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to Vitamin D main page : "Vitamin
D Deficiency Called Major Health Risk"
Article printed
in the Arizona Republic on Tuesday, January 13, 2004
This article is provided for your information and use.
Study
focuses on theory lack of sunlight may be main cause
of disease
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE - A huge
study testing a long-held theory about the cause of
multiple sclerosis has found that women who took a Vitamin
D supplement cut their risk of developing the incurable
neurological disorder by 40 percent, compared with those
who did not take the supplement.
The study, which
involved 187,563 women, is the first large, prospective
examination of an observation that has been around for
decades - that MS might be caused in part, by a lack
of sunlight sufficient to allow the body to make its
own Vitamin D.
The finding has
particular relevance to people in Wisconsin and other
Northern states where the incidence of MS is substantially
higher.
In about the northern
half of the United States, the incidence of MS is 110
to 140 cases per 100,000, compared with 60 to 80 cases
per 100,000 in the southern half. And in areas near
the equator, the rate of MS is very low.
"We found that
it is (Vitamin D) protective against MS," said
Kassandra Munger, the study's lead author and a researcher
in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School
of Public Health. "How long that protection lasts,
I'm not sure."
Multiple sclerosis
is a chronic, lifetime disease that is diagnosed mainly
in young adults, according to the National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National
Institutes of Health, which funded the study.
In the United States,
as many as 350,000 people have the disease.
MS is caused by
an inflammation of nerve fibers in the central nervous
system, which in turn, results in the destruction of
myelin, a substance that insulates nerve fibers in the
the brain and spinal cord.
Symptoms can vary
in severity and may include vision problems, muscle
weakness, a lack of coordination and balance, a feeling
of "pins and needles" and numbness, and mild
cognitive problems.
the disease is twice
as common in women as men and also is more common in
Caucasians than in other races.
Most people with
MS have a normal life expectancy.
The study, appearing
in the January issue of the Journal Neurology, is part
of the ongoing Nurses' Health Study. The women in this
study were followed for 10 to 20 years.
Those who took a
daily multiple vitamin supplement with at least 400
international units of Vitamin D had 40 percent less
incidence of MS than those who did not take a supplement
with Vitamin D.
Depending on a person's
age, 200 to 600 international units a day is recommended.
Vitamin D also is
made in skin cells, which interact with sunlight. But
with aging, a person's ability to make Vitamin D is
reduced.
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