Obese children more than twice as likely to get MS when they get older, study claims

Overweight children are more than twice as likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) later in life than their normal weight peers, a study claims.

More than 150,000 people in the UK have MS, a devastating chronic immune disease that can cause problems with sight, writing, speaking and walking as the nerves in the brain and spinal cord become permanently damaged.

People usually start to see symptoms between the ages of 20 and 40 years, although it can occur at any point in someone’s life.

Women are also two to three times more likely than men to develop MS, although the cause of the disease is still unknown and no cure has been found.

Adult obesity has previously been linked to an increased risk of developing MS too, as well as being associated with a more rapid decline once it sets in.

Swedish researchers spent five-and-a-half years comparing the health outcomes of more than 21,000 participants who were obese at some point between the ages of two and 19, with more than 102,000 people from the general population.

Those who were overweight were more than twice as likely to develop MS than those who were not overweight – with a similar rate for both boys and girls – according to the study published in the International Journal Of Obesity.

‘Given that weight reduction decreases obesity-induced inflammation, a key factor believed to mediate the link between obesity and MS, our study emphasises the importance of preventing high degree of obesity early in life,’ said Dr Emilia Hagman of the Karolinska Institute.

Around one in eight children between the ages of two and ten in England are obese, with childhood obesity in some deprived areas rising to as many as one in four.

In 2022, US researchers concluded that MS is likely triggered by a common virus called Epstein-Barr.

About 95 per cent of people catch Epstein-Barr in their lifetime. Scientists are still unsure why it leads to MS in some patients and not others.