Before you get too excited, if you are old enough to read this article, the protection the sun may have offered against multiple sclerosis has long since passed for you. That said, your offspring could benefit from 30-60 minutes daily in the sun to prevent MS in their future.
According to the MS Society of the UK, one out of every 67 children of MS patients will also have MS. Compare that to the odds of getting MS with no family history – one out of every 286 people, meaning children of MSers are more than four times as likely to have multiple sclerosis than the general population. Aren’t numbers fun?
The sun protection study from the University of California tells us that if you lived in a sunny area and played outside in your youth, you were less likely to get MS. Since you are reading my blog, I suspect you have MS, and this study is only a point of interest that has you thinking about how long you spent outside and how much sun exposure you had as a child. I moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Tucson, Arizona, at 11 years old. I guess the extra time I spent marching in the band outside in the sun during my teen years didn’t make a difference.
Science Daily – “Sunshine may shield children, young adults from MS,” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211208161146.htm. 12/8/21
Is anyone else out there flushing from Tecfidera? NO! Not THAT kind of flushing! I mean the burning red skin I get mainly on my face and limbs. I deal with flushing now and then. When I take my medication right after a good breakfast, I am less likely to flush. Interestingly, if I am going to flush, it is hours after I take the pill. Weird. Isn’t it? If I miss my medication for a few days, I can expect this unpleasant and painful side effect. I’m not complaining, though; my MS has been keeping its ugly head down for years.
Ho Ho Ho. Merry Christmas! I feel very fortunate despite having MS. Life has been good to me. I wish everyone in the world could be as blessed as I am. Happy Holidays!
If you have some time off and are looking for an excellent book to read, check out my memoir, “The Call of the Last Frontier: The True Story of a Woman’s Twenty-Year Alaska Adventure.” Follow in my footsteps as I journey through two decades of adventures found in bush Alaska. Available on Amazon. Check out my author page at www.MelissaCook.us to see the book’s photo gallery.
