More cash for research into islanders

RESEARCHERS studying more than 2,000 Orkney islanders have been given £50,000 to help search for clues to serious diseases.

Dr Jim Wilson, from the University of Edinburgh, has received the funding from the Chief Scientist Office for the next phase of their work.

The researchers will now test samples from patients to find out if they suffer from vitamin D deficiency. They hope to find out whether people with certain health conditions, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), osteo-porosis and heart disease, have lower levels of the vitamin than people without these illnesses.

Orkney is thought to have the highest rate of MS in the world, which could be linked to less exposure to sunshine, which is needed to produce vitamin D in the body.

"We also wanted to see if there was a continuing effect," Dr Wilson said. "Maybe having lack of sunshine exposure and low vitamin D makes your MS get worse and influences the progression of disease. We intend to follow these people up in future and see how they do."

Dr Wilson said they also hoped to find out whether some people were genetically pre- disposed to have low vitamin D levels.

The Orkney study has been collecting information from residents for the last six years.