Can A Healthier Diet Reduce Your Risk for MS?
Adherence to a “healthy” diet doesn’t seem to influence women's risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new research.
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital evaluated participants in two Nurses’ Health studies, which totaled more than 185,000 women. Among them, rates of new-onset MS were similar, regardless of their adherence to four diets considered to be heart-healthy. Overall, there were 480 cases of new-onset MS in the 2 studies, including 130 in the original cohort and 350 in the second.
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According to the authors, participants who stuck closely to a so-called prudent diet, high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and low-cholesterol animal proteins; the DASH diet; a Mediterranean-type diet; or a diet rated as healthy according to the Alternate Healthy Eating Index—which also emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and low consumption of high-cholesterol foods—showed no lower rates of MS diagnosis than those with low adherence, with hazard ratios of 0.89 to 1.15, all with P values much greater than 0.05.
While noting that the association between a Western diet, which is high in red- and processed-meat consumption and low on unprocessed plant matter, and a lesser MS risk was most likely a statistical fluke, lead author Dalia Rotstein, MD, a clinical fellow in neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, stressed that the food intake data were all collected during participants' adulthood. Rotstein also noted that dietary patterns during adolescence may be more influential on MS risk.
In addition, further research is needed “to determine the possible role of diet quality in early years,” according to Rotstein, who presented the findings at the recent European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis meeting, held jointly with its North American counterpart in Boston, from Sept. 10 to Sept. 13.
Rotstein also acknowledged that the study only addressed overall adherence to certain diet plans, without studying intake of specific foods or nutrients, with the exception of vitamin D supplementation, and that specific diet components that genuinely influence MS risk may not have been captured in this analysis.
Still, she concluded that overall diet quality, based on the standards now generally accepted for the promotion of cardiovascular health, do not impact MS risk.
—Mark McGraw
Reference
Rotstein D, et al. Dietary patterns not associated with the risk of multiple sclerosis. ACTRIMS-ECTRIMS. 2014.