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Multiple sclerosis

Latitude and vitamin D influence disease course in multiple sclerosis

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 13, page 3 (2017)Cite this article

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Two recently published studies have provided new insights into the effects of latitude and vitamin D status on the disease course in multiple sclerosis (MS). A team led by Bruce Taylor at the University of Tasmania, Australia, found that living at higher latitude is associated with a younger age of MS onset, and Julie Hejgaard Laursen and colleagues at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, showed that vitamin D supplementation reduces relapse rates in patients with relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS).

For the purposes of their study, Taylor and colleagues used age of disease onset as a marker of MS severity. They obtained data on 22,162 patients with MS from MSBase, an international population-based registry that collects longitudinal data in near real time.

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References

  1. Tao, C. et al. Higher latitude is significantly associated with an earlier age of disease onset in multiple sclerosis. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2016-314013 (2016)

  2. Laursen, J. H. et al. Vitamin D supplementation reduces relapse rate in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis patients treated with natalizumab. Mult. Scler. Relat. Disord. 10, 169–173 (2016)

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  1. Heather Wood
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von Geldern, G. & Mowry, E. M. The influence of nutritional factors on the prognosis of multiple sclerosis. Nat. Rev. Neurol. 8, 678–689 (2012)

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Wood, H. Latitude and vitamin D influence disease course in multiple sclerosis. Nat Rev Neurol 13, 3 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2016.181

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