Vitamin D and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis
In a study involving data collected from 35,794 mothers of participants of the Nurses’ Health Study II, inquiring about their diet during pregnancy with their nurse daughters, out of whom 199 of the nurses were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), results found that the relative risk of MS was lower among women born to mothers with high milk or vitamin D intake during pregnancy. Specifically, the multivariate adjusted RR of MS was 0.62 for nurses whose mothers consumed 2-3 glasses of milk/day, as compared to those who consumed less than 3 glasses per month; and 0.57 for nurses whose mothers were in the highest quintile of vitamin D intake, as compared to those in the lowest. Comparing the highest to the lowest quintiles of predicted 25(OH)D levels in pregnant mothers, the adjusted RR was 0.59. The authors state, “Higher maternal milk and vitamin D intake during pregnancy may be associated with a lower risk of developing MS in offspring.”
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