Low-fat diet may help reduce fatigue in people with multiple sclerosis

People with multiple sclerosis MS could benefit from a lowfat diet to improve the fatigue thats a debilitating and oftenunderappreciated symptom of the condition according to a small study led by an Indianorigin researcherA lowfat diet is one that restricts fat and often saturated fat and cholesterol as wellMS is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord central nervous system Fatigue that occurs with the degenerative disease can make it harder for people to go about with everyday tasks Fatigue is very disabling for MS patients said principal investigator and senior author Vijayshree Yadav Professor of neurology at the Oregon Health amp Science University in the USThere is no FDAapproved drug for fatigue but we know that fatigue greatly affects their quality of life she addedIn the study published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal the researchers conducted a randomised controlled trial in which 39 people with MS who experienced fatigue were divided into two groups 19 people were placed in the control group and received diet training at the completion of the study after 16 weeksThe other 20 received nutrition counselling from dieticians and then adhered to a lowfat diet which was confirmed through routine blood sampling revealing clear signals of reduced caloric intakeYou cannot really fudge the biomarkers Yadav saidIn contrast to a 2016 study that tested a purely plantbased diet the new study was modified to include meat while still remaining lowfat Exercise was not part of the programme meaning the study solely focused on diet as an interventionCompared with the control group the active group of participants revealed significant improvement in fatigue which was gauged through the Modified Fatigue Impact ScaleEvery four weeks participants answered standardised questions measuring aspects such as their ability to pay attention concentrate and to carry out routine physical activitiesThe results reinforced what we had seen before Yadav said A lowfat diet can truly make a difference in a patients fatigue level even without going so far as to make it a vegan dietThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever