Slideshow
Constellation of Factors Increase Risk of Multiple Sclerosis
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Smoking, organic solvents, and genetic susceptibility combine to increase MS risk.
References1. Hedström AK, Hössjer O, Katsoulis M, et al. Organic solvents and MS susceptibility: Interaction with MS risk HLA genes. Neurology. 2018;91:e455-e462.2. Barragán-MartÃnez C, Speck-Hernández CA, Montoya-Ortiz G, et al. Organic solvents as risk factor for autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2012;7):e51506. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051506.3. Bell JS, DeLuca GC. Genes, smoking, and organic solvent exposure: An alarming cocktail for MS risk. Neurology. 2018;91:199-200.
Smoking, organic solvents, and genetic susceptibility combine to increase MS risk. A study by Hedström and colleagues[1] found that exposure to paint, varnishes, and other organic solvents may increase the risk of developing multiple sclerosis by about 50%, compared with unexposed individuals. Among people who carry a genetic variant that increase their susceptibility to MS, exposure to these toxins may increase their risk of MS by about 7 times, compared with unexposed people who don’t carry this gene. And, adding smoking to the equation increases the risk of developing MS approximately 30-fold, compared with unexposed people who don’t carry the gene and are nonsmokers.
