Scientists from UConn Health and Washington University found eating more meat, having less of certain bacteria in the gut, and more of certain immune cells in the blood, are all linked with multiple sclerosis.
The research is published in EBioMedicine, and was conducted by Yanjiao Zhou et al.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease affecting fewer than 3 million people worldwide but costing $28 billion annually in the US alone—and untold suffering.
MS is more prevalent in specific regions, particularly the northern mid-latitudes, suggesting that geography is somehow linked to the disease, perhaps involving diet.
But teasing out the exact relationships between diet, immune response and MS has been difficult. MS is most obviously an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the insulation surrounding its nerves.
More and more evidence has suggested that bacteria might be involved. The bacteria living in our guts can affect our immune system. And what we eat can affect the bacteria in our guts.
In the study, the team tested the gut microbiome, immune systems, diet, and blood metabolites in 49 volunteers to look for correlations that might be subtle but important.
They found a number of gut bacteria associated with MS and the severity of disability of MS patients. We also found increased autoimmune markers and signature metabolites in MS.
But what is really interesting is how these systems connect with each other, and how diet is involved in these connections.
The strongest link the researchers found involved eating meat. Their analysis linked higher meat consumption to a decrease in the population of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron in people’s gut ecology.
B.thetaiotaomicronis associated with digesting carbohydrates from vegetables.
Higher meat consumption, which was observed in the MS patients, was also linked to an increase in T-helper 17 cells in the immune system.
The findings suggest that in MS, something goes wrong with people’s gut bacteria that dissociates them from the immune system, leading to heightened T-helper 17 cells and autoimmune attacks on the nervous system. And it tends to be associated with meat-eating.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about common vitamin that may protect against blinding eye disease, and avocados can support a heart-healthy diet.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about vitamin D deficiency linked to higher COVID-19 risk, and results showing diet soda drinkers have lower colon cancer death risk.
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