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Healthy diet may reduce MS disability, symptoms

Individuals with multiple sclerosis who consume a healthy diet consisting of fruits, vegetables and whole grains are less likely to have disability and symptoms of the disease, such as fatigue, depression, pain and cognitive impairment, according to new research published in Neurology.

“People with MS often ask if there is anything they can do to delay or avoid disability, and many people want to know if their diet can play a role, but there have been few studies investigating this,” Kathryn C. Fitzgerald, ScD, study author from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said in a press release.

Fitzgerald and colleagues evaluated how diet quality and consumption of specific foods affect disability and symptom severity in patients with MS. A total of 6,989 patients with physician-diagnosed MS in the North American Research Committee completed a dietary screener questionnaire to estimate intake of fruits, vegetables and legumes, dairy/calcium, added sugars, whole grains/fiber and red/processed meat.

Using data from the questionnaire, the researchers developed an overall diet quality score for each individual, with higher scores representing healthier diets or ones that were composed of more fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains and less sugar and red and processed meat. The researchers used Patient-Determined Disease Steps to measure disability status. The analysis was adjusted for age, sex, income, BMI, smoking status and disease duration.

Results showed that participants with the highest diet quality score had 20% lower odds of having physical disability and depression, compared with those with the lowest diet quality score.

Furthermore, participants with a composite healthy lifestyle consisting of having a healthy weight, regularly exercising, consuming a healthier than average diet and not smoking had lower incidences of severe fatigue (OR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.59–0.81), depression (OR = 0.53; 95% CI, 0.43–0.66), pain (OR = 0.56; 95% CI, 0.48–0.67) and cognitive impairment (OR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.55–0.79).

“As diet and other lifestyle factors are modifiable, they offer a promising, safe avenue to ameliorate MS-associated symptoms and influence disease course,” Fitzgerald and colleagues concluded. “Longitudinal studies are needed to gain a better understanding of the directionality of the association between diet, a composite healthy lifestyle, and disease outcomes.” – by Alaina Tedesco

Disclosure: Fitzgerald reports receiving research funding from the Consortium of MS Centers and the National MS Society. Please see study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.