Effects of different dietary interventions in multiple sclerosis: a systematic review of evidence from 2018 to 2022

Nutrition is an important risk factor for both Multiple sclerosis (MS) development and post-diagnosis disease prognosis. However, it is important to evaluate the diet as a whole instead of considering the effects of nutrients individually.

In this systematic review, it was aimed to evaluate the effect of different dietary interventions in MS patients and to determine the most appropriate dietary model for this group.

The search was carried out between February 2022 and March 2022 in three different databases, 'PubMed', 'Web of Science' and 'The Cochrane Library' over the university access network. After the search for the determined keywords, a total of 269 studies conducted between 2018 and 2022 were identified, but only 17 of them were found to be suitable for inclusion criteria.

Although there are studies reporting positive health outcomes for energy-restricted/intermittent fasting diets, ketogenic diet, and modified paleolithic diet, these diets may not be applicable diets in the long-term as they may cause deficiencies of various nutrients. No current study was found for low-fat diets, gluten-free diet and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet applied to individuals with MS. The Mediterranean diet, on the other hand, is more recommendable than other diet models due to the positive health results reported in long-term studies and the absence of any side effects. However, more studies are needed to reach a definite conclusion.