Researchers at the Unversity of California, San Francisco, recently published results of their study examining the assocaition between obesity and Vitamin D status and brain volume on MRI. They choose brain volume loss measurement as this is an indication of neurodegeneration.
469 patients with clinically isolated syndrome ( CIS) or relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) who were followed for 5 years participated this study.
Previous sutdies have reported several environmental risks for MS, including , EBV infection, smoking, vitamin d levels and obesity. Hence they endeavored to study the association of body mass index ( BMI) and vitamin D status to gray matter volume ( gray mater is the neuron cell bodies and white matter is the axons) white matter volume and and total brain volume.
They found that higher BMI was associated with lower gray matter and whole brain volumes.
One hypothesis as to why obesity might be a risk for lower brain volume is that obesity creates a chronic inflammatory state in the body that could induce oxidative injury that leads to neurodegeneration. The association of obesity with lower brain volume has also been shown in other central nervous system degenerative dieases like Alzheimer's Disease as well.
Given that obesity is a modifiable risk with potential impact on neurodegeneration and consequently disability in MS, it is of utmost importance to study this association futher. It is also worthwhile for MS patients to be aware of this potential risk and adapt more healthy lifetstyles.
Ref:
Body mass index, but not vitamin D status, is associated with brain volume change in MS Ellen M. Mowry, Christina J. Azevedo, Charles E. McCulloch, Darin T. Okuda, Robin R. Lincoln, Emmanuelle Waubant, Stephen L. Hauser, Daniel Pelletier. December 11, 2018; 91 (24)
By,
Jai S Perumal, MD.