You’re A Little Late

An MStranslate Opinion Piece

Sometimes it can seem like every month scientists have discovered another genetic factor that increases an individual’s risk of getting multiple sclerosis (MS).  Similarly, lifestyle and environmental factors, such as smoking and obesity, have been shown to raise your chances of getting MS.

But if you are someone who already has MS, should you care?  Hasn’t that boat already sailed?  Whilst there is obviously no desire to wish MS on anyone else, the priority must be on research that is going to benefit you….today if possible.   But what if that research IS this research?

It can be, as long as we move past the WHAT and focus on the WHY.

Let’s take an example from a study that we will be summarising in the next week.  The study has shown that obesity increases the risk of developing MS.  This adds to other literature in the area that has made similar conclusions.  Let’s now look at the answer to our two questions:

WHAT?

Obesity increases the risk of MS.  Maintaining a healthy body weight will decrease your risk of developing MS.  Implementing strategies to encourage healthy living will decrease the population risk of getting MS.

WHY?

The body is a very fine tuned and complex machine.  When things go wrong, it is because some part of that machine isn’t working like it should.  When considering this, it is important to keep in mind that the body is a vast number of connections, pathways and processes.  For this reason, identifying where things begin to go wrong is really important in understanding the problem.

In this way, knowing that obesity increases the risk of developing MS doesn’t directly help someone who already has an MS diagnosis…but maybe it is a clue that helps in our search for answers.

In terms of the obesity link, those pathways are already being examined, with links to Vitamin D levels, hormone levels and the immune system being explored.

What does this mean?  It means that in the grand scheme of things, an individual clue may not be that important.  What is truly important is where the clues lead us and our ability to follow that trail.

Written for MStranslate by Brett Drummond