Vitamin D deficiency is frequent in Northern Europe as 90% of Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin under the effect of the sun’s ultraviolet irradiation. Low Vitamin D blood levels in childhood and adolescence are a factor in the development of multiple sclerosis in adulthood. In a Finnish study published in March 2016, mothers with inadequate Vitamin D levels in early pregnancy almost doubled the risk of their children developing multiple sclerosis.
Until now, the fight against smoking has been underestimated in the patients’ population suffering from multiple sclerosis. However, tobacco use clearly aggravates the disease’s prognosis and leads to a more rapid onset of the progressive phase.
The results of basic and clinical multiple sclerosis research over the past ten years are gradually leading to significant changes in its treatment.
The theme of this issue of the Charcot Foundation newsletter is two different yet connected areas of concern: that of the clear preponderance of women affected with MS and that of its occurrence in young people under 18.
Since June 2015 the Fondation Charcot Stichting is placed under the Patronage of Her Majesty The Queen.
