Research published in PLOS Medicine by Dr. Brent Richards of the Jewish General Hospital, Quebec, shows that obesity in early adulthood is associated with an elevated risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a progressive neurological disorder which involves immune system dysfunction resulting in damage to the myelin sheath which surrounds the nerves in the spinal cord and the brain.
The team, composed of researchers in Canada and the UK, investigated whether genetically determined obesity was associated with a greater risk of developing Multiple Sclerosis.
“These findings may carry important public health implications because of the high prevalence of obesity in many countries”
Taking into account that other previous research pointing in this direction Drs. Alberto Ascherio and Kassandra L. Munger say that this helps to confirm that indeed, obesity in early life is causally related to the risk of developing multiple sclerosis risk and provides a further rationale for obesity prevention.”
What their research found was that an increase in body mass index from the overweight to the obese category an average size adult woman increasing in weight from approximately 150 to 180 pounds) was associated with an increase of about 40% in the risk of MS.
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