Do dietary interventions improve health outcomes in people with multiple sclerosis? A cochrane review summary with commentary.

Background: A broad range of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches, including different dietary interventions, alone or in conjunction with conventional medicine are currently trailed in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Published clinical and experimental data suggest that certain dietary interventions may improve MS-related health outcomes.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of dietary interventions to improve MS-related health outcomes.

Methods: To summarize the updated Cochrane Review "Dietary interventions for multiple sclerosis-related outcomes" conducted by Parks et al. Best available evidence was discussed from the rehabilitation perspective.

Results: Overall 30 RCTs (with 2335 participants) evaluated a range of dietary interventions: polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidant supplements, dietary programmes and other dietary supplements. All included trials had one or more methodological issues leading to an unknown or high risk of bias. The findings suggest that the evidence is uncertain about the effect of dietary interventions on MS-related health outcomes.

Conclusions: The evidence for dietary interventions in people with MS is sparse and uncertain, and more robust studies are needed.