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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord. In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath-myelin that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between the brain and the other parts of the body.
Reducing calories intake can change the body’s immune environment and the gut microbiome, and potentially control multiple sclerosis. In multiple sclerosis, immune system turns against nervous system, depending on which nerves are damaged.
Signs and symptoms include fatigue, numbness or weakness in the limbs, dizziness, vision problems, tingling and pain. Patients with relapsing-remitting MS – the most common form can be stable for months or years between bouts of illness.
Researchers divided study participants into two; one group will stay on their usual Western-style diet seven days a week, while the other group will maintain such a diet five days a week but limited to 500 calories of vegetables the remaining two days. The study showed that intermittent fasting reduces MS-like symptoms. In the study, mice were either allowed to eat freely or fed every other day for four weeks before receiving an immunization to trigger MS-like symptoms. Both groups of mice then continued on their same diets for another seven weeks.
The mice that fasted every other day were less likely to develop signs of neurological damage such as difficulty walking, limb weakness and paralysis. Some of the fasting mice develop MS-like symptoms, but they appeared later and were less severe than in the mice that ate daily. The fasting mice’s immune systems seemed to be dialed down. As compared with mice that took daily meals, those that ate every other day had fewer pro-inflammatory immune cells and more of a kind of immune cell that keeps the immune response in check.
Fasting can affect inflammation and the immune response by changing hormone levels, the levels of the anti-inflammatory hormone corticosterone were nearly twice as high in the fasting mice. After four weeks, the mice that fasted sheltered a more diverse ecosystem in their guts than mice that ate every day. In particular, the fasting mice had more of the soothing probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus, which other studies in mice have linked to milder MS-like symptoms.
haleplushearty.org