Smoking Has No Effect on Progression of Multiple Sclerosis

Newswise — Contrary to an earlier report, smoking appears to have no effect on the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study published in the October 9, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Researchers in the Netherlands surveyed 364 people at both the initial and secondary stages of MS, 263 of whom were smokers.

The study showed there is no association between cigarette smoking and the progression of MS. Due to the high number of smokers with MS, it had previously been suggested there was a correlation between the progression of the disease related to smoking.

“Because the cause of MS as well as reasons for progression is generally unknown, there have been many genetic and environmental factors tested,” said study author Marcus W. Koch, MD, with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “Cigarette smoking is one more factor we can rule out.”

Koch says the finding is in conflict with a previous study that suggested cigarette smoking increased the rate of MS progress. “Differences in that study’s size and methodology may account for this discrepancy. Since our study involved more people, and participants were personally interviewed, we feel it makes our results more accurate.”

This study was supported by MS Anders in the Netherlands

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 20,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www.aan.com.

© 2007 Newswise. All Rights Reserved.

Study finds men and women with MS equally transmit genetic risk to offspring

Published: Thursday, June 28, 2007 | 12:42 PM ET
Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) - A study of Canadian families with a parent who has multiple sclerosis has found men and women transmit the genetic risk of MS equally to their children.

The study, published Wednesday in the online edition of the journal Neurology, contradicts an earlier finding that fathers with MS were more likely than affected mothers to pass on the risk for the disease.

For this latest study, the researchers looked at 3,088 families with one affected parent and found that among the 8,401 children, there were 798 with multiple sclerosis.

In the end, they found equal transmission of the genetic risk to children, at 9.4 per cent for fathers, compared to 9.8 per cent for mothers.

Dr. George Ebers, a professor of clinical neurology at the University of Oxford, says his study involved 16 times as many people as the previous research, which had found dads were more likely than moms to transmit the risk of developing MS.

This new study also found no difference in the numbers of daughters and sons receiving the genetic risk of the disease from their parents.

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"Intriguingly, we also found when half-siblings both have MS, there is a clear maternal effect, with mothers much more likely to be the common parent," Ebers said in a release.

The families studied had children born before 1980, so offspring would have at least reached the peak age for the onset of multiple sclerosis, which is estimated at 25 to 30 years old.

If families had both parents affected by the disease, they were removed from the analysis.

© The Canadian Press, 2007

Is Benign MS Really Benign?

Some patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have symptoms so mild, their doctors believe they will never develop the debilitating symptoms often associated with the disease.

So-called benign MS has been diagnosed in many patients who over the course of 10 years never show any serious symptoms, and these patients are told that more than likely their disease will remain mild. However, new research shows benign MS may not be so benign after all.

In a study, researchers from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, found that among 169 people diagnosed with benign MS, almost half had a more progressive form of the disease after 10 years. After 20 years, 21 percent of the patients were using a cane to walk.

We need to be careful about what we tell people, and not give them false hope that their symptoms may never get worse said Dr. Ana-Luiza Sayao, lead author of the study, published in Neurology.

MS is a potentially debilitating disease caused by inflammation in the nervous system. The disease can cause muscle weakness, balance problems, fatigue, visual difficulties, memory loss as well as trouble speaking and depression.

There are two major forms of MS. In patients who have a relapsing-remitting form of the disease, symptoms come and go. However, in patients with the secondary-progressive form of the disease, the disease steadily gets worse.

Benign MS, on the other hand, is diagnosed when a patient has one or more episodes of MS symptoms but does not develop any of the disabling symptoms of the disease over the course of several years. Previously, experts believed that this small group of patients was unlikely to begin developing more serious symptoms after those few years have passed.

However, in Sayao's study, 20 percent of the patients had developed the secondary-progressive form of MS, with steadily worsening symptoms.

It is unclear if there is a way to determine whether a patient with seemingly benign MS will be at risk for other forms of the disease. We did not find that gender, the symptoms when the disease began or age when the disease began were associated with either disease progression or remaining benign, said Sayao. More research needs to be done to identify criteria to determine which patients will remain with mild disability over the long term.

© 2007 Healthology Inc