The Association between Diet and Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS) that affects individuals between the ages of 20 and 40 years, with a higher prevalence among women. Prevalence of this disease has increased significantly in recent decades in different geographical areas. There is evidence to suggest that both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the development of MS.

This study aims to investigate the potential relationship between diet and MS in the Azeri population of the East Azerbaijan province of Iran.

467 MS patients and 260 non-related healthy individuals under the age of 15 completed a dietary demographic questionnaire. The relationship between food consumption and MS was evaluated using the obtained data.

MS patients had a significantly higher consumption of fat, high-fat dairy, fast food, soybean, sausages and kielbasa, pickles, and leftover food (p-value=0.0001), while healthy individuals had a higher consumption of fruit (p-value=0.0001). Consumption of Meat, sweets, and fizzy drinks was also found to be higher in MS patients (p-value<0.05). There was no significant difference in the consumption of vegetables, cakes biscuits, and spices between the two groups (p-value>0.05).

The results suggest that fruit consumption under the age of 15 may be a protective factor against MS, while the consumption of fat, high-fat dairy, fast food, soybean, sausages and kielbasa, pickles, leftover food, meat, sweets, sauce, and fizzy drinks under the age of 15, maybe risk factors for MS.