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Debbie Mason

Consultant neurologist at Christchurch Hospital and MS researcher specializing in vitamin D and multiple sclerosis epidemiology

Jun 18, 2026

2:35
But if we think about epidemiological evidence to start with, what has that told us about the relationship between vitamin D and the risk of developing MS? Debbie, maybe I'll start with you.
2:46
Okay, just like to say that I'm very much a clinical person.
2:50
I don't do a lot of lab stuff.
2:53
And so I come to this question quite a lot from a sort of a clinical approach.
2:59
I think one of the things that it's really important to recognize is the role of vitamin D in a person in developing MS and as opposed to its role as a disease-modifying treatment.
3:15
And one of the things I think that has been sort of confusing in this space is that Some of the work is around people who already have MS or at very high risk of MS probably do have MS, as opposed to the factors that may make people at risk of developing the disease compared to somebody who doesn't develop MS.
3:41
And I think that that's important.

10 MINS LATER

14:01
This reduction of radiological activity was not translated in reduction of relapses risk over the time because we just then treated the patients with DMTs and stopped the trial.
1:27
And behind the house, there was a creek.
1:30
We had a tree house down there, a tree swing.
1:33
We were always down in the creek.
1:35
Um, we were splashing in the water, and we, we played down there a lot.
1:41
Um, you know, we were kids.
1:43
It was great down there.
2:18
And then, Debbie and her sisters started getting sick.
2:22
My middle sister, Denise, got breast cancer in 2010.

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