Obesity link with MS

Obesity link with MS

A study by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has found that being obese as a teenager may be linked with an increased risk of multiple sclerosis as an adult. The researchers used data from nurses taking part in a large study on diet, lifestyle factors and health.

It is the mission of HSPH to advance the public's health through learning, discovery and communication.

The BBC reports that a 40-year study of 238,000 women found that those who were obese at 18 had twice the risk of developing MS compared to women who were slimmer at that age.

Yet body size during childhood or adulthood was not found to be associated with MS risk, the US researchers report in Neurology.

Over the length of the study, 593 women were diagnosed with MS, a condition caused by the loss of nerve fibres and their protective myelin sheath in the brain and spinal cord, which causes neurological damage.

Comparison

The researchers compared the risk of the disease with body mass index (BMI) - a ratio of weight to height - at age 18.

Those participating were also asked to describe their body size using a series of diagrams at the age of five, 10 and 20.

The study showed that those with an "obese" BMI of 30 or larger at age 18 had more than twice the risk of developing MS.

There was also a smaller increased risk in those who were classed as overweight. The results were also the same after accounting for smoking status and physical activity level.

Body shape

When comparing the risk of MS with self-reported body shape, the researchers found no association between childhood obesity and the future chances of developing the disease.They also found no risk associated with adult obesity.

Yet women who had a larger body size at 20 years of age also had almost twice the risk of MS compared to women who reported a thinner body size.

Vitamin D

Previous research has linked high levels of vitamin D with a reduced risk of MS and the researchers point out that obesity is associated with low vitamin D levels in the body.

Vitamin D is essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or mis-shapen. Vitamin D sufficiency prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Together with calcium, vitamin D also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis.

The researchers suggest fatty tissue produces substances that affect the immune system, which may also provide a link with the chances of developing MS.

Further research should look at confirming the findings in men and individuals from different ethnic groups as well as comparing with vitamin D levels, they said.

"Our results suggest that weight during adolescence, rather than childhood or adulthood, is critical in determining the risk of MS," said study author Kassandra Munger, ScD, of HSPH in Boston.

"There's a lot of research supporting the idea that adolescence may be an important time for development of disease, so what we have found is consistent with that."

Susan Kohlhaas, research communications officer for the MS Society, said: "This study does not account for several other factors that may play a role in causing MS. Based on that, more work is needed.

"As such, it is difficult to determine whether teenage obesity could be a possible factor in causing MS in women."

Despite the findings from HSPH, a MS charity warned more research was needed to confirm the findings.

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