Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Medicine Science

Risk For MS 30% Higher For Those Living In Cities, Study Finds (upi.com) 47

schwit1 quotes UPI: City-dwellers are nearly 30 percent more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis than those living in more rural areas, a study presented Friday at the European Academy of Neurology Virtual Congress has found.

Based on the results, which will also be published in European Journal of Neurology, air pollution could be a risk factor for the development of the disease, according to the authors, who conducted their research in Italy.

"It is well recognized that immune diseases such as MS are associated with multiple factors, both genetic and environmental," co-author Dr. Roberto Bergamaschi, of the IRCCS Mondino Foundation in Pavia, Italy, said in a statement. "We believe that air pollution interacts through several mechanisms in the development of MS and the results of this study strengthen that hypothesis," he added.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Risk For MS 30% Higher For Those Living In Cities, Study Finds

Comments Filter:
  • Probably true (Score:1, Informative)

    Cityfolk love Windows 10 and MacOSX. We plain rural folk love our Linux.

  • Those testing positive for MS are more likely to be diagnosed to have MS than those not tested.

    People drinking Water are less likely to die of dehydration that those who never drink any fluids at all.

    Green Grass is more likely to be green than Brown Grass.

  • MS has been linked to vitamin D deficiency for some time now. Fancy thing that cave, er, city dwellers in an urban aerosol might be vitamin D deficient, along with all that readily available refined sugar that they consume in the city...
    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      Give us a break. Suburbanites never even leave their houses except in a car.

    • Why did you throw in your refined sugar hatred, irrelevant. There are zero peer reviewed studies saying that has any relevance.

      • Also the insinuation that urban populations consume more refine sugar than rural populations. Perhaps they do, but I've been to a few county fairs out in the sticks that would leave me to believe otherwise. Americans in general have shitty diets.
        • by Somervillain ( 4719341 ) on Sunday May 24, 2020 @08:52PM (#60100468)

          along with all that readily available refined sugar that they consume in the city...

          Huh? What city are you talking about? I grew up in the middle of nowhere in wholesome midwestern farm country. Every time I visit my home town, I am shocked at how fat everyone is. I live in a big east coast city, as soon as I land in the midwestern airport, the percentage of people > 300 lbs goes WAY up...in fact, some days, I would say that easily 1/3 of the people I saw in the airport are morbidly obese. Once I fly back to where I live, I barely notice anyone that large. In my cohort, I am a fatass (34-36" waist) and my doctor is nagging me about losing weight. When I travel to rural areas, I am below median weight for my age.

          Girls often tell that lame old joke...I'm only a 6 in New York, but in Minnesota, I am a perfect 10. It may be mean and stupid, but going on weight alone, there's a lot of truth to it.

          City folks are many things, especially assholes, but remove high blood pressure from the equation and they're WAAAAAAY healthier than suburbanites and rural folks. Hell, I am not so certain their blood pressure is higher, they just have more tense personalities that makes you think they're hypertensive....a result of having things to do and real responsibilities. Those who can't keep up get out of the city when they get older.

          There is a lot of interesting research about urban ailments. It may be the pollution. It may be stress (it's hard to make it work in the city if you don't have a good job). It may be that we have better doctors and they actually effectively diagnose these diseases. Maybe people prone to disease are attracted to urban environments or hate living in the burbs. However, in my experience, urban folks definitely eat healthier and get more exercise, on average, so I am very confident that is not a factor.

          • by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

            This is probably a regional it-depends. In Montana, rural types are generally much leaner than town types. So I was astonished when (mind you this was back in 1980) I stopped to see a friend in an eastern South Dakota farming community of maybe 200 people, chanced upon their group Xmas dinner... and discovered that literally every adult at the whole-town gathering was 300 pounds.

            Only other place I've seen that is small-town Mexico.

        • Don't forget sweat tea. That stuff makes cola look like plain water.
      • Re:VD and sweeties (Score:4, Insightful)

        by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Sunday May 24, 2020 @08:52PM (#60100464) Journal
        The Mayo Clinic [mayoclinic.org] (hardly a quack medicine clinic) says:

        Research studies have indicated that taking 400 IUs or more of vitamin D per day significantly decreases the risk of MS in women.

        And the NIH says [nih.gov]:

        Though there is increasing evidence indicating that lower vitamin D levels are associated with increased risk of MS and with greater clinical and brain MRI activity in established MS, the impact of vitamin D supplementation on MS activity remains inadequately investigated

        So there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and MS, but it's not been fully investigated to determine is vitamin D supplements can help.

        You're welcome.

      • Why did it trigger your "hail corporate" confomism?

        And you really had to throw a "zero studies" line in there. Knowing full well how many studies show clear evidence for what was obvious to researchers since literally the 1940s (e.g. Dr. M. O. Bruker): That refined sugar is the source of the majority of our modern diseases, especially those falsely called "age-related".

        Why are people like you like that? Always jumping out of the bushes, to defend your corporatism and the man, to find conspiracy theorists ev

        • That refined sugar is the source of the majority of our modern diseases, especially those falsely called "age-related".

          Interesting that we live 20+ years longer, on average, even as the use of refined sugar has increased....

          Remind me to tell my 85 year old father (note that average male life expectancy in the 40's was about 60) to stop using sugar in his coffee, since it'll kill him to keep using that refined sugar....

        • Again, you blather about unrelated things. Zero studies show MS has any relevance to sugar consumption, you just threw that in there because you like to harp about sugar. Logic fails you, you blame things you don't like for things not connected.

    • City dwellers are also treated to a steady diet of fluoride and chloramine, unlike rural residents drinking well water.
      • Don't leave out the stress from the ceaseless noise, as well as the constant lighting. Stress effects the immune system

        Just as a point of reference, my well water has 0.35 ppm fluoride. No chloramines though.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

          Don't leave out the stress from the ceaseless noise,

          It's funny that you say that. We've recently moved out to a farm way up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and everything was so beautifully quiet, but the 17 year cicadas have just woken up and it's starting to sound like a million poorly-tuned transistor radios all playing at once outside.

          Fortunately, it only lasts a few weeks and then we get 16 years off, but still...

      • You are talking about the US.

        In Germany, for example, the standards for tap water are higher than that for bottled water. Which is why the vast majority of water sold in bottles, is fizzy mineral water. (And foreign brands who don't get that we don't need them.) Nobody sane buys flat water in a bottle here, unless they happen to come from an area with water of such a different taste that they dislike the tap water in that region more than the plastic taste of bottled water.

    • ... along with all that readily available refined sugar that they consume in the city...

      What the heck third-world country do you live in where the availability of processed sugar varies depending on whether you live in the city or in othe country?!

      • I would call that a paradise where the cancer that we call our society hasn't infected everything yet.

        Or, fun fact, wherever the sugar cane plantations are. Because why would you go buy refined sugar, when you got delicious sugar cane right in front of your house, to grate into your sweets.

        • No, this study a European one. Sugar cane grown in subtropics and tropics, I can assure you processed sugar is quite popular in Europe, even in the countries with longest lifespans, like france with its per capita consumption of 30 - 39 kg of sugar a year per person.

  • I thought for a quick moment I was reading a story about 30% higher risk of using MS software
  • Surprised they didn't try blaming COVID-19 on bad air

  • Shouldn't it be: occurrence of MS 30% higher...? And: "We believe that air pollution interacts through several mechanisms in the development of MS and the results of this study strengthen that hypothesis," gives me the feeling they are looking for confirmation. I'm not saying they're not right, and as as solid Slashdotter I obviously haven't rtfm, but it sounds as if they are looking for support for their beliefs...
  • Hi .. do you mind being masturbated together? write me here ==>> cutt.ly/1yk3LpW
  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @07:17AM (#60101470) Journal
    Been really tough going for the whole "we should all live downtown and use public transport" thing lately, hasn't it?

Every nonzero finite dimensional inner product space has an orthonormal basis. It makes sense, when you don't think about it.

Working...