Vitamin D and its disease-fighting capabilities

Posted in Avonmore, Nutrition, Sunshine, Super Milk, Vitamin D by admin on November 17th, 2009

Long has it been known that Vitamin D has health-promoting benefits, but it is only recently that the full extent of these benefits has come to light.

The link to MS - Multiple sclerosis is thought to be caused by a mix of environmental and genetic factors. And while scientists are still trying to unravel how these interact, a growing body of research points to vitamin D as a key environmental factor.

In people with MS, the immune system malfunctions and attacks the protective coating around nerve cells known as myelin sheaths. The disease can affect sight, balance, continence, speech and more, and reduces life expectancy. Vitamin D’s influence on MS – and other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes – is thought to be related to the vitamin’s ability to suppress autoimmune responses.

The link between vitamin D and MS was for many years thought to be wild speculation. Now more and more studies point in the same direction: people who have higher levels of vitamin D in their blood early in life are less likely to get MS later in life. Also, MS patients have been found to have low levels of vitamin D in their blood– and the levels appear to be even lower during relapses.

One small study published this year found that MS patients who took high doses of vitamin D – an average of 14,000 IU a day for a year – had significantly fewer relapses than those MS patients who took an average of 1,000 IU a day. Studies have also shown that vitamin D prevents experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the mouse model of human MS.

A Times (UK) investigation into the links between vitamin D deficiency and multiple sclerosis led a 14-year-old boy whose mother has the disease to petition Holyrood to provide a vitamin supplement to all children and pregnant women.

Ryan McLaughlin, from Glasgow, decided he had to do something after he read an exclusive report in The Times showing there was a direct interaction between vitamin D and a common genetic variant, which increased the possibility of MS being inherited.

His mother, Kirsten, 34, became ill with MS three years ago and earlier this year Ryan underwent tests after he showed symptoms of the disease.

His campaign, Shine on Scotland, has started an e-petition and has already won the backing of J.K. Rowling. “I am really honoured to support Ryan in his fantastic campaign,” the author said. “Ryan’s mother has MS as did my own mother. I only wish I had the gumption at 14 to do what Ryan is doing and get such an important issue raised in the Parliament.”

Ryan has received messages of support from Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, and Kathleen McDermott, the Bafta Award-winning actress.

On June 16, he will lead 500 children on a march to the Scottish Parliament to lodge his petition.

Reference: Melanie Reid, The Times, May 19, 2009 “Schoolboy petitions MSPs over vitamin D link to MS”