YOUR HEALTH: Eating MS symptoms away

NEW YORK, N.Y. (Ivanhoe Newswire) - As many as one million American adults are living with multiple sclerosis. It’s a disease of the central nervous system that interrupts the flow of information to the brain and the rest of the body. Medications can treat the symptoms, but right now, there is no cure. Clinicians are now studying the impact of the special diet on people living with the disease.

Melissa Goodman was in her late twenties working as an executive producer for a New York City music company. But late nights and long hours became too much. At just 29, Goodman had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Symptoms appeared almost out of the blue.

“I went numb from my waist down kind of quickly, so it was pretty scary,” Goodman fearfully remembers.

Goodman took medications to keep symptoms at bay. She had two healthy pregnancies, but then struggled with MS related complications after each.

”lost my vision in each eye, but separately, one after my son and one after my daughter,” Goodman recalls.

Goodman’s vision returned, and she became committed to improving her health.

Mount Sinai neurologist, Dr. Ilana Katz Sand, MD says, “We have had increasing levels of evidence over the past few years showing us that we think diet is important.”

Dr. Katz Sand and her colleagues are studying the effects of the Mediterranean diet on people with MS. It’s a diet that’s rich in fruits and vegetables, fish, whole grains, and olive oil.

“The more their diet looks like a Mediterranean diet, the lower their scores were in terms of MS-related disability across the board,” Dr. Katz Sand explains.

Goodman is following a Mediterranean-style diet with lots of vegetables, fish, and lean meats. She says it’s making a difference.

Dr. Katz Sand says patients in their study had better mobility and cognition on tests and reported feeling better overall. She says the next step would testing the effects of a Mediterranean-style diet on a larger group of patients with MS.

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