[Lara]

For your information... on news here tonight

Published: 15 June 2009
Queensland researchers help unlock genetic keys to MS

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=18593

<snips from article>

Queensland scientists are part of a consortium that has discovered two genetic variants which increase the risk of MS and reveal links to other autoimmune disease.

Changes in the region on chromosome 12 were discovered to coincide with an increased susceptibility to type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, whereas the region identified on chromosome 20 also coincides with susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis and Graves' disease.

In addition, chromosome 12 encodes the enzyme that converts vitamin D, which we obtain mainly through sunlight, but also our diet, into an active form that our body can use.

[Debbie D]

Vit. D keeps popping up more and more as they do more research on MS...I told my daughter about this, since she's scared now that I've been dxd.
Thanks for the link.

[Koala77]

Here's another Australian news article released today.

"Researchers at the Menzies Institute in Hobart have found that increasing vitamin D levels reduces the risk of getting Multiple Sclerosis by up to 50 per cent."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/austral...-of-vitamin-d/

[FaithS]

I've also heard the Vitamin D theory frequently. And, the risk of developing MS when one grow up in Canada or the northern states (or Australia, New Zealand, etc.) seems to suggest that lack of Vitamin D could be a possible contributing factor.

I wonder, however, if Vitamin D needs to come specifically from the sun. I grew up in Canada, but drank LOTS of milk, so a lack of Vitamin D from food sources was not an issue for me. Just wondering.

Thanks for the link, Lara. Read your snips; will read article later.

~ Faith

[braingonebad]

Originally Posted by FaithS

I've also heard the Vitamin D theory frequently. And, the risk of developing MS when one grow up in Canada or the northern states (or Australia, New Zealand, etc.) seems to suggest that lack of Vitamin D could be a possible contributing factor.

I wonder, however, if Vitamin D needs to come specifically from the sun. I grew up in Canada, but drank LOTS of milk, so a lack of Vitamin D from food sources was not an issue for me. Just wondering.

Thanks for the link, Lara. Read your snips; will read article later.

~ Faith

It does not feel the same to me. I feel distinctly different effects from sun exposure than anything I can eat or drink. I have hx of vit D deficiency and it would be interesting to see what my chromosomes look like.

It would be terribly cool if vit D is all it's gonna take to reduce that many cases of ms.

[dmplaura]

From what I've always been told, it's sun vitamin D, which would make sense with the distance from equator theory.

If you're taking supplements, D3 is the way to go!

[lurkingforacure]

I normally am in the PD forum but I will butt in here and share my two cents...this is my understanding of Vitamin D:

When sunlight hits our skin, it uses cholesterol in the body to make vitamin D, specifically, D3. I don't know how a synthetic form of D3 could be better than making our own.

The older we are, the longer it takes the sun on our skin to make the same amount of Vitamin D3....the darker our skin is naturally, that also takes longer...and obviously, if one is taking statins, which lower cholesterol, you are depleting the cholesterol the body has to have in order to make Vitamin D3. My dad, a smart-aleck PhD from MIT, told his doctor that he was not interested in lowering his cholesterol, and in fact, was concerned it wasn't high enough, because of the vitamin D3....his doctor had no clue, and sadly my dad had to explain the whole process to him.

I can remember my grandma, who died 30 days shy of 100, peeling back her shirt, rolling up her sleeves and pant legs, and sitting in the sun on her porch a good part of the day (a lovely sight, but at almost 100, who gives a rip? No pun intended, but that was funny!). How did she know? I have no idea, but it worked, she was mentally all there until very shortly before she died, and in very good health, although frail.

One other thing: nix the sunscreen. Not only do they mask the beneficial sunlight we need to contact our skin to make the Vitamin D3, but they fool us into staying out in the sun far longer than our body would otherwise allow, so that instead of getting burned and getting out of the sun, as we would normally do without sunscreen, we continue to stay out in the sun...which I have read damages the nerves under the skin surface. I dont' allow my kids to use sunscreen anymore and we live in Texas! What do we do? Go out early, before 11am, or after 5pm, and don't stay out very long in the sun...use hats, common sense.

It would be great if all one needed to treat MS was our beautiful sun!