United States: Results from recent studies show that infants who invest moderate exposure to summer sunlight develop better health outcomes when they become adults with multiple sclerosis.
Research published in Neurology on February 12 confirmed that summer sun exposure by pregnant mothers produced positive pregnancy outcomes.
More about the findings
According to Dr. Gina Chang, the lead study author and a neurology resident at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, “It is important not to spend too much time in the sun without sun protection; however, greater exposure to sun has been tied in previous research to a lower risk of developing MS in childhood,” US News reported.
“It’s encouraging that our study found that greater sun exposure during early development may also be beneficial in helping to reduce disease activity in children who are later diagnosed with MS,” she added.
Results of the study
The evaluation included 334 study participants who developed their MS before their fourth enrollment year at ages ranging from 4 to 21.
The participants showed their symptoms for an average duration of 3.3 years, which exceeded the study duration by half.
Moreover, as the experts suggest, overall, 62 percent of the children had faced some form of MS relapse, referred to as “new or returning symptoms lasting for at least 24 hours and separated by at least 30 days from the last MS attack, without a fever or infection,” US News reported.
The research participants’ guardians completed surveys to report their child’s and maternal exposure to sun as well as sun protection habits and clothing choices at different life periods.
Sunlight exposure studies revealed that children who spent at least thirty minutes under summer sun each day during their first year of life had a 33 percent lower probability of MS relapse occurrence after researchers eliminated sunscreen-related variables together with hat and clothing observations.
When mothers spent this duration of time in sunlight during their second pregnancy trimester, it resulted in a 32 percent reduction of MS relapse in their offspring.
Furthermore, “Our findings suggest that sun exposure in early childhood may have long-lasting benefits on the progression of childhood-onset MS,” Chang added.
“Future studies should look at how time in the sun at other time periods before and after MS diagnosis affects disease course, to better guide sun exposure recommendations for children with MS and to help design potential clinical trials,” she continued.