Epidemiologic Study of Multiple Sclerosis in Israel

Oral contraceptives and the incidence of multiple sclerosis

“…22 Prior to the Nurses' Health Studies, the association between parity and risk of MS had been evaluated in the two comparatively smaller British cohorts, 18,21 and in at least two case-control studies. 23,24 Consistent with the results from the NHS/ NHS II, none of these previous investigations found significantly different risks of MS when comparing women at different levels of parity. Further, we did not detect variations in the risk of MS according to age at first birth.…”

“…[12][13][14][15][16] Moreover, diseases with a dominant T H 1-type response, such as MS [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and rheumatoid arthritis, 30,31 improve during pregnancy, when levels of circulating estrogens are high; whereas symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease with a dominant T H 2-type response, do not improve, or are exacerbated, during pregnancy. 32,33 Nonetheless, according to our and others' 18,21,23,24 results, the high levels of estrogens during pregnancy do not seem to affect the future risk of developing the disease.…”

Aaron Antonovsky’s Development of Salutogenesis, 1979 to 1994

“…In 1963, he was invited by colleagues in neurology to take part in the design of an epidemiological study on multiple sclerosis, mainly because he had experience in survey research. Antonovsky joined because the study questionnaire included items on this particular area of interest for him-sociocultural factors (Antonovsky et al, 1965;Antonovsky & Kats, 1967). Included among the items was a list of stressors in objective form, such as social class and poor living conditions.…”

Dietary Fat in the Epidemiology of Multiple Sclerosis: Has the Situation Been Adequately Assessed?

“…This may involve recalling dietary intake between 5-15 years earlier. The lack of a statistically significant difference in two such studies [30,31], neither using validated questionnaires, may simply reflect the difficulty in accurately recalling past diet (random misclassification). A further study from Poland [32] found that cases reported consuming less fat prior to dis ease onset than controls.…”