NESTLÉ RELAUNCHES NESQUIK WITH NEW ‘NO–ARTS’ RECIPE

A brand new version of family favourite NESQUIK® will hit the shelves this month with a new and improved recipe. NESQUIK will still have the same great taste loved by families nationwide but will be free from artificial ingredients.   

In response to parents’ concerns about artificial ingredients, Nestlé has renovated and improved the NESQUIK recipes so that there are now no added artificial colours, flavours, sweeteners or preservatives, in any of the Strawberry, Chocolate or Banana flavoured products. ‘No arts’ versions of the Strawberry and Chocolate flavours are available now, with new Banana arriving in early autumn. 

NESQUIK has always been a good source of vitamin D, which is essential in helping the body absorb the calcium found in milk. Both calcium and vitamin D are important to help the development of strong bones and teeth in children.

Nutritionist for Nestlé UK and Ireland Liz Read said, “We’ve worked really hard to improve the NESQUIK recipe by taking out artificial ingredients. We are giving parents extra assurances and now have a product that families will love.

“The work we’ve done with NESQUIK is a continuation of our work to remove artificial ingredients across Nestlé’s products more broadly and builds on the renovation of our confectionery products such as SMARTIES, MILKYBAR and the ROWNTREE’S brand. “

The launch of new recipe NESQUIK will be backed by a £3 million marketing campaign which sees NESQUIK milkshake powder advertised on TV for the first time in 10 years.

Through emotionally engaging communications, the campaign will connect with a new generation of families. Both TV and digital activity will continue to feature the iconic NESQUIK bunny Quicky, who has been the brand’s mascot since 1973.

Egle Augustinaviciute, NESQUIK Brand Manager said; “The creative idea at the heart of the campaign – ‘They only grow up once’– reminds consumers that NESQUIK is a fun family brand that  encourages kids to grow in imagination and learning. It also promotes NESQUIK’s health benefits, both as a source of vitamins and as an imaginative way of making milk an appealing drink choice for kids…and grown–up kids!” 

The campaign is backed by strong integrated digital support with the launch of new ‘Nesquik.co.uk’ as well as the exciting  new ‘Imagination Station’ (www.nesquik–imaginationstation.co.uk) launched in co–operation with AOL. ‘Nesquik.co.uk’ provides parents with product information as well as general nutritional information and great NESQUIK recipes, while ‘Imagination Station’ acts as an online resource for parents, with exciting playtime ideas and free activity sheets for parents to enjoy with their children.

Additionally, for the first time this year NESQUIK will participate in ‘Get Set, Go Free’, Nestlé’s cross–category family activity promotion which encourages families to get out and try new activities.

For more information: Nestlé UK Press Office
020 8667 6005
nestleukpressoffice@uk.nestle.com

Lighting the way to better health: vitamin D

17th July 2010

The Lancet

The public health message is compellingly simple: avoid the sun to prevent melanoma and other forms of skin cancer. Unfortunately, exposure to sunlight is the mainstay of vitamin D synthesis, and vitamin D deficiency causes rickets and osteomalacia, contributes to osteoporosis, and has been associated with many other disorders, including diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Ultraviolet B radiation produces 90% of vitamin D in human beings; only a very small proportion can be obtained through diet. However, at high latitudes, levels of sunlight in winter are often so low that vitamin D insufficiency is common. Avoidance of the sun’s rays by covering up or use of sunscreen can compound this problem, and is thought to have contributed to a recent increase in metabolic bone disease. Cancer Research UK recognises the need to balance skin cancer prevention with generation of adequate vitamin D, but specified that “the skin efficiently produces vitamin D at levels of sun exposure below those that cause sunburn…when it comes to sun exposure, little and often is best”. Australia’s SunSmart guidelines underwent a revision to reflect this balance in 2006—07.

A major concern is that people might seek prolonged sun exposure without protection to boost vitamin D synthesis. Indeed, the American Academy of Dermatology argues that the risks of sun exposure outweigh the benefits, advocating instead for dietary supplementation as a safe source of vitamin D. A report published in the British Journal of Nutrition emphasises that in the UK, a unified approach to vitamin D supplementation is needed to address deficiency in pregnant women and avoid life-threatening complications for their babies.

Despite the simmering debate about sun exposure surrounding vitamin D, the SUNLIGHT consortium’s genome-wide association study, published in The Lancettoday, should add to our understanding of the genetic basis of interindividual variability in the synthesis of vitamin D. These findings could eventually help to identify who is most at risk of vitamin D insufficiency and related diseases. Until such potential applications come to the fore, the message about sun exposure has to be sensibly moderate. Enjoy the summer sun, with caution.

Source : The lancet

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61094-X/fulltext?elsca1=TL-160710&elsca2=email&elsca3=segment

Advice U-turn after years of telling us to cover up

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

According to the old song, only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

Yet the latest thinking is that maybe everyone should give it a try.

After years of urging us to cover up, a leading charity is expected to recommend short spells exposed to the sun at its highest.

The advice, from Cancer Research UK, reflects concern that current sunbathing recommendations are unnecessarily restrictive and are leading to low levels of vitamin D.

Although the vitamin is found in some foods, most of that found in the body comes from sunlight exposure, and most of us just don’t have enough of it.

In England, half of the population is low in the ’sunshine vitamin’ when winter ends, while in Scotland the proportion is two thirds.

As part of its remit to prevent skin cancer, the charity advises trying to stay out of the sun when it is at its peak and cover the skin with clothing and generous amounts of sunscreen.

But a confidential statement being prepared by the charity acknowledges that the evidence about the benefits of vitamin D is growing.

The vitamin is vital for calcium absorption and bone health, and could help ward off Alzheimer’s.

Recent research has shown that vitamin D supplements are as good as some drugs at keeping prostate cancer under control – and it is said that taking supplements in pregnancy and childhood could wipe out 80 per cent of cases of multiple sclerosis.

Read more:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1292210/Midday-sun-GOOD-cancer-charity-suggest-new-guidance.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0t0Loq7SF

Oliver Gillie: Time to abandon this outdated view on staying out of the sun

Lack of sunshine and the vitamin that it makes in our skin is probably the most serious single cause of disease in the UK today.

Vitamin D deficiency is well known as the classic cause of rickets and serious bone diseases, but in the last 10 years it has also been identified as a major risk factor for diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, infections, some cancers and other ills.

The cost of all this disease to the UK has been put at an astounding £27bn annually, which compares with only £5bn for the cost of disease caused by smoking.

Small amounts of vitamin D can be obtained from food but you can’t obtain more than about 10 per cent of the optimal amount this way unless you eat oily fish – skin and all – three times a day.

We depend on the sun for our vitamin D. Since our weather is so unreliable, British people suffer more than almost any other from vitamin D deficiency.

Many years of bad advice has also been a factor.

The British Isles are located far north so the winter sun is not strong enough to make any vitamin D. The prevailing westerly wind bringing cloud in from the Atlantic is also against us. The Scots are worst off because there is nothing to the west to protect them. Their vitamin D levels are lower and they have the highest incidence of multiple sclerosis in the world.

Scientists studying MS now believe that it may be prevented if women take vitamin D in pregnancy and children take regular supplements. Another devastating disease, diabetes type 1 – affecting mostly children who must inject themselves with insulin – could be prevented by the same vitamin D supplements.

Indeed it is possible that these two diseases could now be eradicated if Government had the will.

However a recommendation that pregnant women take vitamin D has been ignored over many years by obstetricians.

Standard advice is that babies are not given vitamin D until they are six months old. Nobody any longer remembers the reason for this, which is implemented nowhere else.

Everybody thinks that breast milk is a complete food – and so it might be if mothers sunbathed as often as they can. As it is, breast milk in the UK is deficient in vitamin D while artificial milk is supplemented.

This need not be a problem if mothers give vitamin D drops to their babies. Melanoma, the worst form of skin cancer, has dramatically increased during some 20 years of advice to avoid the sun and use suncream. This is quite possibly because the advice has been wrong. Suncream blocks the action of UVB (shortwave ultraviolet radiation from the sun) – so blocking synthesis of vitamin D with loss of protection against cancer – while UVA (longwave radiation), which seems to carry the main risk of melanoma, is not blocked by many creams.

We could do much, much more. The Irish Republic has already fortified semi-skimmed milk with vitamin D, Finland has fortified milk and Israel is making milk fortification mandatory. Jordan is bringing in fortification of bread.

The UK the Food Standards Agency has hummed and hawed. The United States has had fortification for 80 years. What are the English and Scots waiting for?

The one simple action open to us all is to sunbathe, carefully without burning. The sun is natural, free, and safe if you are sensible. It’s also good to take a vitamin D supplement of at least 1000 to 2000 IUs [international units of measurement] per day.

The author is a health writer and vitamin D campaigner.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/oliver-gillie-time-to-abandon-this-outdated-view-on-staying-out-of-the-sun-2018389.html

Vitamin D: hope on the horizon for MS prevention?

The worldwide prevalence and incidence of multiple sclerosis (MS) are on the increase. The need for strategies to prevent this devastating disease is therefore greater than ever.

As highlighted in a Review in this issue of The Lancet Neurology, vitamin D deficiency might be an important modifiable risk factor for MS. This raises the question of whether population-wide supplementation programmes might be a reasonable prevention strategy.

Vitamin D deficiency is especially common in high latitude regions, such as northern USA, Canada, northern Europe, and New Zealand, where weaker ultraviolet B rays during winter months are insufficient for people to produce enough vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency has traditionally been linked to bone diseases such as rickets; in addition to MS, links with other diseases such as type 1 diabetes, heart disease, infectious diseases, and some types of cancer are now emerging. Pregnant women, young children, and the elderly are at the greatest risk. Vitamin D deficiency might also adversely affect disease course in many disorders, including MS, although evidence for this is less robust.

The main sources of vitamin D are sunlight and diet, but many people do not get sufficient amounts, so dietary supplements are required. The current recommended daily intake of vitamin D is typically 200—400 IU/day in Europe, and in the USA and Canada, where some foods are fortified with vitamin D, the recommendation is for 200—600 IU/day. The US National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine is currently reviewing the dietary reference intakes for vitamin D and calcium and is due to report its recommendations at the end of summer 2010.

Expert recommendations for optimum serum vitamin D concentrations range from 50 nmol/L to 100 nmol/L; the total daily need for vitamin D, from sunshine, diet, and supplementation, to achieve this concentration is thought to be 1000—4000 IU/day, depending on factors such as age, geographical region, and health status. The risks of taking high doses of vitamin D are thought to be low, and the main concern of overdose is hypercalcaemia. However, given that an adult who spends 20 min in summer sunshine can produce an oral intake equivalent of about 10 000 IU/day, the suggested dose of 1000—4000 IU/day is unlikely to be toxic. Recent evidence suggests that prolonged intake of 10 000 IU/day (and even up to 40 000 IU/day) poses no risk for adults.

So far, the evidence for a protective effect of vitamin D on MS largely comes from ecological and observational studies, although evidence is accumulating on possible mechanisms linking vitamin D deficiency and autoimmunity. Large-scale, long-term randomised controlled trials on high-dose vitamin D supplementation would be needed to definitively establish a protective effect and to identify any unexpected long-term complications. But it could take decades before data on MS prevention become available.

In the meantime, because the risks seem to be low, is there already a case for widespread vitamin D supplementation?

Scotland is one such region where the prevalence and incidence of MS, and other diseases related to vitamin D deficiency, are already so high that the benefits of supplementation are likely to outweigh any potential side-effects. During an upcoming summit in Scotland, hosted by MS Society Scotland and resulting from the Shine on Scotland campaign, researchers will present the case to Scottish government officials for vitamin D supplements to be made freely available for all young children and pregnant women.

As vitamin D is an inexpensive supplement, the potential cost savings of such a programme are enormous, and in addition to MS, might have implications for numerous diseases linked to vitamin D deficiency. In Europe, if the predicted effects of raising serum vitamin D concentrations to 100 nmol/L are realised, the potential savings have been estimated to be €187 billion per year from the direct and indirect burden of disease, set against an expenditure of €10 billion on testing and public education. As well as the possible health benefits, such a supplementation programme might provide important research opportunities to understand the long-term effects of vitamin D.

Trials are needed to address the numerous questions that remain to be answered about dosing levels, potential long-term complications, and causal mechanisms, among others. In the meantime, given the low costs, low toxicity, and possible beneficial effects of supplementation programmes, steps to tackle vitamin D deficiency in high-risk populations seem warranted. Because any benefits for MS in particular will take decades to emerge, a long-term outlook is needed from policy makers, but future health and financial benefits have the potential to make this investment highly rewarding.

Source: The Lancet Neurology Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Limited. (25/05/10)

MS Society Scotland  :

Vitamin D – Renewed Hope for MS Prevention

25.05.10 

The current issue of The Lancet Neurology contains a review of evidence on vitamin D deficiency as a possible risk factor for MS, raising the question of whether supplementation programmes could be a reasonable prevention strategy. The review concludes that “given the low costs, low toxicity, and possible beneficial effects of supplementation programmes, steps to tackle vitamin D deficiency in high-risk populations seem warranted”. Scotland is specifically identified as a country where the large numbers of people living with MS, and other conditions related to vitamin D deficiency, make it likely that the benefits of supplementation would outweigh any potential side-effects.

The Lancet article mentions the Shine on Scotland campaign and the international summit on vitamin D and MS which the MS Society Scotland will be hosting in September. Leading researchers from around the word will be coming to Scotland for the summit and presenting the latest research to build the case for taking action on vitamin D as a public health issue.

Over the longer term, as the article makes clear, trials are needed to address questions about dosage levels, long-term implications and causal mechanisms but this is not viewed as an impediment to beginning a supplementation programme now or in the very near future. The potential savings are simply huge – estimates suggest that €187 billion per year could be saved across Europe by tackling vitamin D deficiency.

Commenting on the article, David McNiven, Director of MS Society Scotland, said:
“The Lancet article is very encouraging because it endorses the arguments that we have been making: that vitamin D supplementation represents a low-cost, low-risk public health intervention with potentially massive benefits. I very much look forward to welcoming internationally renowned scientists to Scotland later this year to explore the issue further. The Shine on Scotland campaign has made incredible progress in just over a year and the MS Society Scotland will continue to work with the Scottish Government and others on this important matter of public health”.

The full Lancet article can be accessed at www.thelancet.com

There is also a review article which discusses some of the areas where research is needed, for example the influence of vitamin D in MS progression. Vitamin D review article 

Vitamin D - Harvard Uni research strongly supports Vitamin d will slow MS progression

A recent study by Harvard University has suggested that on the basis of all current evidence over 70% of cases of Multiple sclerosis in the US and Europe could be prevented by keeping Vitamin D levels above 100nmol.


They say that the studies suggest supplementation in the order of 4,000-10,000 iu per day, for people with first episode of MS, and for people with MS could slow progression.

The researchers will give evidence at the Shine On Scotland International summit on Vitamin D hosted by MS Society Scotland in Glasgow on September 21st 2010.

Ryan Mclaughlin launches ‘Fortify Scotland’s school milk’ campaign

Ryan McLaughlin launches ‘Fortify Scotland’s school milk’ campaign

15 year old Ryan McLaughlin founder of the award winning Shine on Scotland campaign has launched a new social networking campaign to gain public support for his Idea of adding vitamin D to all school milk in Scotland. The 15 year old campaigner believes that vitamin D is so important to improving the health of scottish kids and wants to ascertain how many parents agree with him, using the social platform Facebook.


Ryan is asking scottish parents to join the group and have their say on the subject.


A recent scientific review undertaken by the Lancet said if Europe adopted his idea for supplementation the result would save Europe a incredible £165 billion a year.


The World Health Organisation have advised previously that Scotland should start a national supplementation program of vitamin d.


The campaigner says ‘much work still has to be done to get the RDA of vitamin D raised significantly and I will work with the Scottish Government, SACN and the FSA to get that done, but I am positive that fortifying school milk with vitamin D offers the best solution to offering protection to all kids in Scotland’


I am proud to say that the Scottish Government have been amazing in supporting my goals, they have really listened and acted on the current evidence in support of vitamin D, as more evidence is put in place I believe that the case for fortification of school milk will increase, the Scottish government have not ruled out my proposal for fortified school milk they have said  that following advice from the FSA Scotland, the Scottish Government believes that it would not be appropriate to introduce fortified milk (or other fortified drinks) at school until such time as the evidence base is more conclusive about the impact on the population.


However this was said before new research released by the scottish government and the announcement that NHS Scotland said there was now an ‘urgent need to educate women and that all pregnant mothers and all children up to the age of 4 should be taking vitamin D everyday’.


Now that BUPA have said that they believe vitamin D could prevent cancer and Israel announced all 3% milk is to be fortified I think we need to ask the Scottish Government to look at this again as the evidence is certainly more conclusive and it can only have a healthy impact on the population .





Almost all milk in the US is fortified with vitamin D, Israel has moved to fortify all 3% milk, Jordan has agreed to fortify all bread and canada has opted for national supplementation.


http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=150104079977&ref=nf

Insufficient vitamin D tied to severe asthma attacks

(Reuters Health) – Asthmatic children with relatively low vitamin D levels in their blood may have a greater risk of suffering severe asthma attacks than those with higher levels of the vitamin, a new study suggests.

HEALTH

The study, which followed more than 1,000 children with asthma for four years, found those with vitamin-D “insufficiency” at the outset were more likely to have an asthma attack that required a trip to the hospital.

Over the four-year study, 38 percent of children with insufficient vitamin D levels went to the emergency room or were hospitalized for an asthma exacerbation. The same was true of 32 percent of children with sufficient levels of the vitamin.

When the researchers considered other factors — including the severity of the children’s asthma at the study’s start, their weight and their family income — vitamin D insufficiency itself was linked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of severe asthma attacks.

Researchers led by Dr. Augusto A. Litongua, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, report the findings in the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.

As it stands, people are considered to have an overt deficiency in vitamin D when blood levels drop below 11 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). But there is debate over how the optimal vitamin D level should be defined — and what the daily recommended intake of the vitamin should be for children and adults.

Some experts believe that vitamin D blood levels above 30 ng/mL are desirable for overall health, and that levels between deficiency and 30 ng/mL should be viewed as “insufficient.”

For their study, Litongua and his colleagues considered children with vitamin D levels of 30 ng/mL or lower to be insufficient in the vitamin.

The researchers based their findings on 1,024 children with mild-to-moderate asthma who were part of a clinical trial testing two inhaled asthma medications — budesonide and nedocromil. Using blood samples taken at the start of the trial, Litongua’s team found that 35 percent of the children had vitamin D insufficiency, and 65 percent had sufficient levels.

Overall, the researchers found no evidence that sufficient vitamin D levels protected kids from moderate asthma symptoms; in fact, children with low levels of the vitamin tended to report fewer moderate symptoms.

However, these children were at greater risk of severe asthma attacks.

While the findings point to an association between vitamin D status and asthma exacerbations, they do not prove that vitamin D is responsible — or, by extension, that taking the vitamin will prevent asthma attacks.

It is biologically plausible that vitamin D would affect the severity of asthma attacks, according to Litongua and his colleagues.

Vitamin D may be best known for its role in healthy bone development and maintenance, but it is also needed for normal nerve, muscle and immune system function. Some studies have linked low vitamin D levels to a higher risk of type 1 or “insulin-dependent” diabetes in children and, in adults, heart disease and certain cancers.

The effects of vitamin D on the immune system, which include the inflammatory response to infections, might help explain why higher levels of the vitamin were linked to a lower risk of severe asthma exacerbations, according to Litongua’s team.

They say it’s also possible that vitamin D enhances the effects of anti-inflammatory steroid hormones — both the body’s natural supply and the synthetic corticosteroids used to treat asthma.

In this study, the beneficial association between vitamin D and asthma attacks was mainly seen in children who were on budesonide, a corticosteroid.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants, children and teenagers get 400 IU of vitamin D each day. Milk, breakfast cereals and orange juice fortified with the vitamin are the main food sources, though some fatty fish naturally contain high amounts of vitamin D. Experts recommend vitamin pills for children who do not get enough of the vitamin from food.

Vitamin D is naturally synthesized in the skin when it is exposed to sunlight, but long winters and sun avoidance in the summer mean that many kids may not get enough vitamin D this way. In addition, vitamin D synthesis is less efficient in people with darker skin, and African Americans are at higher risk of deficiency than whites.

Overweight children and adults also appear to be at elevated risk of deficiency because vitamin D is stored in body fat. The more vitamin D that gets sequestered into fat tissue, the less active vitamin there is in the blood.

SOURCE: here(10)00657-3/abstract

Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, online June 10, 2010.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M5E920100623

Ryan Mclaughlin confirms a new campaign video coming soon

Ryan Mclaughlin has confirmed that he is finalising a new film script for a new youtube campaign due to be launched early July 2010, the new Shine on Scotland campaign film will look to expand on the aim of the Shine On Scotland campaign and to raise further awareness of vitamin D and the link to MS.

Ryan Mclaughlin wants to spread the message of vitamin D and the possible prevention of  MS .

He believes that Multiple Sclerosis does not wear a flag, MS crosses all borders and unites us all together to prevent it !  MS prevention is now a global fight it’s a movement to prevent this disease for our children !


Follow the campaign at http://www.shineonscotland.org.uk

schoolboy campaigner calls for vitamin D programme to help fight MS

Scientists studying the high incidence of multiple sclerosis in Scotland have urged the Holyrood Government to introduce a nationwide programme of vitamin D supplements for pregnant women and children to help combat the disease.

Under the heading Vitamin D: hope on the horizon for MS prevention? the June issue of The Lancet Neurology insists the benefits of supplementation outweigh any potential side effects and concludes “given the low costs, low toxicity … steps to tackle vitamin D deficiency in high-risk populations seem warranted.”

Vitamin D is sometimes known as the “sunshine drug”. The new research specifically identifies Scotland among a number of high-latitude countries — with long, dark winters — that have a higher than average incidence of MS. Around 10,500 people in Scotland have the disease which is the country’s most common disabling neurological condition, typically affecting sufferers from their late 20s and 30s.

The Lancet’s intervention follows a succession of studies which have demonstrated the link between Vitamin D deficiency and a number of health conditions, including rickets, type 1 (or early onset) diabetes, heart disease, infectious diseases and some forms of cancer.

The authors of the report concede that the link between Vitamin D deficiency and MS is not definitively proved, but add that assembling data on MS prevention could take decades. They argue that dietary supplement were likely to provide wider health benefits that would quickly result in a reduction in government health spending.

Welcoming the findings, David McNiven of the MS Society Scotland said his organisation would continue to support the Shine on Scotland campaign, lobbying for Vitamin D Supplements.

“The Lancet article is very encouraging because it endorses the arguments that we have been making: that vitamin D supplementation represents a low-cost, low-risk public health intervention with potentially massive benefits,” said Mr McNiven.

The new research leaves little doubt of the wider benefits of supplementation. The authors write: “If the predicted effects of raising serum vitamin D concentrations … are realised, the potential savings have been estimated to be £160 billion from the direct and indirect burden of the disease, set against an expenditure of £8.5 billion on testing and public education.”

The paper concludes: “Because any benefits for MS in particular will take decades to emerge, a long-term outlook is needed from policymakers, but future health and financial benefits have the potential to make this investment highly rewarding.”

Last year, researchers in North America suggested that high doses of vitamin D could dramatically cut the relapse rate in people with multiple sclerosis. According to scientists in Canada, more than a third of sufferers taking high levels of supplementation did not fall ill during the period of the trial, representing a marked change in the pattern of their disease.

Like Scotland, Canada has a high rate of MS and there is growing evidence that this is connected to a cloudy climate, where weaker ultraviolet B rays during the winter months are insufficient for people to produce enough Vitamin D.

Neurologists at the University of Toronto, studied 25 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. During the year of treatment 40 per cent of patients on the low dose of vitamin D (1,000 international units daily) experienced a relapse compared to only 16 per cent of those in the high dose (14,000 IU daily) group.

People taking the high dose of vitamin D suffered 41 per cent fewer relapses than the year before the study began, compared with 17 per cent of those taking typical doses. Dr Burton found that those taking high doses of vitamin D did not suffer any significant side effects.

The MS Society Scotland has organised an international summit in September, where the link between vitamin D deficiency and the disease will be discussed. They hope to persuade Scottish ministers to take action on vitamin D as a pressing public health issue.

Ryan to ask for a meeting with Prime Minister

Ryan Mclaughlin of the Shine on Scotland campaign for vitamin D as a preventitive measure against MS will step up his campaigning this week for a meeting with the UK Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown.

The bravehearted 14 year old tried to get sneaky meeting with him a few weeks back when he visited North Glasgow College to support Willie Bain but unfortunately there just wasn’t enough time but he was promised a meeting at a later date, although a little disappointed he knew that Mr Brown was a very busy man and was happy to get a promise of a meet at a later date.

Mrs Sarah Brown is a great supporter of MS and he hopes that Mr Brown will support him.

Ryan says ” this is so important to my cause if we can get the UK government support we may be able to move forward in the prevention of  MS through vitamin D supplementation,  there are loads of people from all over the UK wanting this now – I get emails almost every day from Mum’s wanting to protect their kids , it is so cheap to supply it so why delay it’s introduction – a clinical study would cost a 100 times more than just doing it now and would take years to show results  and we must protect kids from MS now.

He say’s the  Scottish Government have been amazing and so supportive and he hopes to open the eyes of the UK  Government in a similar fashion to the Scottish Government but said he has no plans to dress as William Wallace again on any visit and it will be kept very low key.

http://www.shineonscotland.org.uk/news/2009/11/ryan-mclaughlin-to-ask-for-a-meeting-with-the-prime-minister/

Miss Scotland ready to hit the heights

MISS Scotland Katharine Brown and DJ Suzie McGuire have signed up to join Celts ace Gary Caldwell in a Bighearted charity climb up Mount Kilimanjaro

The daring celebs have agreed to take part in the Comic Relief-style trek up the 19,340ft Tanzanian mountain next summer.

We told earlier this month how Hoops defender Gary volunteered for the adventure at our glitzy Bighearted Scotland Awards.

He was impressed with the plan to conquer Africa’s highest peak by award-winners Ryan McLaughlin, 14, and Allan Thomas, 41 – and now Kath and Suzie will join them too.

Kath, 22, from Dunblane, Perthshire, said: “I was thrilled to be asked and immediately said yes.
“I’ve always wanted to climb that mountain – I’m drawn to it.”

Clyde 1’s Suzie, 35, from Eaglesham, Renfrewshire, added: “I’m definitely up for it – but I am nervous.”
Gary, 27, said: “I’m really excited about Kilimanjaro. As long as the dates don’t clash with football commitments I’ll do it.

“There are a couple of others in the dressing room who want to climb it too.”

Aberdonian Allan, who won our Fundraiser of the Year, and Child of the Year Ryan, of Drumchapel, Glasgow, hope the trek will raise £100,000 for the six Bighearted Scotland charities, plus their own causes.

www.shineonscotland.org.uk

Created at a time when Scotland has the highest rates of ms in the world. Ryan McLaughlin age 14 talks openly about the disease that his mum is fighting and for the first time a chance that MS figures could be reduced in Scotland by introducing vitamin d for pregnant mums and all Scots children, now its Scotland's turn to change there own future, to stand up and fight for better health and say to the Scottish Government we've seen MS - NO Thank you.

It's time for the children of Scotland to shine!

Visit http://www.shineonscotland.org.uk/

The inspirational music is "Change" by Tracy Chapman from the album "Where You Live" 2005. Available on iTunes.