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Scientists find gene links to vitamin D deficiency

Thursday, June 10th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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LONDON, June 10 (Reuters)

Scientists have found three genetic differences that affect a person’s risk of being deficient in the “sunshine” vitamin D and say their work helps explain why sunlight and a good diet aren’t always enough.

British and American researchers studied the genes of almost 34,000 white Europeans and found that variants of three genes involved in cholesterol synthesis, vitamin D metabolism and vitamin D transport may increase the risk of deficiency.

“Our findings establish a role for common genetic variants in regulation of circulating vitamin D concentrations,” said Elina Hypponen of the University College London Institute of Child Health, who worked on the study.

She said the presence of the variants at the three specific genes more than doubled the risk of vitamin D insufficiency.

Most vitamin D is made by the body as a natural by-product of the skin’s exposure to sunlight. It is vital for health, as it helps cells absorb calcium and is key for bone strength.

Some recent studies have also suggested vitamin D may protect against cancer, artery disease and tuberculosis.

A normal level of vitamin D is defined as a concentration greater than 30 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), while vitamin D insufficiency is 20 to 30 ng/ml and vitamin D deficiency is less than 20 ng/ml.

Almost half of the world’s population has lower than optimal levels of vitamin D and scientists say the problem is getting worse as people spend more time indoors or cover up too quickly and completely when they are exposed to sunshine.

Non-white populations in less sunny climates are at higher risk since dark skin can make it harder for the body to absorb ultraviolet light.

Hypponen said there was no doubt that sunshine and a good diet were still the most important factors for vitamin D levels, but the study helped explain why some people who should get enough from these sources still appear to be deficient.

“Sometimes when we look at geographical variations in vitamin D deficiency, they do not always go logically in the way we would expect, for example, on the basis of sunlight,” she said in a telephone interview. “So this study raises the possibility that that is down to genetic influences.”

Besides the sunlight source, vitamin D can also be found in fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, or taken as a supplement.

There are no definitive studies on the optimal daily vitamin D dose but some experts recommend 25 to 50 micrograms.

A study published in March found that vitamin D is important in activating the immune system’s killer cells, known as T cells, which remain dormant and unaware of threats from infections if vitamin D is lacking in the blood.

[ID:nLDE624144] (Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Two studies hope to test the benefits of vitamin D once and for all

Thursday, March 11th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , ,
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Two major clinical trials are just beginning in the United States that will likely settle, once and for all, whether everyone living at northern latitudes should pop a vitamin D pill every day to help ward off cancer, heart disease, and a host of other serious ailments.

The trials will also test the benefits of calcium supplements and omega-3 fatty acids, two other nutrients that also have gained a widespread following over their purported health benefits.

Hopes are high that the research studies will end the debate over the sunshine vitamin because they will be using relatively high doses – 2,000 International Units – a day, and involve more than 22,000 people, a large enough group to uncover any benefits or risks.

Both trials have been designed specifically to test the nutrient’s possible role in preventing cancer, perhaps the most dramatic medical claim that has been made about the vitamin.

“We’re not going to change formal public policy [about taking vitamin D] until we have at least one randomized trial with a primary outcome being cancer,” says Joan Lappe, a professor at Creighton University in Nebraska, and the lead researcher on one of the trials.

Dr. Lappe’s review will involve 2,300 postmenopausal women, who will be tracked for four years to check whether the vitamin reduces cancer rates, along with the incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Some of the women will also be given calcium.

The other trial, which will involve 20,000 people, is being run jointly by Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. It will also test the theory that fish oils are good for heart health and stroke prevention, and will run for about seven years.

Both studies are receiving funds from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Vitamin D has acquired its health-cult status because many studies have found that people with more of the nutrient circulating in their blood have lower rates of some cancers. As well, other research – based on epidemiology or the study of disease distribution in large populations – has found that there is more cancer, diabetes, and other chronic ailments among those living at northern latitudes than among people living further south.

This peculiar south-to-north pattern of increasing incidence of many diseases suggests a possible role for vitamin D because most of this nutrient is made in the skin when cholesterol in it is exposed to strong, ultraviolet light – hence the sunshine vitamin moniker.

Light isn’t intense enough to make the vitamin the natural way in northern countries like Canada for nearly six months every fall and winter, causing many people who aren’t supplementing to have seasonal deficiencies and possibly putting them at risk of illness.

While epidemiology has been suggestive of benefits from vitamin D – it was the research technique used to finger cigarettes as a cancer risk – it has the drawback of not constituting proof in the same way as a drug-style clinical trial involving some people taking medication and others a dummy pill, the gold standard for proving the efficacy of any treatment.

The idea that a vitamin deficiency may cause cancer and many other illnesses is also such an unconventional one that it has prompted disputes within the medical research community, with doctors who are skeptical arguing that before people start taking large amounts, physicians should be certain both of its efficacy and potential side effects.

The researchers involved in the trials are also urging caution.

“We have to be careful before jumping on the bandwagon to take megadoses of supplements before we have conclusive answers from randomized trials,” says JoAnn Manson, co-leader of the Harvard/Brigham study and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Another factor suggesting a careful approach is that many nutrients, such as vitamin C and beta-carotene, once as hyped as vitamin D, failed to live up to initial, hopeful research after drug-style trials didn’t find the value in taking them, according to Dr. Manson.

But those who have been urging wider usage of vitamin D say the evidence is already compelling and that people shouldn’t wait for the trial results to start supplementing.

“People should not remain vitamin D deficient,” says John Cannell, head of the Vitamin D Council, a California-based non-profit group that has been advocating widespread use of the nutrient as a public health measure.

Dr. Cannell says that when it comes to vitamin D, physicians have an obligation to “act based upon what is currently known, not waiting for what is going to be known in the future.”

But Dr. Manson says that there may be early indications of the results from her research. For ethical reasons, those participating in the study will be monitored for both harmful effects and benefits, which if found, may cause the trial to be altered.

How much vitamin D should you take?

The doses used in the clinical trials checking vitamin D’s anti-cancer properties will be 2,000 International Units a day, Health Canada’s maximum safe level. This is the equivalent of two typical over-the-counter pills and is designed to raise blood levels of the nutrient to concentrations associated with lower cancer risk in previous epidemiological research.

The Canadian Cancer Society has been recommending 1,000 International Units a day, with whites taking that amount in fall and winter and those with dark skin year-round because non-whites don’t make the vitamin as quickly in Canada’s relatively feeble sunlight.

The cancer society made the recommendation following the publication of study in 2007, the first of its kind, finding that about 1,100 International Units taken daily had anti-cancer properties.

Health Canada says people need take only 200 International Units to 600 International Units a day, depending on age, a recommendation based on vitamin D’s well recognized role in promoting bone health.

There are very few dietary sources of the nutrient, making it hard to get large amounts from food. Fortified milk has 100 International Units per cup. Wild salmon is one of the best natural sources, at about 800 International Units per serving. Eggs contains about 25 International Units per yoke.

Previous research has found that a vitamin D intake of around 400 International Units per day doesn’t have anti-cancer properties.

OUR FIGHT FOR THE SUNSHINE VITAMIN THAT PREVENTS MS

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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express picture

Daily Express

By Hilary Freeman

JUST two days after landing in Australia for a family holiday, Kirsten McLaughlin began to feel better. The 35-year-old mother wasn’t just enjoying the feel-good buzz we all enjoy on a well-deserved break. Kirsten, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) four years ago, found that her symptoms – particularly her crippling fatigue – had improved in the strong sunshine.

A month later, the family flew back to the UK and Kirsten, a former tae kwon do champion, became just as ill as before. Her son Ryan recalls: “The effects of the sun on mum were amazing. I did some research and found that sunshine produces vitamin D. I also found that Scotland, which does not get much sun, has one of the highest rates of MS in the world.”

Last year Ryan, 14, from Drumchapel, Glasgow, launched the Shine on Scotland campaign. Its aim is to ensure all children and pregnant women in Scotland receive free vitamin D supplements. “I don’t want other people to go through what my mum has been through,” he says. “I believe that taking vitamin D will prevent thousands of people developing MS.”

Ryan’s campaign is backed by many neurologists and author JK Rowling, whose late mother had the disease. It is becoming increasingly clear that vitamin D and some other environmental and genetic factors have a significant role to play in MS.

Until a few years ago scientists had little understanding of what caused the disease. All they knew was it becomes more prevalent the further you are from the equator and that there is a genetic element. It was also thought a virus might trigger the disease.

Recent research, however, means scientists might soon be able to predict those at risk of developing MS and even prevent some cases.

Gavin Giovannoni is a professor of neurology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and the co-author of a report into environmental factors affecting MS to be published next month.

“It’s clear one reason some people are more likely to get MS the further they live from the equator is the lack of sunlight,” he says. “The incidence of the disease has been increasing over the past few decades, particularly in women. It’s no coincidence that this has happened at the same time women have begun to avoid the sun and that sunblock has been put in make-up products.”

“Since the Islamic revolution there has been an epidemic of MS in women,” says Professor Giovannoni. “This can only be because they are now covered from head to toe and are no longer exposed to the sun.”

Research has also shown babies born in April or May – who grew in the womb during the winter months – are the most likely to get MS in later life, while those born in November are at much lower risk.

Another study published last year found evidence vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and infancy could increase a child’s risk of developing MS later in life.

The study established a direct relationship between a gene variant known as DRB1*1501 and vitamin D. While one in 1,000 people in the UK are likely to develop MS, this number rises to around one in 300 among those carrying a single copy of the variant and one in 100 of those carrying two copies.

Professor Giovannoni says: “Lack of vitamin D doesn’t cause MS on its own but it’s an important factor. Supplementing with the vitamin could mean some people who are susceptible to MS don’t go on to develop it.

“We’ve also identified a link between MS and the Epstein-Barr virus, which is responsible for glandular fever. If you don’t get the virus, your chance of getting MS is almost zero.

“The problem is 95 per cent of the population is infected with Epstein-Barr at some time. Scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent the virus and if they are successful, it could potentially have a massive impact on rates of MS.”
Dr Susan Kohlhaas, of the MS Society, says: “Researchers have thought for a long time that a combination of genes make some people more susceptible to developing MS.

However these are also common in the general population. Genes are only part of the story though and other environmental factors, such as vitamin D deficiency, exposure to certain viruses and lifestyle factors like smoking have also been implicated in MS.”

The French government has recently begun giving vitamin D to pregnant women. Professor Giovannoni, who says low levels of vitamin D are also implicated in many other diseases such as cancer and Type 2 diabetes, believes the same should be done in the UK.

He says: “We estimate that if you are vitamin D replete throughout your life you can probably lower your risk of developing MS by up to 85 per cent. I am sufficiently convinced to be giving my own daughters vitamin D supplements.”

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/159977/Our-fight-for-the-sunshine-vitamin-that-prevents-MS/

Vitamin D is ray of sunshine for multiple sclerosis patients

Friday, February 19th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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By Melanie Reid – The Times

Multiple sclerosis could be prevented through daily vitamin D supplements, scientists told The Times last night.

The first causal link has been established between the “sunshine vitamin” and a gene that increases the risk of MS, raising the possibility that the debilitating auto-immune disease could be eradicated.

George Ebers, Professor of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford, claimed that there was hard evidence directly relating both genes and the environment to the origins of MS.

His work suggests that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and childhood may increase the risk of a child developing the disease.

He has also established the possibility that genetic vulnerability to MS, apparently initiated by lack of vitamin D, may be passed through families.

These risks might plausibly be reduced by giving vitamin D supplements to pregnant woman and young children.

“I think it offers the potential for treatment which might prevent MS in the future,” Professor Ebers said.

“Our research has married two key pieces of the puzzle. The interaction of vitamin D with the gene is very specific and it seems most unlikely to be a coincidence of any kind.”

Warnings over sun exposure could now also be called into question – sunlight allows the body to produce the vitamin.

Professor Ebers said: “Serious questions now arise over the wisdom of current advice to limit sun exposure and avoid sunbathing. We also need to give better advice and help to the public on vitamin D supplements, particularly pregnant and nursing mothers.”

The news has momentous implications for Scotland and other northern countries, where the incidence of multiple sclerosis is the highest in the world. It will give added urgency to recent moves by Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer to consider recommending vitamin D supplements.

Deficiency in vitamin D, caused by lack of exposure to sunshine, has been increasingly linked to the cloudier climate in Scotland and other northern latitudes. The deficiency is twice as common among the Scots as it is amongst the English – and Orkney and Shetland have among the highest rates.

Studies have also shown that fewer people with MS are born in November and more in May, implicating a lack of sunshine during pregnancy.

The breakthrough comes after a groundswell of expert belief in the importance of vitamin D. Last November, at a conference organised by the Scottish Government, international experts urged vitamin D supplements for Scots to be tested “sooner rather than later” to find whether they could improve the nation’s health.

Researchers for the World Health Organisation said there should be large, randomised trials as there was strong evidence that increased daily intake of vitamin D could significantly improve health.

The seminar followed evidence, revealed in The Times, that Scotland’s poor health record has close links to vitamin D deficiency. Last September this newspaper reported evidence from scientists in Canada that children with early symptoms of multiple sclerosis have low levels of vitamin D.

Until now there has been no scientific proof of the links. However, Professor Ebers and his team have shown that vitamin D affects a particular genetic variant, identified as the one that increases the risk of developing MS threefold.

They suggest that a shortage of the vitamin alters this variant, thus preventing the immune system from functioning normally.

Professor Ebers said: “Whether it’s at the core of MS is going to take some further work, but it does look like a reasonably good chance.”

Last October Professor Ebers, in an article in The Times, backed the idea of distributing vitamin D supplements in Scotland to guard against conditions that may be linked to a deficiency, including MS.

“It is plausible that some 200 cases a year of MS might be prevented in Scotland alone by giving vitamin D to mothers and children,” he wrote.

“Over a trial duration of 25 years, 5,000 cases of this disease might be otherwise prevented.

“The economic impact of each person with MS is at least an extra million pounds during a lifetime.

“Over 25 years £5 billion is at issue in this disease without factoring in the human cost, the increasing rate of MS or inflation. A large-scale programme providing vitamin D could provide scientific evidence.

Schoolboy’s petition prompts move on MS link to vitamin D

Saturday, February 13th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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ryantimesonline

An international conference is to be held in Scotland to discuss the health effects of vitamin D — thanks to the efforts of a 14-year-old schoolboy.

Ryan McLaughlin, from Glasgow, petitioned the Scottish Parliament questioning possible links between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis after discovering that the disease — from which his mother suffers — could be prevalent in Scotland because of vitamin D deficiency caused by a lack of sunlight.

The petition called on ministers to produce guidelines on vitamin D supplements for children and pregnant women, and launch an awareness campaign. As a result of his efforts, the Scottish government recognised “an urgent need” to provide information to health professionals and mothers, and is to launch a campaign.

Ministers also agreed to host a conference on April 27 to discuss the role of vitamin D. The event, to take place in Glasgow, will be opened by Nicola Sturgeon, the Health Secretary. Leading researchers into links between vitamin D deficiency and multiple sclerosis are expected to attend.

Yesterday, as the Public Petitions Committee agreed to close Ryan’s petition, members congratulated him for his achievement. Bill Butler, Ryan’s local MSP, hailed the schoolboy’s effort, saying that “a very great deal of progress” had been made.

The Glasgow Anniesland representative praised the way “Ryan and the McLaughlin family have persuaded the government; and the government has listened to the very sensible suggestions contained in the petition.

“The government has agreed to a co-ordinated programme of action with NHS Scotland to produce guidance on vitamin D, to educate women on its importance, to consider different messages for different groups of people, and to ensure that health professionals are giving correct and consistent advice to pregnant women and new mothers. Not only should the McLaughlin family be congratulated, but also the government for listening.”

He described that as a significant success. An image of Ryan is now featured on promotional literature for the petitions committee. Speaking about the campaign, Ryan said: “After an amazing year in raising both vitamin D and MS awareness, I now have the commitments that I wanted from the Scottish government.

“I applaud the positive action taken by the Scottish government and the support from Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Shona Robison, Health and Sports Minister.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish government said: “We’re keen to learn all we can about any possible links between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis and are keeping a very close eye on all the emerging evidence.”

• Breast cancer is diagnosed more often in the spring and autumn, and less often in the summer, leading researchers to suggest that its season-ality may be connected to vitamin D deficiency. Researchers at the University of South Carolina, who examined 2,921,714 breast cancer cases, also found that the seasonality was increasingly prominent the further away from the equator that the women lived. This implies that lack of sunshine, and therefore vitamin D, was a factor.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7021318.ece

Should we all be taking vitamin D?

Monday, February 1st, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Dr Mark Porter: Should we all be taking vitamin D?

From The Times
February 1, 2010

New research showing that vitamin D may protect against cancer of the colon is the latest in a long line of studies suggesting that there is far more to this vitamin than its traditional role in helping to maintain healthy bones. And although this new study involved more than 500,000 people from ten different European countries, it is pertinent to the UK because so many of us have low levels of vitamin D — especially at this time of year.

So should more of us be considering supplements?

Vitamin D is required to help the body make proper use of calcium — the basic building block of bones — which is why interest in it has traditionally centred on rickets, a condition that results from severe deficiency. But we now understand that it does far more than maintain the skeleton, and that milder degrees of deficiency may predispose to a range of other illnesses including diabetes, lung disease, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis, various cancers, and even Alzheimer’s disease.

The vitamin is manufactured in the skin when we’re exposed to sunlight but our northern latitude and short summers mean that for six months of the year UV levels are so low that most of us don’t make enough of the vitamin to meet basic requirements.

The problem is compounded by the use of sunscreens, which further reduce natural UV exposure during the summer months when vitamin D stores are replenished, and the popularity of supplements containing vitamin A (it is thought that as many as 1 in 5 of the population take one), which antagonise some of the D’s actions.

As well as manufacturing the vitamin in our skin, we also take it in from our diet. It occurs naturally in oily fish, such as tuna and herring, and liver, milk and eggs. In most industrialised countries it is added to margarine, some powdered milks, bread and breakfast cereals.

The scale of the potential problem is nicely outlined by researchers from the University of Sheffield, who looked at vitamin D levels in the cord blood of babies born at the hospital at the end of spring — the time when their mothers’ vitamin D stores were likely to be at their lowest. Seven out of ten of the babies had lower than ideal levels of vitamin D, 90 per cent of whom were white, dispelling the myth that deficiency is principally a problem in ethnic minorities with darker skin (the extra pigment reduces UV penetration even further).

Meanwhile in Finland researchers tracking a group of people born in the Sixties turned up evidence suggesting a link between low levels of vitamin D and Type 1 diabetes later in life. Children brought up in the gloomy winters of Finland are more than a hundred times more likely to develop the condition than their peers in sunny Venezuela. Since then UK research has shown that children given vitamin D supplements are around a third less likely to develop diabetes.

Vitamin D is a steroid and there are receptors on almost every cell in the body. Its link with diabetes could be explained by an action on receptors in the pancreas and on the various cells in the immune system, but there are similar vitamin D specific targets in almost every other organ, including the brain, heart, muscles, kidneys and, of course, the skeleton. Little wonder then that there is growing interest in the role of the vitamin in diseases, ranging from MS to Alzheimer’s.

Should we all be taking a supplement? It’s too early to tell whether mass supplementation is the way forward, but it is now widely agreed that the following key groups are those most likely to benefit:

Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding
Children under 5 (particularly breastfed infants)
The over-fifties
Vegetarians who don’t eat oily fish
Anyone who is housebound or who covers up when outside
Those who are dark-skinned — particularly Asians.

The standard dose for an adult is 10mcg day and trials looking at the safety of long-term supplementation have reported no adverse effects at intakes of more than double that. Much higher doses (50mcg a day or more) can weaken bones and increase the risk of calcium deposits (such as kidney stones) forming elsewhere.

During the summer most people will manufacture enough vitamin D by exposing their face and arms to the sun for an hour across the week. You don’t have to sunbathe, just accumulate around ten minutes of exposure while going about your normal business — assuming you are not wearing a sunscreen, or a moisturiser that contains one.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/expert_advice/article7008426.ece

50% of UK Vitamin D deficient

Friday, January 29th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Spending too long indoors, applying excessive sun screen and the changing ethnic population is causing precariously low levels of Vitamin D in parts of the UK, warn Professor Simon Pearce and Dr Tim Cheetham at Newcastle University.

“More than 50% of the adult population have insufficient levels of vitamin D and 16% have severe deficiency during winter and spring,” they say. “The highest rates are in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England. People with pigmented skin are at high risk as are the elderly, obese individuals and those with malabsorption.”

The research published in the British Medical Journal, has found that the most commonly affected are people of Asian and African descent who live in the North; a key part of the research focused on young Somalis who live in east Newcastle.

Other causes include consistent sun screen application instead of allowing 20 to 30 minutes exposure to the sun two or three times a weeks, staying indoors all the working day and children sitting in front of computer games rather than playing outdoors.

Pearce has written to the Department of Health proposing Vitamin D is added to milk. It is already added to artificial baby milk.

Rickets are associated with the 19th century and young workers in industrial cities. The disease causes softening of the bones and muscle weakness. When a child has rickets, there is not enough mineral in the bones, making them soft and weaker.

Some vitamin D is obtained from certain foods: egg yolk, liver, oily fish such as sardines, herring, tuna, salmon and mackerel. A diet low in these foods will contribute to a lack of vitamin D but the main cause of the problem is lack of sunlight on the skin.

Low Vitamin D levels are associated with greater risk of MS relapse

Thursday, January 21st, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Low vitamin D blood levels are associated with a significantly higher risk of relapse attacks in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who develop the disease during childhood, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

“We have known for some time that vitamin D insufficiency is a risk factor for developing MS, but this is the first study to assess whether vitamin D levels influence the disease course of those who already have MS,” said lead author Ellen Mowry, MD, MCR, a clinical instructor of neurology at the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Center.

The study, which is now published online by the “Annals of Neurology” and is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123246501/abstract , demonstrates that an increase in vitamin D levels by 10 nanograms per milliliter of blood (ng/mL) corresponds with a 34 percent decrease in the rate of subsequent relapses.

In other words, raising the vitamin D level of a person with MS by 15 ng/mL, which requires about 2,000 international units of vitamin D supplementation a day, could theoretically cut a patient’s relapse rate in half, explained Mowry.

“Although we do not yet know if vitamin D supplementation will be beneficial for MS patients, the fact that there is a clear association between vitamin D levels and relapse rate provides strong rationale for conducting a clinical trial to measure the potential impact of supplementation,” she said.

“This is an exciting finding because it indicates that it is very possible for vitamin D supplementation to have a profound impact on the course of this disease,” said senior author Emmanuelle Waubant, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology at UCSF and director of the Regional Pediatric MS Center at UCSF Children’s Hospital. Waubant said she expects similar findings in adult patients with MS.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic and often disabling disease that affects the central nervous system, which comprises the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. A type of autoimmune disorder, MS causes the body’s own defense system to break down a substance called myelin, which surrounds and protects nerve fibers.

Although MS occurs most commonly in adults, a small proportion of cases are diagnosed in children and adolescents. According to the National MS Society, two to five percent of all people with MS experience their first symptoms before the age of 18.

The researchers measured vitamin D levels through blood samples from 110 patients whose MS symptoms began at age 18 or younger. The patients were seen at either UCSF Children’s Hospital or the State University of New York Stony Brook’s Regional Pediatric MS Center of Excellence – two of six multidisciplinary referral centers in the United States sponsored by the National MS Society.

After providing the initial blood sample, patients were followed for an average of 1.7 years, during which the researchers recorded the total number of relapses each patient experienced. According to Mowry, a relapse or flare-up of MS causes new neurologic symptoms or the worsening of old ones, such as impaired vision, problems with balance, or numbness. Relapses can be very mild or severe enough to interfere with a person’s ability to function.

During the follow-up period, the researchers assessed the patients’ relapse rates and vitamin D levels after controlling for such factors as age, gender, race, ethnicity, use of MS treatments and the duration of follow-up care.

“If we are able to confirm that vitamin D supplementation is an effective treatment, my hope is that it will help improve the quality of life for all MS patients,” Mowry said.

In addition to a randomized clinical trial of vitamin D supplementation in MS patients, Mowry said further studies are also needed to determine the mechanism by which vitamin D affects inflammatory processes and, in turn, eases symptoms of MS.

Additional co-authors from UCSF include Dorothee Chabas, MD, PhD; Jonathan Strober, MD; Jamie McDonald, BS; Jorge Oksenberg, PhD, and Peter Bacchetti, PhD. Co-authors from other institutions are Lauren Krupp, MD; Maria Milazzo, MS, CPNP, and Anita Belman, MD, all of the Pediatric MS Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The study was supported by a National MS Society Sylvia Lawry Fellowship Award and an additional grant from the National MS Society.

Source: PRWEB (21/01/10)

People born in April most at risk of MS

Monday, January 4th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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New research suggests a link between a lack of sunlight and the disease

By Mark Macaskill

Babies born in April face the highest risk of suffering from multiple sclerosis in later life, according to a ground-breaking study that suggests pregnant mothers’ lack of exposure to sunlight may be to blame.

Scientists found mothers who were pregnant during the autumn and winter were most likely to give birth to those who would suffer from the debilitating neurological disease.

The researchers, based at Glasgow university and the city’s Southern General Hospital, believe the spike in cases among children born in the spring may be due to mothers being exposed to less sunshine at a vital stage in their unborn babies’ development.

Vitamin D, which is largely gained through sunlight and food, is known to regulate a gene that can predispose individuals to MS. If the gene is passed on to the unborn child, without being regulated by a sufficient amount of vitamin D, it could “hard wire” them to develop the disease in later life.

The new study, published in the European Journal of Neurology, is the biggest yet carried out in Scotland, which has the highest rate of MS in the world.

MS affects about 85,000 people in the UK and 10,500 in Scotland. While the cause is not known, experts believe a combination of genetic and environmental factors are responsible for the condition.

The Glasgow researchers examined data on about 1,300 MS patients born in the west of Scotland between 1922 and 1992. They found that about 400 people born in March, April and May went on to develop MS, 22% higher than expected. Almost half of all male and a quarter of female sufferers were born in April.

By comparison, there were about 16% fewer MS births in the autumn months. Those born in November had the lowest incidence of the disease.

Dr Colin O’Leary of the institute of neurological sciences at the Southern General and co-author of the study, said several theories about the condition were being explored.

“It’s a very interesting observation and springtime seems to be a period of relatively high risk,” he said.

“Seasonal risk may be a reflection of adverse events that occurred at the time of birth, in utero in the preceding nine months, or during the months following birth, when the central nervous system continues to undergo rapid development.

“There could be an association between reduced sun exposure and vitamin D levels.” O’Leary now plans to carry out a UK-wide study with scientists in Oxford.

Professor George Ebers, from Oxford university’s department of clinical neurology at the John Radcliffe Hospital, said: “The difference [in developing MS in Scotland] between being born in April versus November is an astounding 50%. This is real, there’s no doubt of a seasonal link. There are different theories, but I think the April excess of births could be linked to a sunlight deficiency.

“The focus is on trying to prove what the environmental effect is and, pending conclusive demonstration of that effect, some people might view it as prudent to conceive at certain times of the year to lower their child’s MS risk if there is a history of the disease in the family.”

Ryan McLaughlin, 14, from Glasgow, whose mother has MS, launched a campaign for all pregnant women and young children in Scotland to be given Vitamin D supplements.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish government, said: “Much of the evidence of a link between vitamin D and MS is still at a very early stage. We will continue to review all well-conducted research across the world. If the recommendations on vitamin D change we’ll make the appropriate arrangements.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6973890.ece

Ryan Mclaughlin launches ‘Fortify Scotland’s school milk’ campaign

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Ryan McLaughlin launches ‘Fortify Scotland’s school milk’ campaign

14 year old Ryan McLaughlin of the Shine on Scotland campaign has launched a new social networking campaign to gain public support for his Idea of adding vitamin D to all school milk in Scotland. The 14 year old campaigner believes that vitamin D is so important to improving the health of scottish kids and wants to ascertain how many parents agree with him, using the social platform Facebook.

Ryan is asking scottish parents to join the group and have their say on the subject.

Figures compiled by Oxford University for a national supplementation program of vitamin D in scotland suggest 2000 cases of MS could be prevented over the next 10 years and save the UK economy £4 billion over 25 years.

The World Health Organisation have said that Scotland should start a national supplementation program.

The campaigner says ‘much work still has to be done to get the RDA of vitamin D raised significantly and I will work with the Scottish Government, SACN and the FSA to get that done, but I am positive that fortifying school milk with vitamin D offers the best solution to offering protection to all kids in Scotland’

I am proud to say that the Scottish Government have been amazing in supporting my goals, they have really listened and acted on the current evidence in support of vitamin D, as more evidence is put in place I believe that the case for fortification of school milk will increase, the Scottish government have not ruled out my proposal for fortified school milk they have said “Following advice from the FSA Scotland, the Scottish Government believes that it would not be appropriate to introduce fortified milk (or other fortified drinks) at school until such time as the evidence base is more conclusive about the impact on the population.

However this was said before new research released by the scottish government and the announcement that NHS Scotland said there was now an ‘urgent need to educate women and that all pregnant mothers and all children up to the age of 4 should be taking vitamin D everyday’ .

Now that BUPA have said that they believe vitamin D could prevent cancer and Israel announced all 3% milk is to be fortified I think we need to ask the Scottish Government to look at this again as the evidence is certainly more conclusive and it can only have a healthy impact on the population .

We are now aware that it will cost  £2.7 million if every pregnant mother and child takes up the Health Start vitamin’s on offer but what would it cost to fortify the school milk, I think some political will and some help with financial costs to the dairies could see this happen sooner rather than later.

Almost all milk in the US is fortified with vitamin D, Israel has just decided to fortify all 3% milk and we have heard rumors that both France and Ireland are also considering such a move.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150104079977&ref=nf

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