Prescribing sunshine for multiple sclerosis?

Could a holiday in the sun reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis? In a recent review for F1000 Medicine Reports, Bridget Bagert and Dennis Bourdette highlight recent advances in potential treatments.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) results from a failure of the body to recognize itself. The immune system attacks and destroys the sheath that protects nerve fibres, as if it were a foreign body or infection. Vitamin D, which is produced in the skin in response to natural sunlight, is an immune system regulator. This might explain why MS is less common in sunnier countries.

Giving MS sufferers vitamin D pills - or encouraging them to spend more time in the sun - might be a cheap and easy treatment. Bagert and Bourdette point out that oral vitamin D therapy is now in phase II clinical trials, to see how well it works and how much would be needed.

They say: "The arrival of effective oral agents will give MS patients more therapeutic options and will be a major advance in the global effort to alter the natural history of this chronic disease".

More information: http://www.f1000medicine.com/reports/10.3410/m1-34/

Source: Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine

   

• THEY - May 26, 2009
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  I think there needs to be far more research on this, I have a hard time believing it. I only know two people that have MS, one person had horses and was extremely active outdoors, and even went to Africa for a month during the early stages of her disease. My other friend played beach volleyball, and was constantly out on the water either sailing or on power boats, he even admitted to me that when he goes out alone, he sails naked if it is warm enough.
  
  I hope it isn't someone making a blanket statement with no valid proof just hoping to get funding. I am not buying this theory. Chances are there is some reason the body is not absorbing/making Vit D from the sun, and so the oral supplements might be helping.
  
  I would love to see something to help this disease, but I don't think taking a vacation in a sunny place will do a darned thing.
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• GregHight - Aug 28, 2009
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  It is well proven that Vitamin B analogues are effective in modulating an autoimmune response such as psoriasis.
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