MS research on nutrition is getting a facelift, y’all!!!

You would not believe what happened just a week after my last blog post titled “Is Keto A Trigger For Vegans?” An article was published in UVAToday which supports the ketogenic diet for MS. It is titled Ketogenic Diet Show Major Benefits For Multiple Sclerosis.

They said, and I quote:

“The ketogenic diet, which replaces carbohydrates with protein and healthy fats, may be a key to managing MS, new research co-authored with UVA Health shows.”

Research Findings

The study was on 65 relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis volunteers. The study participants saw reductions in neurologic disability, fatigue, depression, and heightened overall quality of life. Participants also lost body fat, their performance improved on physical endurance testing, such as the 6-minute walk, as well as enhanced fine motor speed. There were also beneficial changes in inflammatory blood markers.

This study will be presented and peer reviewed shortly, but these findings are nothing short of mind blowing. The presentation will be at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting in April. It is titled, Ketogenic Diet as a Strategy for Improved Wellness and Reduced Disability in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis.

The same study was highlighted in Multiple Sclerosis News Today. It is titled, Ketogenic Diet Eases Symptoms, Aids Life Quality in Small RRMS Study. They went ahead and stated categorically that participants lost an average of 20lb (9kg) of body fat in this 6 month period.

While I knew these things to be true in my body, it hits different when it’s supported by research. While my aim with the Wahls Paleo Plus was not to lose weight, I did lose more than 20lb myself, and it helped correct hormonal imbalances.

More MS Nutrition Research On The Horizon

Dr. Terry Wahls my shero and mentor, also bagged a $2.5 million donation toward research studying the effects of nutrition on MS. This is from the Carter Chapman Shreve Family Foundation to the Wahls Therapeutic Lifestyle Fund in the Wahls Lab. You can read about this here as well as here. This study will compare 3 diets. The modified Paleo Diet. The ketogenic diet. The USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans diet.

The UIHC article reads: “The two-year Efficacy of Diet on Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis (EDQ-MS) study will also be one of the longest in duration to study the effect of diet on clinical and patient reported outcomes and biomarkers of brain injury.”

It’s been so hard getting large MS nutrition studies because we know who funds most research. It’s usually Big Pharma. They won’t fund something that proves viable alternatives or adjuncts to medication. This is because either way, you will end up on less medication or no medication when you apply these principles. It does not further their cause!

In Conclusion

What I would like to see are more studies on primary progressive multiple sclerosis PPMS. We want to do better than extrapolate from studies using participants with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis RRMS. I do see that Picnic Health is spearheading some PPMS research, and I am most certainly here for it.

Please share in your email with a friend who has MS, share to social media, or Tweet this. I feel like shouting it on the rooftops. So very excited for the future.

🧡🧡🧡

Folake.

I am Dr. Folake Taylor, and I live with Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis PPMS. After 15 years in internal medicine primary care, while battling disability/ PPMS for the last 7 of the 15, I found myself diving deeper into holistic health for answers. Now I’m turning my lemons to lemonade. I refuse to allow physical and cognitive disability stop me, from fulfilling my destiny of using my voice to benefit the world with my knowledge, which I did prior to my illness. Sharing what I have learned and am still learning about the body’s ability to heal itself, which is quite different from what I learned in medical school, is now my mission. And as I create an online self-paced course for MS recovery, I will take you along with me as the daily journey continues.