Diet and Comorbidities in Multiple Sclerosis: Mona Bostick, RDN, LDN, MSCS

WATCH TIME: 2 minutes

“At this point, although there is no therapeutic diet that has been shown by science to directly impact the disease process itself, comorbidities are where nutrition can have an enormous impact. My presentation addressed the role of registered dietitians using nutrition interventions to treat and manage comorbid health conditions, and there's a lot of evidence that suggests that by managing those conditions well, we can improve the health outcomes of people with multiple sclerosis.”

Nutrition has been shown to play an integral part in the management of multiple sclerosis (MS), specifically in patients with comorbidities. At the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), October 25-28, Mona Bostick, RDN, LDN, MSCS, founder, Food Matters 365, Greensboro, North Carolina, gave a presentation entitled, “The Importance of Assessing Nutritional Health in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis,” later sitting down with NeurologyLive to discuss the key takeaways. 

Bostick commented on nutrition’s ability to impact comorbidities for this patient population, noting that there are currently no therapeutic diets that have been proven to alter the disease process of MS. She further provided her thoughts on popular elimination diets, adding that these too have no clinical evidence to validate them. Noting that some patients do report that diet may help to manage symptoms, she cautioned patients to run alterations by the healthcare team to avoid “unintended consequences” from different approaches.

For more coverage of CMSC 2021, click here.