Just another "amazing?" article...rocket scientists?

[Rena705]

Just had to share this one with you!  I don't know where these people have been all these years that they are just finding this out but I again we have to clear the nitwits out of the way to make way for something that's really news!

Sunlight May Play Role in Multiple Sclerosis Risk
4/29/2010Print E-mail THURSDAY, April 29 (HealthDay News) -- When and where people are born may affect their odds of developing multiple sclerosis, according to researchers who found that children born in the early summer months in the Southern Hemisphere are more likely to develop multiple sclerosis than those born in early winter.

A similar pattern has been found in the Northern Hemisphere, where the summer and winter months are the reverse of those in the Southern Hemisphere. The researchers think the higher disease rates may have something to do with the children's mothers getting less exposure to sunlight during pregnancy.

Scientists have linked low vitamin D levels to higher rates of multiple sclerosis, and sunlight boosts vitamin D levels.

In the new study, published online April 29 in BMJ, Anne-Louise Ponsonby, of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, and her colleagues analyzed data on children with multiple sclerosis born in Australia from 1920 to 1950. They tried to find links to the levels of sunlight in the regions in which the mothers lived.

The risk was about 30 percent higher for those born in November and December, which are early summer months in the Southern Hemisphere, compared with those born in the early winter months of May and June, the study found. Babies were more likely to have multiple sclerosis if their mothers had low exposure to sunlight from five to nine months before giving birth.

The study authors wrote that researchers need to analyze the idea of giving vitamin D supplements to pregnant mothers to help prevent multiple sclerosis.

See ya in two weeks!

Lots of Hugs,
Rena

[tonyad]

  Hmmmm,  Oh the Stories they write.....

       I still think that we should go and get Russell's suitcase off of your parents dining room table and let them chilllllll, and then they can come up w/ a heck of an article...Oh, but not from their dreams.....  (just kidding )

   You gotta love it...Keeps life interesting   :0

Be Well,
~Tonya

  

  

[PastorDan]

Wonder if my being born in March in Central Ohio had any bearing on things?  Mom's sunlight exposure level was probably pretty much nil, with me in the oven, and a brother born 15 months before me.  She didn't get much sun anyway; I remember her breaking out on her legs from it on our first trip to Florida, during my teen years.

Still have to dig out my lab results for this and another issue or two, but maybe later; too many irons in this week's fire.

[doublevision1]

There is some good info on this site for those interested in reading further on vitamin D and the role it plays in overall health.

http://www. vitamindcouncil .org/

[twopack]

"Babies were more likely to have multiple sclerosis if their mothers had low exposure to sunlight from five to nine months before giving birth."

I have heard about the link with place of birth, childhood sun exposure and vitamin D levels AFTER birth many, many times.  I think this is the first time I've noticed the mention of the pregnant woman's exposure to sun or Vitamin D level during the pregnancy as it relates to later development of MS.

According to this, my MS may have been encouraged because I was gestated during winter months by a mother in a low sunlight climate.  Where I lived or how much sun I got after my June birth may not have mattered as much as what happened in utero during development.

Maybe I just never heard the theory stretched back that far before.  It's new(s) to me.

Mary

[saveone]

This vitamin D issue is interesting to me.  6 weeks ago it was confirmed my vit D levels were low.  I now take 50, 000 units per wk.  Maybe one day they will figure it all out :)

terry

[supermum_ms]

I think it does, there was something or other about it the other day. Apparently the cancer council of Australia, has done such a good job getting the message out, with their slip, slop, slap campaign (slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscrean, slap on a hat) and the sun awareness campaign in schools (no hat no play), that there has been a huge increase in low vit D levels.

We are being adviced to spend 10-15 minutes a day with out sunscrean and fully exposed to the sun. I'd be fine in weather is low 20's dc but i start getting red if its higher, in the 30's or as we do the 40's, then i'll be burnt, i can get burnt through the window's on hot days lol.

I gew up wearing zink all over me whilst my friends wore cooking oil, i think all our sun screans are 30+ now, its like putting on white honey, thick and sticky, it takes effort to rub it all in lol. Oh and you have to use water proof as well or its absorbed too quick.

Kids have a tube attatched to their school bags, in their first year of school they need help doing it as well as remembering but after that they are on their own. We sure respect the sun over here, UV is the killer, for us skin cancer's are very common. Problem is though our protections are bringing up different issues ie Vit D

Oh thats a cheery thought to go to bed with (not!) lol

Cheers........JJ

[Lulu54]

PD - yes.  There is a campaign quietly being told that says let your kids play outside without sunscreen for a bit so they can get the Vit D.  

The key point is protect their face with sunscreen but let their arms and legs go naked to the sun.  Skin cancer on the extremeties is pretty rare and a low risk.  

-Lu

[PastorDan]

Silly question just came to me: Does sunscreen affect Vitamin D production?

(Maybe I should've typed that upside down?) ;>D

[supermum_ms]

I think you'll find this is the lead up to a larger study, this is the nutts (or justification piece) and later will come the bolts (the research they wanted to do). Over here there seems to be a necessity to prove a fact, before they can get the money needed to do the research that they really want to do.

We are a hot country, lots and lots of vit D and we're on the wrong side of the equater, most if not all of the data comes from your side of the world. I think there was sceptisism due to the amount of vit D people here are exposed to, so they replicated the findings of the cooler countries.

I find it funny, we're pretty laid back over here, probably thought it was about time we caught up with the rest of the world on this one lol.

I'm an ex Brit, came here when i was 9, so well with in the 15 year old BUT i'm a red head with easily burned skin, so i cant sit out in the sun to get my vit D. If i'm not slathered in 30+ sun screen, wide brimmed hat, long sleeves and lots of ready available shade, i turn into a crispy critter. lol

Cheers.....JJ