Vitamin D or sunshine may help treat MS

NEW ORLEANS, May 26 (UPI) -- Giving multiple sclerosis sufferers vitamin D pills or encouraging them to spend more time in the sun might help treatment, U.S. researchers said.

In a review for F1000 Medicine Reports, Bridget Bagert of Louisiana State University School of Medicine and Dennis Bourdette of the Oregon Health and Science University highlight recent advances in potential MS treatments.

MS results from a failure of the body to recognize itself and the immune system attacks and destroys the sheath that protects nerve fibers, as if it were a foreign body or infection, the researchers said. Vitamin D, which is produced in the skin in response to natural sunlight, is an immune system regulator. This might explain why MS is less common in sunnier countries, the review said.

Bagert and Bourdette said oral vitamin D therapy is now in phase II clinical trials, to see how well it works and how much would be needed.

"The arrival of effective oral agents will give MS patients more therapeutic options and will be a major advance in the global effort to alter the natural history of this chronic disease," the researchers said in a statement.