From The website of SHINE on Scotland:
25.05.10
The Lancet Neurology contains a review of evidence on vitamin D deficiency as a possible risk factor for MS
The worldwide prevalence and incidence of multiple sclerosis (MS) are on the increase. The need for strategies to prevent this devastating disease is therefore greater than ever. As highlighted in a Review in this issue of The Lancet Neurology, vitamin D deficiency might be an important modifiable risk factor for MS.
This raises the question of whether population-wide supplementation programmes might be a reasonable prevention strategy.
Vitamin D deficiency is especially common in high latitude regions, such as northern USA, Canada, northern Europe, and New Zealand, where weaker ultraviolet B rays during winter months are insufficient for people to produce enough vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency has traditionally been linked to bone diseases such as rickets; in addition to MS, links with other diseases such as type 1 diabetes, heart disease, infectious diseases, and some types of cancer are now emerging.
Pregnant women, young children, and the elderly are at the greatest risk. Vitamin D deficiency might also adversely affect disease course in many disorders, including MS, although evidence for this is less robust.
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