about it. The hardest part for him was the memory loss, because he'd had such a great memory before.

“My mind was so bad. Your brain moves slow,” Ottwell said. “I would set my credit card on my lap, look at four numbers, pick up the phone to punch it in and could only remember two of four numbers.”

He was also constantly stuttering, coughing, choking, twitching, and spasming. His skin was itchy, he was intolerant of heat, and he had severe brain fog.

Ottwell spoke bluntly about the symptoms that robbed him of his dignity, like defecating and urinating on himself and scratching his scalp so much that blood dripped down his face. These are not uncommon MS symptoms.

Others include dysesthesia (a squeezing sensation around the torso), fatigue, numbness, tingling, stiffness or spasms in the leg muscles, weakness, vision problems, vertigo, significant pain, and emotional changes, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Also common are sexual problems and depression.

One criterion for diagnosing MS is to exclude other potential diagnoses. Physicians must also find evidence of damage in at least two areas of the central nervous system, which is composed of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Evidence must exist that the damage occurred at different times.

Ottwell has been using the Coimbra protocol for five years, and nearly all of his symptoms have disappeared.

“To get anything back is a victory,” he said. “Different things came back over months and years, but within 2.5 years everything came back except my ability to walk. My left leg is paralyzed. Fifteen years of misdiagnosis will do that to you.”

Coimbra protocol patients are reporting a faster return to normal for those who begin vitamin D earlier in their disease course. Some damage to the central nervous system may be irreversible.

“I feel great. I feel better than I did 20 years ago,” Ottwell said. “I can’t wait for my eyes to open up every day and share my story.”

Treatment for All Autoimmune Diseases

The Coimbra protocol seems to be just as effective at lowering and ceasing symptoms of other progressive autoimmune diseases. This is because the dysregulated immune system is brought into balance by vitamin D, believed to have a role in T lymphocyte cell production. T cells are produced in response to fighting disease and pathogens.

Coimbra discovered, for instance, that vitiligo lesions diminished in a patient using the protocol for Parkinson’s disease. And the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and MS is well-established in scientific, peer-reviewed studies.

Coimbra supervised a study in 2013 on the effect of prolonged high-dose vitamin D supplementation with nine psoriasis and 19 vitiligo patients. They received 35,000 IU daily for six months with a low-calcium diet and high hydration. The condition of patients significantly improved during treatment, with no negative side effects.

In 2011, a study conducted with 209 patients of systemic lupus erythematosus by the Ohio State University Medical Center found that the majority of patients included in the study had vitamin D deficiency. The authors found the more vitamin D in the blood, the lower the lupus disease activity, and vice versa.

As for MS and vitamin D, studies continue to accumulate revealing even higher doses can be safely administered with beneficial results. A study presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology found that high doses of vitamin D dramatically cut the relapse rate in people with MS. Patients in the high-dose group—given between 14,000 and 40,000 IU daily—had lower relapse rates, and their T cell activity dropped significantly, when compared to the group that took lower doses.

The Coimbra protocol website indicates effectiveness for common autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, and others.

Where Is the Coimbra Protocol Done?

Coimbra protocol patients live all over the world. A map on CoimbraProtocol.com indicates that physicians overseeing the treatment protocol are located in North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa—though the total numbers are low.

Patients use social media sites to refer newbies to doctors. Ottwell and others are helping to spread the word and hoping to inspire more doctors to accept Coimbra protocol patients.

Ana Claudia Domene, author of “Multiple Sclerosis and (Lots of) Vitamin D,” details her eight-year experience on the Coimbra protocol.

“Year after year, the imaging tests confirm that I have made the best possible decision,” she writes in the book. “Many lesions simply disappeared, others are still there, like scars, but there’s been no progression of the disease. Absolutely no progression at all! This fact in itself is already cause for celebration, and my most profound gratitude to this doctor who has dedicated his life to his patients.”

Ottwell suspects there are about 100,000 patients being treated with the protocol. There are about 70 physicians in South America and more than 50 in Europe, but only 10 in North America—something that frustrates him.

“We know that vitamin D heals people. To purposefully withhold it would be malpractice,” he said. “I’ve seen MRIs that are miraculous.”

Ottwell is motivated by patients to keep posting interviews and speaking out. Too many people with MS believe they may never see their children’s dance recitals or sporting events. He calls his YouTube and Facebook sites “MS, There Is Hope!”

“There’s too many mothers or fathers out there sitting in a chair thinking, ‘My life is over.’ They already lost their job. Their husband or wife doesn’t want anything to do with them,” Ottwell said.

Coimbra Protocol Precautions

Ottwell longs to deliver hope, but he isn’t dispensing medical advice. He reads a disclaimer before every interview he does.

It’s vital that Coimbra protocol patients work with a doctor. Underlying conditions may affect whether or how they are treated. Each case is unique. Ottwell takes one pill four times a day that includes the correct dosage of vitamin D, and other supplements designed for him personally.

He must drink 2 1/2 liters of water daily, because one of the side effects of high doses of vitamin D is increased calcium levels, which could cause osteoporosis or kidney stones. He has a blood draw for lab tests every 90 days.

And while he’s a big advocate for sunshine, Ottwell pointed out that the challenges for people diagnosed with MS include sensitivity to heat, as well as contradictory guidelines.

The recommended daily allowance in the United States is surprisingly no more than 600 to 800 IU and only 2,000 IU by the Vitamin D Council, which warns against high doses of vitamin D, claiming it to be toxic.

Depending on where you live, all you need to get 10,000 to 15,000 IU of vitamin D is to swim outside for about 10 to 15 minutes two or three times a week—without sunscreen, according to Overcoming MS, which has a ultraviolet light calculator on its website for determining the amount of sunlight you need based on where you live.

“I encourage people to get out in the sun as much as they can,” Ottwell said. “It feels good, and it’s good for you.”