It has been suggested that being obese as a teenager could increase someone’s chances of developing multiple sclerosis later in life.
Researchers from the Harvard School for Public Health examined data taken from nurses who were part of a large study into diet, lifestyle and health. They discovered that those who were obese, meaning they had a BMI of over 30, by the time they were 18 were twice more likely to develop the disease.
Of all the women who took part in the study, 593 were discovered to have multiple sclerosis. The progressive illness causes neurological damage, caused by the loss of nerve fibres and the protective sheath they provide in the brain and spinal cord.
The women had been asked to use a series of pictures to describe their body size at ages 5, 10 and 20. When the researchers compared their self-reported body shapes with the incidences of MS they found no link between obesity and the number of diagnosis of the illness. However this changed when they used BMI as a measure of obesity.
Previously studies have drawn links between low levels of Vitamin D and MS, and the Harvard scientists pointed out that obesity was linked to low vitamin D levels.
The team said that their findings supported the idea that adolescence was a crucial time for the development of disease and advised that educating teens about obesity and using methods to prevent teenage obesity could reduce the numbers of women being diagnosed with MS later in life.