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Alcohol consumption failed to raise risk for MS

Recent data show an inverse correlation between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing multiple sclerosis.

Researchers analyzed two Swedish population studies that included participants aged 16 to 70 years. The Epidemiological Investigation of Multiple Sclerosis study consisted of 745 patients with MS and 1,761 controls. There were 5,874 patients with MS and 5,246 controls in the Genes and Environment in Multiple Sclerosis study. The studies were conducted from 2005 to 2011.

Data from both studies showed that men and women who reported high consumption of alcohol were less at risk for MS compared with the study participants who did not drink. High alcohol consumption also was linked to lessening the effects of smoking.

“While the exact mechanisms by which alcohol affects the risk of autoimmunity remain to be discovered, experimental and clinical data suggest that alcohol has significant dose-dependent immunomodulatory properties,” study researcher Anna Karin Hedström, MD, of the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Stockholm, and colleagues concluded.

Disclosure: Two researchers receive honoraria from Bayer-Schering, Biogen and Novartis, and three researchers receive research support from the Swedish Research Council. See the study for a full list of the researchers’ financial disclosures.