Women taking daily vitamin supplements containing vitamin D appear to be less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.
MS is a disease in which the immune system attacks the fatty sheath of the neurons of the spinal cord. As their son missing plastic insulation, bare neurons can not send electrical impulses efficiently. Researchers do not know what causes MS to develop, but geography may hold a clue; regions close to the equator have a lower incidence of the disease that remote northern regions. This observation has led scientists to postulate that vitamin D made in the skin in the presence of sunlight, protects against MS. Other research suggests that vitamin D regulates certain activities of the immune system, and recent experience shows that adequate amounts of vitamin D can prevent mice from coming down with MS mouse.
To determine the relationship between vitamin D and disorder, epidemiologist Kassandra Munger of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues examined more than 187,000 women health data in the study of health nurses. Of these, 173 subsequently developed MS. By comparing the amount of women dietary supplements, the researchers found that those who took supplements containing at least the recommended daily by the USDA vitamin D were 40% less likely to develop the disease than women who do not, the team reports in the 13 January issue of Neurology .
study highlights the importance of an adequate intake of vitamin D in autoimmune disease, biochemist Hector DeLuca comments of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. But it is not going as well as MS, notes neurophysiologist Stephen Reingold of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in New York. "Nothing in the document says that vitamin D is the most important risk factor or just," he said. Other known risk factors include smoking and infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, the culprit behind mononucleosis.
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