Multiple Sclerosis in Scotland

[tedhutchinson]

I've recently become aware of the excess number of MS cases there are in Scotland and I'm somewhat concerned that people who actually live in Scotland may be as ignorant of the problem as I was.

Perhaps if anyone living in the North of England or Scotland listens to to presentaions at

http://www.direct-ms.org/presentations.html they will be better informed and better prepared to take the appropriate measures to reduce their or their families risk factors.

A start could be made by visiting http://zardoz.nilu.no/%7Eolaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez.html where with the help of Google Earth or Multimap you can work out when you can next top up your vitamin d reserves by sunbathing for free. In the meantime you could consider using a sunlamp or suntanning studio, not to get a tan but just sufficiently to create a glow which is enough to trigger the vitamin D synthesis.

Vitamin D supplements are cheap enough, Cholecalciferol, is readily available but you have to be aware that 4000iu is your daily requirement so simply using the RDA will only prevent you getting rickets, it will not reduce your MS risk. If you spend £4000 daily paying £400 into your account only stops you getting made bankrupt it doesn't reduce your debt significantly.

For more information about Vitamin D The Vitamin D council can be found at

http://www.cholecalciferol-council.com/

[libertine]

SNOOZE...MS may not be completely preventable by getting more sunlight, but it has been an accepted fact for years that people in the Northern Hemisphere and especially the far northern climes are more susceptible to getting MS than those who live in sunnier areas.

I had not heard the vitamin D connection, but it does make some sense.

I have a young frined with MS so keep up on most new discoveries just to stay connected. Her latest treatment has been very minute chemo therapy treatments about once a month. They worked, but the patient is limited to only so many in a cycle. Maybe a lifetime.

[tedhutchinson]

SnoozeControl wrote: I'm too lazy to visit those sites, so let me ask you this... are you saying MS is preventable by getting more sun? That sounds ridiculous, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelieve for the moment if you can give me some scientifically based comments about it.There are some who believe it is preventable by getting more sun but as the predisposition to acquire MS is determined in part (another part is genetic) by the amount of Vitamin D available in the womb. (May born babies in N are 20% more suseptible than November babies) and the amount of exposure while you are actively growing also affects your potential for acquiring the condition. If you haven't time for the full presentation which explains the issues in greater detail you may find time to skim through the booklet Booklet #2 Protect Your Family from Multiple Sclerosis http://www.direct-ms.org/booklets/Prote ... FromMS.pdf

which gives a good summary of current theories.

Simply taking the Vitamin D and oily fish options though will also reduce your chances of getting several other conditions as Omega status is known to be involved in Alzheimer's disease Asthma Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Bipolar disorder Cancer Cardiovascular disease Crohn'sdisease Depression Diabetes Eczema High blood pressure Huntington's disease Lupus Migraine headaches Multiple sclerosis Obesity Osteoarthritis Osteoporosis Psoriasis Rheumatoid arthritis

and

Vitamin D is associated with Alzheimer's disease Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)Bipolar disorder Cancer Cancer Crohn's Disease Depression Mental Illness Diabetes Eczema Heart Disease Hypertension Lupus Obesity Migraine Multiple Sclerosis Osteoarthritis Muscle Weakness and Falls Chronic Pain Psoriasis Rheumatoid arthritis VDDS

The overlap between these two lists implies a casual connection between them and this isn't surprising as it is known that for DHA (an omega 3 oil) to pass through the cell wall an ion exchange from vitamind has to be present. So a deficiency of Vitamin D will be reflected in lower levels of omega 3.

[tedhutchinson]

1 in 3 people will develop some form of cancer

1 in 9 women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives

1 in 9 men will develop prostate cancer

1 in 20 people over the age of 65 have dementia

1 in 22 people have chronic heart disease

1 in 33 people have diabetes

1 in 500 people have Parkinson’s Disease

1 in 520 people have a stroke each year

1 in 700 people in the will develop MS

It very interesting that the list above includes all the conditions in which a low level of vitamin d has been shown to increase the risk factors.

The last figure by the way is wrong for Scotland the incidence of MS in Scotland I am sure is 200 per 100,000 so that works out at 1 in 500. Still not enough to panic about but it is quite clear that increasing Vitamin D levels by supplementation, fortification of milk, using sunbeds/tanning studios would reduce the risk of all those conditions above. See the links provided earlier and this is also worth reading.

[PDF] SUNLIGHT ROBBERY:

Anyone wanting to buy their own sunlamp may find one at ebay, tesco's online or Amazon quite reasonably. Supplemental vitamin d is available in the uk I think the cheapest is Healthydirect if you go through Quidco who give a 21% cashback. Omega 3 which is absorbed into the cells in the presence of Vitamin D, is cheapest in the liquid form called Omega Juice from Zipvit. May be different in other countries. omega 3 fatty acids: healthconditions shows the conditions associated with a low level of Omega 3 and these clearly overlap those caused by low levels of Vitamin D