A major genetic study on August 25 confirmed a link between low vitamin D and a higher risk of multiple sclerosis, a finding which experts said could lead to better treatment and prevention. Previous observational studies have found an association between a person's level of vitamin D, which comes from sunlight and from certain foods, and MS, a debilitating autoimmune disease that affects nerves in the brain and spinal cord, and has no known cause or cure.
The latest study by Brent Richards, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues published last week in PLOS Medicine, gets around that obstacle by analysing the association between genetically reduced vitamin D levels and the likelihood of MS in a pool of 14,498 people with multiple sclerosis and 24,091 healthy controls.
The study found that people with genetically lower vitamin D levels face double the risk of getting MS, which is often diagnosed between age 20 and 50.