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New Study Shows How Diet May Impact MS Course

April 25, 2019

A New York team funded by the National MS Society and others found that people with MS who were overweight or obese had increases in certain fatty molecules (lipids) and immune cells, which were linked with worse clinical symptoms and worse disease activity on MRI scans. Further research suggested the lipid molecules – known as ceramides – modified gene activity in immune cells (monocytes), causing them to multiply more frequently, and possibly leading to the increase in disease activity.

This study adds to a growing body of research showing links between obesity and the development of MS. Read more about taking charge by eating healthy.

Further study in larger numbers of people is necessary to confirm these findings, and to determine if changes in diet can help to offset ceramide activity and reduce MS activity.

Read more from City University of New York

Read the article in EBioMedicine
 

About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis, and there is currently no cure for MS. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are leading to better understanding and moving us closer to a world free of MS. An estimated 1 million people live with MS in the United States. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and it affects women three times more than men.

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