Exposure to sunshine for children and young adults may protect against multiple sclerosis (MS), new research has revealed.
In questionnaires filled in by 332 participants with MS or their parents, 19 per cent stated that they spent less than 30 minutes daily outdoors during the previous summer, compared to six per cent of those who did not have MS.
When the researchers adjusted for MS risks, like smoking and female sex, they found that the participants – aged between three and 22 – who spent an average of 30 minutes to one hour outdoors daily had a 52 per cent lower chance of MS, compared to those who spent an average of less than 30 minutes outdoors daily.
“Sun exposure is known to boost vitamin D levels,” said co-senior author Dr Emmanuelle Waubant, professor in the UCSF department of neurology and of the Weill Institute for Neurosciences.
“It also stimulates immune cells in the skin that have a protective role in diseases such as MS. Vitamin D may also change the biological function of the immune cells and, as such, play a role in protecting against autoimmune diseases.
“Advising regular time in the sun of at least 30 minutes daily especially during summer, using sun protection as needed, especially for first degree relatives of MS patients, may be a worthwhile intervention to reduce the incidence of MS.”
The study follows previous work by other researchers that has demonstrated an association between increased ultraviolet exposure in childhood and lower odds of adult MS. The positive impact of sunshine has also been shown in a host of other conditions, including Long COVID.
While MS usually strikes adults between the ages of 20 to 50, statistics show that up to five per cent of the one million patients in the United States with the condition begin experiencing symptoms in childhood.
Paediatric-onset MS is initially highly inflammatory, but takes longer than adults to advance, with symptoms of secondary progression, such as moderate to severe weakness, poor coordination and bowel and bladder control, occurring on average 28 years after disease onset, according to experts.
However, these disability landmarks are reached approximately ten years earlier than in adult MS.
The researchers also found an association with the intensity of sunlight and estimated that residents of Florida would be 21 per cent less likely than residents of New York to have MS.
They noted that sun exposure was “dose-dependent,” the longer the exposure the lower the risk. And even exposure in the first year of life seemed to protect against MS, they said.
Clinical trials are needed to determine if “increasing sun exposure or vitamin D supplementation can prevent the development of MS or alter disease course post-diagnosis,” said Professor Waubant, also director of the UCSF Regional Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center.
