Vitamin D, Oestrogen & Multiple Sclerosis

The fact that after puberty women get MS more than men indicates a potential role for female sex hormones in the development of the disease. The fact that this gender imbalance has increased over the past 50 years suggests an interaction of the sex hormone with a modifiable environmental factor.

A study led by the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin-Madison has investigated this, showing that oestrogen and Vitamin D act cooperatively to promote regulatory cells in the immune system. The authors suggest that during Vitamin D deficiency in women, this loop is broken, which allows for the autoimmune disease to develop. Whilst further studies must be done to assess this finding, it provides an interesting insight into two well-known MS phenomena.

Following on from this, a separate study from McGill University has shown that people with certain genetic traits that predispose them to Vitamin D deficiency are at a higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis.

This adds further evidence to the potential significance of maintaining sufficient Vitamin D levels. This makes research, such as the PrevANZ study currently underway in Australia and New Zealand, vitally important. It will be assessing the use of Vitamin D supplementation to prevent the transition of a first demyelinating event to MS.

The full text of the study can be found at the following link: http://www.plosmedicine.org/…/…/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001866