Spending time with her new granddaughter, Sue Polson is determined to make the most of the winter sunshine.

Spending time with her new granddaughter, Sue Polson is determined to make the most of the winter sunshine.

Not so much for the pleasure of being outside on a crisp, bright day, but in the hope that those cherished moments will help protect 18-week-old Catriona from developing multiple sclerosis in later life.

For as well as a likely genetic link, there is also growing evidence to suggest that sunshine and vitamin D can help reduce the risk of suffering from MS - an illness which has an unusually high prevalence in Scotland.

Voicing the concerns that many people with MS have for their younger relatives, Sue, from Crossford near Dunfermline, Fife, said: "I'm watching my little granddaughter and hoping that she doesn't develop MS. She will be outside a lot," she said, referring to her determination to give the little girl every chance at using the sun's warming rays to help ward off a painful future.

She added: "From time to time I buy myself a packet of the things vitamin supplements and if I was starting out as a newly diagnosed MS patient, I would make them part of my life."

Today, the latest thinking on the role of DNA, diet and the environment will be discussed at the MS Society Scotland's latest national information event in Perth, called Space. Participants will also receive an update on progress with the long-awaited Scottish MS register.

Two years have passed since the launch of a crucial attempt to map out exactly how many people in Scotland have multiple sclerosis in order to improve understanding.

After widespread consultation, a pilot of the national register will begin in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen at the start of 2009, when details of newly-diagnosed patients will be collected at three of Scotland's major neurological centres. It will be another year before that trial is completed and the necessary reviews and changes made so that the full nationwide audit can start in earnest.

Campaigners and patients such as Sue are pleased that the register is finally being taken, because it will be the first time accurate data has been gathered to help experts solve the riddle of why Scotland has the highest incidence of MS in the world. They are also anxious to make progress as quickly as possible to save future generations.

To put the timescale of the project into perspective, an estimated 500 people in Scotland will be diagnosed with the condition in the three years it is taking to turn the register into reality.

There is also a growing belief that those same 500 people could have been saved from developing MS by a simple dose of sunshine or vitamin D. If taking such supplements could save everyone from MS, it almost begs the question of why a register is needed at all.

One man who is convinced about the benefits of both vitamin D and the MS audit is Professor George Ebers.

The Canadian MS expert set up a similar register in his home country more than 30 years ago, where it has been used to help scientists forge ahead with trials of potential treatments for the condition.

In more recent years he has become increasingly convinced by studies suggesting that vitamin D could be a cheap, easy way to prevent MS.

Ebers, who is professor of neurology at Oxford University, said: "I have never advocated anything like this in my life but the evidence is sufficiently strong that vitamin D could prevent or treat MS and the risks of unforeseen side-effects seem infinitesimal. At first, my impression was that experts in the field were overegging it but gradually I have become convinced that they are right "There is no proof but there's nothing very much against it; it looks like the best candidate. It's dirt cheap and unambiguously harmless."

Three years ago, Professor Ebers suggested to the then Scottish Executive that Scots should be given vitamin D to prevent MS. But while the current administration is "considering the evidence", nothing has yet been done. He notes: "If vitamin D is responsible for the big environmental effect in MS then by not doing something over the past three years there will have been about 500 new cases of MS that would not have happened."

The cost to the people affected by the condition in terms of pain and loss of independence is vast. Now 58, Sue was 46 when the crippling condition hit her out of the blue on another cold November day. It started with a sudden numbness in her ankle, which crept up her leg. Suspecting that she had a stroke, her GP sent her to hospital.

The symptoms stopped, but eight months later the numbness returned and Sue was diagnosed with MS. Within a year she had to leave her job as a school rector's secretary. After another two, she lost the use of her legs. Experimental treatment with Azathioprine, a drug given to transplant patients, helped her learn to stand and walk again. But it is a losing battle.

She said: "Your body is degenerating every year because there is no cure, nothing to stop it. You have to learn to live with problems such as spasms, aching limbs and numb hands. I've sometimes felt the MS hug', like someone is clamping an iron body around you and you can't expand your lungs enough. It is very frightening."

While it is hard to put a financial figure on the cost of MS, Professor Ebers claims that around £1m is needed for each patient to cover medical treatment, care and lost work over their lifetime - a massive £500m for those 500 newly-diagnosed people in Scotland.

The professor was not overly critical of the Scottish Government, acknowledging that, without firm evidence, providing vitamin D for every Scot is a big step to take. His view is that the clinical trials normally used to test new treatments will not work for vitamin D because it will be practically impossible to ensure that participants continue to take part in tests over 25 years or more.

It is also unlikely that parents will want to give one of their children vitamin D while the other goes without for so long in order to prove the theory scientifically.

That said, he pointed out that the French government has been administering doses of the vitamin to pregnant mothers for several years in response to a linked theory that gestation is a critical risk period for babies "inheriting" MS from the maternal side.

One of the key reasons for developing the new register is that it can be used to help determine whether or not vitamin D is the panacea which he thinks it could be.

He said: "It has enormous importance for world research into what causes MS. I'd like to have seen it done faster than it has been. The hardest thing in Canada was the beginning of the register. It's like starting up a big truck - at first it's slow. We now have 30,000 people on the Canadian register."

One project which could benefit from the register is a groundbreaking study investigating the possible genetic causes of MS which is being carried out in Orkney and Shetland. Researchers at Edinburgh University have now recruited around 50 participants and begun collecting blood samples for analysis.

But while the response has been positive, the team had to rely on GPs sending information to known MS patients to make contact - slowing the process down and increasing the potential for missing patients.

The MS Society Scotland believes that around 10,500 people in Scotland have MS - more people per capita than anywhere else in the world. It is in no doubt of the need for the register, which it is developing with help from the Scottish Government.

Claire Kennett, the society's register development manager, said: "Our aim is to develop a fuller picture of MS across Scotland, including eventually learning exactly how many people have the condition. This will assist with the development of appropriate services for people affected by MS, as well as providing an important resource for researchers seeking to shed new light on it, including why there is so much more MS in Scotland than elsewhere."

The society continues to stress that while many people with MS in Scotland show signs of vitamin D deficiency, it is not known if that is a cause of MS or a consequence, given that patients spend so much time immobile, indoors and live in a relatively sunless climate.

But it has updated its stance slightly, urging people to seek advice on taking supplements for low vitamin D levels while warning against simply taking them "for MS".

MS:The facts

MULTIPLE sclerosis, or MS, is the most common disabling neurological condition affecting young adults today.

• Usually diagnosed when people are in their twenties and thirties, it is caused by damage to myelin, the protective sheath surrounding nerve fibres of the central nervous system. That damage interferes with messages between the brain and other parts of the body.
• Symptoms can vary greatly in terms of severity and include muscle weakness, numbness and fatigue, which can lead to loss of walking ability and independence.
• Most people diagnosed with MS are normally able to get around without routinely relying on a wheelchair but some are forced to use the aid permanently.
• It is not infectious or contagious. There is believed to be a genetic link, however, putting relatives of people with MS at a slightly higher risk of developing the condition.
• Recent studies have suggested that about three times as many women as men have MS.