London - Vitamin D may be able to combat multiple sclerosis, researchers have said.
They discovered that it can block the migration of destructive cells to the brain, which causes the condition. This could help explain anecdotal reports that the “sunshine vitamin” prevents or eases symptoms.
MS is most commonly found far from the equator, where there is less sunshine to trigger production of vitamin D in the skin.
Researchers simultaneously gave mice the rodent form of MS and a high dose of vitamin D.
They found symptoms of the disease were suppressed.
“Vitamin D might be working not by altering the function of damaging immune cells but by preventing their journey into the brain,” said lead scientist Anne Gocke, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. - Daily Mail