Researchers have shown a link between food allergies with increased levels of disease activity in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The research is published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
Patients with food allergies had more relapses and greater odds of further nerve damage visible on MRI scans, the findings indicate. MS has genetic and environmental factors influencing its development with known risk factors such as high altitude, female gender, smoking, low vitamin D levels, Epstein Barr virus infection, and teen obesity.
Researchers assessed possible links between environmental, drug, and food allergies and MS flare-ups and evidence of disease activity on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in 1349 adults with the condition.
Some 427 had no known allergy, while 922 had one or more allergies. Of these, 586 had an environmental allergy, 238 had a food allergy, and 574 were allergic to prescribed drugs.
When compared with those patients with no known allergy, food allergy was associated with a cumulative rate of disease flare-ups that was 27 percent higher, even after adjusting for potentially influential factors.
"Our findings suggest that MS patients with allergies have more active disease than those without, and that this effect is driven by food allergies," the researchers commented.