Life in the Sun Lowers Multiple Sclerosis Risk

People who have had lifelong exposure to high levels of sunlight are less likely than people with less exposure to develop multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests.

The risk of having a preliminary symptom of multiple sclerosis decreased by 30 percent for every 1,000 kilojoules of exposure to ultraviolet light, the study said.

These levels of sun exposure were accumulated over a lifetime (you might be exposed to 6 kilojoules of UV light on a summer day), so people shouldn't sit in the sun for extended periods of time without sunscreen and expect to lower their multiple sclerosis risk, said study researcher Dr. Robyn Lucas, a fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University.

"There is strong evidence that the risks of high doses of UV radiation in a single exposure greatly outweigh any possible benefits," Lucas told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The benefits coming from higher vitamin D levels were already known, but because it was sun exposure that this study linked to decreased multiple sclerosis risk, it's possible that only sun-generated vitamin D and not that provided by food sources or vitamin D supplements provides those benefits, Lucas said.

The findings of the study appear tomorrow (Feb. 8) in the journal Neurology.

The importance of sun exposure

Researchers looked at the sun exposure histories of 216 Australians, ages 18 to 59, who had an early sign of multiple sclerosis but were not diagnosed with the disease, as well as 395 people who did not have any MS symptoms. The participants reported how much sunlight they were typically exposed to, and the researchers also measured their skin damage from sun exposure and their melanin levels. The participants' vitamin D levels were measured by blood tests.

Over their lifetimes, people in the study had been exposed to 500 to 6,000 kilojoules of UV light. Researchers found that those with the most skin damage from sun exposure were 60 percent less likely to have had a first sign of multiple sclerosis than people who had the least damage.

And people with the highest vitamin D levels were less likely to have a first sign of multiple sclerosis than people with the lowest vitamin D levels, the study said.

The researchers also found that multiple sclerosis was 32 percent more common in the Australian regions farthest from the equator than the regions closest to the equator a difference they attributed to differences in sun exposure, vitamin D levels and skin type.

The secret to vitamin D's effects

This study's findings revealed the relationship between the first sign of multiple sclerosis, called the first demyelinating event, and sunlight, said study researcher Anne-Louise Ponsonby, an epidemiologist at Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Australia.

The first demyelinating event can appear as a loss of sensation in a limb, blindness in one eye, or weakness in one limb that lasts more than 24 hours, Ponsonby said. Most people who have such an event will go on to develop multiple sclerosis in 10 years. The disease is diagnosed after a second event.

Vitamin D is known to affect immune cells, and the immune system plays a significant role in spurring multiple sclerosis, said Dr. Tom D. Thacher, an associate professor of family medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, N.Y., who was not involved with the study.

While the study showed that increased sun exposure is linked with a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis, it does not prove that vitamin D prevents the disease, said Thacher, who wrote an article on vitamin D insufficiency published last month in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

"Other factors besides vitamin D that are related to sun exposure could be responsible for protection from multiple sclerosis," such as melanin production from getting a suntan, Thacher told MyHealthNewsDaily.

A study published last month in the journal Multiple Sclerosis found that people who had sufficient levels of vitamin D had higher levels of antibodies to the Epstein-Barr virus , which is linked to increased risk of multiple sclerosis.

"Low vitamin D may predispose people to certain viral infections," said Dr. Ellen M. Mowry, author of that study and an assistant neurology professor at University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the new study. "Since some viral infections have been associated with MS risk, low vitamin D could also influence MS by this mechanism."

Pass it on: Increased exposure to sunlight and high vitamin D levels are associated with a decreased risk in multiple sclerosis.

• Women with Multiple Sclerosis More Likely than Men to Carry Gene
• 9 Good Sources of Disease-Fighter Vitamin D
• Multiple Sclerosis; Symptoms, Treatment & Management

Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Amanda Chan on Twitter @AmandaLChan.