Impact of Dietary Intake on Severity of Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Multiple sclerosis is a medical condition and there is no exact cure. Around 2.8 million people suffer from multiple sclerosis worldwide. Several environmental factors also play an important role in the progression of disease. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of diet on the severity of multiple sclerosis.

Material and Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using nonprobability convenient sampling through a Google form from November 2021 to March 2022. The sample size for this study was 195 calculated by using Rao soft software. The semi-structured questionnaire includes a part of the food frequency questionnaire, the Multiple sclerosis quality of life-54 questionnaire, and Multiple sclerosis symptoms. Both males and females above 18 years of age, participants not having other neurological disorders other than MS, not having steroids, or a history of relapse from the past 6 months were included in this study. The institutional review board of PSRD College of Rehabilitation Sciences has granted permission to proceed with an authorization letter (PSRD/CRS/AJ/REC/Letter 26).Data entry, analysis, and interpretation were done using the SPSS software version 26.

Result: The mean age was 36.93±12.24 years. Most of the participants consuming carbohydrates (83.1%), proteins (72.3%), and antioxidants (73.3%) reported that their symptoms were much better from the past year (p value<0.001). Whereas the participants consuming dairy products reported their symptoms were worse than the last year.

Conclusion: This study concluded that some Carbohydrates, proteins and antioxidants have  positive effects on MS whereas dairy products show negative effects on multiple sclerosis severity.