MS Speaks

More ECTRIMS abstracts will be along soon,  but in the meantime this caught my eye. I've noticed how important getting adequate sleep is in how I feel. This has been true ever since I developed MS.

Maybe we're meant to sleep when our body wants us to. Maybe if we're preventing from doing that at a vulnerable age (teens), there are consequences in our central nervous system.

You can't just take a nap whenever you want if you have certain jobs or obligations.
That would be a major problem with anyone doing shift work. You can't sleep when your body would like for you to.

Some investigators have studied teenagers who worked at shift work and found that they had a tendency to develop MS that was greater than for teenagers not doing shift work.  The study went on for 5 years, and so these teenagers must have shown signs of MS by their early 20s.

From PubMed, September 21, 2016:

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2016 Sep;9:104-109.

Shift work at young age is associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis in a Danish population

Gustavsen S1, Søndergaard HB2, Oturai DB2, Laursen B3, Laursen JH2, Magyari M4, Ullum H5, Larsen MH5, Sellebjerg F2, Oturai AB2.

Author information

1Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. Electronic address: stefan.gustavsen@hotmail.com.
2Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
3The National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
4Danish Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark; The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
5Department of Clinical Immunology, Center of Clinical Investigation, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.

BACKGROUND:

Epidemiological studies suggest an important role for environmental factors in developing multiple sclerosis (MS). Furthermore several studies have indicated that the effect of environmental factors may be especially pronounced in adolescents. Recently only one study investigated and found that shift work at young age is associated with an increased risk of developing MS. In this study we focused on the effect of shift work in the vulnerable period between 15-19 years.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between shift work at young age and the risk of developing MS.

METHODS:

We performed a large case-control study including 1723 patients diagnosed with MS and 4067 controls. MS patients were recruited from the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Biobank and controls from The Danish Blood Donor Study. Information on working patterns and lifestyle factors was obtained using a comprehensive lifestyle-environmental factor questionnaire with participants enrolled between 2009 and 2014. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between shift work at age 15-19 years and the subsequent risk of MS and were controlled for effects due to established MS risk factors.

RESULTS:

We found a statistically significant association when total numbers of night shifts were compared with non-shift workers. For every additional 100 night shifts the odds ratio (OR) for MS was 1.20 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08-1.34, p=0.001). Increasing intensity of shift work also increased MS risk. For every additional night per month the OR was 1.04 (95% CI, 1.01-1.06, p=0.002). Duration of shift work in years was not associated with risk of MS.

CONCLUSION:

This study supports a statistically significant association between shift work at age 15-19 years and MS risk.