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A new study provides the most compelling evidence yet that vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin, may protect against the neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS).
Harvard University researchers who reviewed the medical data of more than seven million US military personnel found the risk of MS fell dramatically as the level of the vitamin circulating in the blood rose.
The effect was only seen in Caucasians; the data in the study for African Americans and people of Hispanic descent was inconclusive.
The relationship was particularly strong in the under-20 age group, according to the study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Individuals who ranked in the top 20% of the sample for vitamin D levels had a 62% lower risk for the chronic autoimmune disease than those in the bottom 20%.
The study also found that there was a 41% decrease in risk for MS with every increase of 50 nanomoles per litre of circulating vitamin D.
"The study strongly suggests that vitamin D has a protective effect, and one which could potentially prevent thousands of cases of MS," says co-author Alberto Ascherio, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that vitamin D could reduce the incidence of the incurable condition.
But Ascherio says it is still insufficient to make the case for an increase in the recommended daily dietary intake of vitamin D.
"It's important to establish whether it's a true causal relationship," says Ascherio.
He says the question should be urgently addressed by means of a trial that would enrol volunteers and assign them to take the supplement.
MS is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that afflicts some two million people worldwide.
It is more common among people with northern European ancestry, according to the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The illness can be relapsing and remitting or progressive, with symptoms that range from fatigue and slurred speech to tremors, stiffness, poor coordination and in the most severe cases paralysis.
Vitamin D, dubbed the sunshine vitamin because it is naturally produced in skin that is exposed to the Sun's ultraviolet rays, is thought to rein in the overzealous immune system cells that cause the condition.
For more information on MS, including information for patients and their carers, see the MS Australia website.
Harvard University researchers who reviewed the medical data of more than seven million US military personnel found the risk of MS fell dramatically as the level of the vitamin circulating in the blood rose.
The effect was only seen in Caucasians; the data in the study for African Americans and people of Hispanic descent was inconclusive.
The relationship was particularly strong in the under-20 age group, according to the study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Individuals who ranked in the top 20% of the sample for vitamin D levels had a 62% lower risk for the chronic autoimmune disease than those in the bottom 20%.
The study also found that there was a 41% decrease in risk for MS with every increase of 50 nanomoles per litre of circulating vitamin D.
"The study strongly suggests that vitamin D has a protective effect, and one which could potentially prevent thousands of cases of MS," says co-author Alberto Ascherio, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that vitamin D could reduce the incidence of the incurable condition.
But Ascherio says it is still insufficient to make the case for an increase in the recommended daily dietary intake of vitamin D.
"It's important to establish whether it's a true causal relationship," says Ascherio.
He says the question should be urgently addressed by means of a trial that would enrol volunteers and assign them to take the supplement.
MS is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that afflicts some two million people worldwide.
It is more common among people with northern European ancestry, according to the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The illness can be relapsing and remitting or progressive, with symptoms that range from fatigue and slurred speech to tremors, stiffness, poor coordination and in the most severe cases paralysis.
Vitamin D, dubbed the sunshine vitamin because it is naturally produced in skin that is exposed to the Sun's ultraviolet rays, is thought to rein in the overzealous immune system cells that cause the condition.
For more information on MS, including information for patients and their carers, see the MS Australia website.
