Edited release
03/05/22
University of Iowa physician Dr. Terry Wahls has received a grant to study the effects of diet on multiple sclerosis, after putting the diet protocol she developed to test on herself.
In a release from the University, diet and lifestyle changes dramatically reduced the fatigue and physical symptoms of her own multiple sclerosis (MS) nearly 15 years ago. At the time, Wahls, a University of Iowa professor of internal medicine, was confined to a wheelchair and her MS was advancing.
With a change in diet, Wahls said her fatigue was gone in three months, she was walking without a cane after six months, and a year after I started, she did a 20-mile bike ride.
Wahls has been gifted $2.5 million from the Carter Chapman Shreve Family Foundation to be directed to the Wahls Therapeutic Lifestyle Fund in the Wahls Lab. The gift will be used to investigate three diets–a modified Paleolithic diet, a ketogenic diet, and the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans diet–for their effects on improving quality of life and reducing fatigue, a disabling symptom that can significantly interfere with a person’s ability to function at home and work, in persons with relapsing-remitting MS.
The gift will allow Wahls and her team to conduct one of the largest dietary intervention studies ever completed in people with MS. The two-year Efficacy of Diet on Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis (EDQ-MS) study will also be one of the longest in duration to study the effect of diet on clinical and patient reported outcomes and biomarkers of brain injury.
Investigators will recruit 156 people with relapsing-remitting MS. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the three diets. They will complete brief online questionnaires every other month and visit in person with researchers at three months and at the end of two years.
Eligible participants aged 18 to 70 years must have relapsing-remitting MS, live within 500 miles of Iowa City, and meet other study eligibility requirements. Individuals interested in being considered for enrollment in this study may complete screening questionnaires by going to a link under this story on our website, 1630 KCJJ dot com.