A recent Nutrients journal study determines whether diet influences the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS). Study: The Role of Diet in Multiple Sclerosis Onset: A Prospective Study Using UK Biobank. Image Credit: Josep Suria / Shutterstock.
com MS is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that generally affects individuals between 20 and 40 years of age. MS is characterized by central nervous system (CNS) lesions that may cause cognitive or physical impairment, such as lack of coordination, paralysis, sensory disturbances, and visual impairments. MS has been classified into many sub-types based on different phenotypes.
These subtypes include clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting, primary progressive, and secondary progressive MS. In England, eight to 11 new cases of MS out of every 100,000 individuals are reported each year. As compared to men, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with MS.
MS is a multifactorial disease that can develop due to genetic and environmental factors such as exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) light, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, obesity, and smoking. Diet is a vital modulator of gut homeostasis that may influence CNS health through the gut-brain axis. Several studies have shown that frequent consumption of food additives may lead to a “leaky gut” or gut dysbiosis that increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
A pro-inflammatory gut environment has also been reported to increase the risk of MS. To this end, a recent Un.
