By David Liu, PHD

Saturday Sept 15, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Published recently in Multiple Sclerosis Journal, one study suggests breastfeeding lowers risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the breastfed and another associates migraine to the disease in women.

Silja Conradi of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany and colleagues conducted the first study and found men and women who were breastfed were at 42 percent reduced risk of multiple sclerosis, compared to those who were not.

Breastfeeding is known to be protective against other autoimmune diseases, which is why the researchers set out to conduct the case-control study involving 245 multiple sclerosis patients and 296 population-based controls who completed a standardized questionnaire on their history and duration of breastfeeding in infancy and demographic characteristics.

After adjustment for age, gender, number of older siblings and other possible confounders, breastfeeding was found to be associated with 42 percent reduced risk of multiple sclerosis, compared to non-breastfeeding.  The association seemed to be dose-responsive.  Those who were breastfed for four months or less were 13 percent less likely to develop the disease, compared to a 49 percent reduction in the risk among those who were breastfed for more than four months.

The researchers concluded " Breastfeeding is associated with a lower risk of MS. These results are in line with findings of previous studies on other autoimmune diseases, in which breastfeeding was shown to have protective effects."

In another study, Ilya Kister of MS Care Center, Department of Neurology, NYU School of Medicine in NY, USA and colleagues found history of migraine was associated with elevated risk for multiple sclerosis in women.

Kister et al. analysed data from 16,000 female nurses enrolled in Nurses' health Study II (NHS-II) to determine the relative risk of multiple sclerosis among the participants with and without migraine and also the odds ratio of being diagnosed with migraine in women with and without multiple sclerosis.

Of women who were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the rate of migraine was 29 percent, compared to 21 percent among those who were free of multiple sclerosis.  The odds of being diagnosed with migraine was 57 percent higher in women with pre-existing multiple sclerosis, compared with those without the disease.

The researchers concluded "Using a large, cohort of women-nurses, history of migraine was associated with an increased risk of MS. However, the difference in absolute risk of MS in migraineurs and non-migraineurs was small."

Multiple sclerosis is a nervous system disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It damages the myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerve cells. 

The common multiple sclerosis symptoms include visual disturbances, muscle weakness, troubled coordination and balance, sensations such as numbness, prickling, or "pins and needles", and thinking and memory problems,  according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

An estimated 400,000 Americans live with multiple sclerosis, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Vitamin supplements, vitamin D, cinnamon, cannabis, resveratrol, and caffeine may help prevent or treat multiple sclerosis, according to previous studies.