Hey everyone!
So yesterday somebody posed the question of why MS is more common in women than in men. I found a few genotyping studies that confirmed the greater prevalence of certain MS-related genes in women, but it seems that the answer to this question is still largely unknown. Estrogen, though, seems to have some therapeutic effect on managing MS. Check these articles out:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19539954
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19591008
The second article is more recent, and even mentions various clinical trials that are currently testing the efficacy of estrogen therapy in MS treatment.
- Julia
Hi Julia. The article I found in class that I had brought up did state, like you said, the exact cause of MS is still not well understood. The article did mention, however, that one theory is that environmental factors may trigger the genetic mutation that possibly causes this disease. This idea is backed up by the fact that if it were solely genes that played a role, then mothers with MS would just as likely pass the gene mutation to their sons as they would their daughters. The article also mentioned that earlier studies implicated vitamin D deficiency as being one of the factors possibly associated with MS as the rates of MS are higher in areas furthest away from the equator.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting the fact that MS seems to be more prevalent amongst women than men. There can be a correlation however as CJ said that MS is more prevalent in locations further from the equator, due to the lack of Vitamin D. It used to be that when a lot of physical labor and outdoor work was conducted by men, the women "generally" held down the household. Thus explaining how we can see in older cases that MS is more prevalent amongst women than men.
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