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The findings, based on the DNA profiles of tens of thousands of people of European descent, add weight to the theory that the sunshine vitamin plays a role in MS. Scientists are already testing whether giving people extra vitamin D might prevent or ease MS. Experts say the jury is still out. It is likely that environmental and genetic factors are involved in this disease of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, they say. And if you think you may not be getting sufficient vitamin D from sunlight or your diet, you should discuss this with your doctor. Taking too much vitamin D can also be dangerous.
Research around the world already shows MS is more common in less sunny countries, further from the equator. But it is not clear if this relationship is causal - other factors might be at play. To better understand the association, investigators at McGill University in Canada compared the prevalence of MS in a large group of Europeans with and without a genetic predisposition to low vitamin D.
Research article can be found from Plos Medicine.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @03:18AM
Whenever doctors or nutritionists tell you that you must not do something that has been done for hundreds or thousands of years (or in case of sunlight, millions of years), then it is time to take that advice with a grain of salt. Case and point is sunlight. It is well known that excessive sunlight exposure can lead to higher risk of skin cancer - one of the most treatable forms of cancer if not ignored. But no, they don't tell you "don't get burned, cover up around noon few hours". No, they tell you "you must wear sunscreen 100% of the time!". Well, sorry, but that is advice I do not take. And now, here is evidence that lack of sunlight is driving disease like MS, never mind most forms of cancer. While dermatologists seem to only think about skin, low vitamin D is a contributory cause of most other cancers because vitamin D is vital to your immune system health.
http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20140501/low-vitamin-d-linked-to-aggressive-advanced-prostate-cancers-study [webmd.com]
http://www.webmd.com/colorectal-cancer/news/20150116/vitamin-d-colorectal-cancer [webmd.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D [wikipedia.org]
etc. etc. etc. So, stop with sunscreen, unless you'll burn. Go out into the sun. But don't be stupid and sunbathe and burn your skin. You know, "everything in moderation".
Evidence indicates the synthesis of vitamin D from sun exposure is regulated by a negative feedback loop that prevents toxicity, but because of uncertainty about the cancer risk from sunlight, no recommendations are issued by the Institute of Medicine (US), for the amount of sun exposure required to meet vitamin D requirements.
Lucky for you, I can tell you that sun exposure of about 15-20 minutes saturates your skin, and this takes about 4-5 hours to clear via liver. So if you go on a 30 minute walk, (or do gardening or something) with no shirt on at 10am and then again at 3:30pm for another half an hour, you'll be loaded with Vitamin D. And the easier you burn, the less sun you need.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @07:15AM
Agreed.
They also don't tell that going outside in the local sun is completely different from a tanning bed and from leaving the office completely pale and catching a plane[1] to e.g. Spain for three weeks.
The local sun is not nearly as harmful, because your skin is already used to it, especially if you go outside a couple of hours every day starting in spring. Flying to a country near the equator will expose you to levels that your skin is not prepared for, and if you insist on doing that, sun screen is a must. Tanning beds can be even worse, often they don't even give off the correct kind of UV that creates vitamin D, but still gives the brown color that reduce how much vitamin D your skin will produce. So you get the higher risk of skin cancer AND low vitamin D at the same time.
[1] Before somebody says "but people have been living in Spain for millions of years: Yes, but they didn't fly there. They either lived there and thus fall under "local sun", or they had to walk. If you walk, your skin will be used to the sun before you get there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @05:41AM
Tanning beds are a result of emission spectrum, not black body radiation. Emission spectrum is characterized by very sharp spectral lines at given frequencies, not a continuous spectrum like the sun. So agreed, very bad.
And yes, you are 100% correct with acclimatization. If you live somewhere, that is different than if you fly there and then park your butt on the beach for hours. As you said, if you fly from Ireland to Kenya for vacation, well, you better have SPF 30 sunscreen, or you'll have no skin left.
Everything in moderation!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday August 27 2015, @02:33PM
Whenever doctors or nutritionists tell you that you must not do something
And just what is it they are telling you you must not do?
But no, they don't tell you "don't get burned, cover up around noon few hours".
Err... yes "they" do.
No, they tell you "you must wear sunscreen 100% of the time!".
Do "they"? I've never heard "them" say so.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 27 2015, @05:29PM
Not sure the evidence supports the assertion that sunscreen blocks Vitamin D absorption. Theoretically, it should prevent some, but actual trials have shown no difference in practice.
Use of sunscreen. Sunscreen prevents sunburn by blocking UVB light. Theoretically, that means sunscreen use lowers vitamin D levels. But as a practical matter, very few people put on enough sunscreen to block all UVB light, or they use sunscreen irregularly, so sunscreen’s effects on vitamin D might not be that important. An Australian study that’s often cited showed no difference in vitamin D between adults randomly assigned to use sunscreen one summer and those assigned a placebo cream
reference [harvard.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @06:45PM
Healthcare is like astronomy before Tycho Brahe collected good data. There are essentially no reliable facts on which we can hang our hats and develop theories. Direct replications are actively discouraged by those people. Publishing info that directly conflicts with a previous study is considered an "attack" that hurts peoples feelings and careers, who wants to deal with making people feel bad all the time leading to enemies? So people just keep quiet and stuff it in the file drawer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2015, @05:51AM
An Australian study .... very few people put on enough sunscreen to block all UVB light, or they use sunscreen irregularly, so sunscreen’s effects on vitamin D might not be that important
Around here, there is a large push to "protect kids from UV", which means adverts everywhere to put sunscreen on your kids 100% of the time, even in morning and evening because of "dangers". If you think this is not damaging, well, think again. Sure, many will ignore crazy guidelines, but there are enough helicopter parents around to screw things up for their kids.