Week 5.

There is an increase in the number of times I can flex all my toes before the effect falls off (8-10 times), and an increase in the amount of flex.

Week 6.

No change in the toe movement. However, I seem to be regaining the ability to bend my left knee. Imagine standing upright and trying to bend your knee and lift it so that your thigh is horizontal.  I totally lost this ability a few years back. Before that, the number of times I could do it was limited – as if the muscles fatigued out – to about three or four times. Now, I can lift my foot clear of the ground once, the second time the drop foot has the toes still touching – there is no third time.

Week 7.

No change.

Week 8.

There are signs that a minimal amount of voluntary ankle movement is returning to my left leg. The muscles involved seem to fatigue just a quickly as the thigh muscles mentioned in Week 7. Ability to flex my left toes remains the same.

A small digression:

In the medium term, the Med-day sponsored research suggests an improvement in EDSS of 0.5 for those with a score of 6.5. Now the big difference between EDSS 6.5 and all lower scores is the use of two sticks, two crutches, or a walker that needs two hands. A  change of 0.5 implies that the patient is able to do without the support of one hand.  This has always seemed just a touch unrealistic to me – but it will not stop me taking Biotin. There are enough other things that could stand a little improvement, quite apart from the possibility of halting any further progression. Slowing progression is one thing about Biotin that does not seem to be fully explored – but conventional medicine has nothing to offer for the Secondary Progressive, so what is there to lose?

Week 1.

I am using the technique of dissolving the daily Biotin dose of 300mg in a 500ml bottle of spring water and sipping throughout the day.

Each night I prepare the water for the next day.

For the first four days I took a reduced dose, and had no obvious side effects or interactions, so moved up to the full dose.

No effects in either direction were noted (no surprise there).

Week 2.

After the first full week on a full dose, there is nothing to report.

Either way, nothing.

In the context of the great experiment, the lack of any adverse effects is perhaps the most important thing.

Week 3.

No adverse effects noted.

On the plus side – up until now I could only wriggle the second and third toes on my left leg, now it is only the little toe that I cannot move. The ability to wriggle four of them seems to fall off after a few wriggles, and this is probably a case of very rapid muscle fatigue (the same thing happened a few years back as I lost the ability to bend my left knee more than a couple or three times). Now the plan is to keep moving the toes, just to see if this is a transitory effect.

Week 4.

Now I can flex all the toes on my left foot. As before, the ability falls off after about 5 flexes, but there is a nerve pathway and some muscle response where there was none before.