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You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Marc Cavigli in Beijing.
Patients in the early stages of multiple sclerosis, or MS, could "stave off disease symptoms" by increasing their vitamin D intake.
U.S. researchers found that levels of vitamin D were strongly associated with disease severity and speed of progression in early-stage MS patients.
Because low vitamin D levels are common and can be easily and safely increased by oral supplementation, these findings may contribute to better outcomes for many MS patients.
MS is a central nervous system disease that causes problems with muscle control and strength, vision, balance, feeling, and thinking.
The World Health Organization estimated that roughly 2.5 million people in the world have the disease.
The researchers analyzed data from around 470 MS patients from 18 European countries, as well as Israel and Canada who enrolled in a trial looking at the effectiveness of the drug interferon beta-1b in treating the disease.
Sri Lanka's tourism tally for 2013 exceeded the government target to reach almost 1.27 million arrivals.
The original target for the year was to bring in 1.25 million tourists.
The release of the record 1.27 million figure caused debate within tourism circles as at end November last year, cumulative arrivals amounted to only 1 million.
A newspaper advertisement mentioned the final year figure of 1. 27 million which prompted analysts to question whether there were 258,000 arrivals in December to boost the final number to 1.27 million.
Local media reported the numbers have been changed after careful review of all monthly figures, following a discrepancy that was seen in the November figures between the data released by the Department of Immigration and Emigration and the calculations of the statistics collected by Sri Lanka Tourism.
The Central Bank reports earnings from tourism increased by almost 27 percent year-on-year to 170 million US dollars in December last year.
Accordingly, earnings from tourism last year recorded a year-on-year growth of 35 percent to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, compared to the cumulative earnings of 1 billion U.S. dollars in 2012.
Sri Lanka's tourist industry has been booming since a three-decade war ended in 2009.
The government has set a target for 1.5 million arrivals this year and a revenue target of 1.8 billion U.S. Dollars.
