Gut Health and Multiple Sclerosis: Why Aren’t More People Talking About It?

Many of our readers will know that I’ve hosted a series of webcasts for MS Ireland over the past few years called The Unspeakable Bits. As the name suggests, the topics that guest medical professionals and I talk about on the show are among those that just don’t seem to garner enough attention in the world of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Reluctance to Go “On the Record”

Recently, I’d planned a program on bowel and gut health as it relates to multiple sclerosis. However, I had a difficult time finding an MS health professional in Ireland willing to go on record on the topic. And it got me wondering what information is out there and why I was having such a hard time getting anyone to talk about it.

First, I suppose it’s appropriate to say that we come across this problem often on The Unspeakable Bits. There’s something about broadcasting live and being recorded and available for playback that spooks many. It likely comes from a fear of going “on the record” and then having some facts called into question by advancing research, or of accidentally saying the wrong thing, or of liability issues arising in an increasingly litigious world.

Solid Research Exists on This Topic

But with MS gut health, the amount of solid, published research is deep and growing.

The gut-brain connection has been well documented and is an evolving science. A 2017 study identified specific bacteria that are associated with MS and demonstrated that these bacteria regulate adaptive autoimmune responses and contribute to the proinflammatory environment in experimental mouse models of MS.

There is an entire international study organization focused on the association between gut health and multiple sclerosis called the International MS Microbiome Study. They are actively recruiting study participants to better understand the gut microbiota of people with MS and, eventually, design trials aimed at eliminating harmful bacterial and encouraging beneficial bacteria.

That the bacteria and other microorganisms that live and breed in our intestinal tract have an impact on overall health has grown to be an accepted premise. Why then does it seem to be a leap for some (if not many) that those same organisms might affect MS as well?

The fact that we have more “foreign” cells living within our gut than we have human cells that make up our body, according to the MS Society, should tell us that paying attention to how they might affect our health (or disease) seems like a scientific no-brainer to me.

More Research Is on Its Way

Great minds, including Yale associate professor of neurology Erin Longbrake, MD, PhD, are looking into the connection between our gut and our MS. Patient advocacy organizations including the National MS Society are supporting more research.

A few experts, including Ashutosh Mangalam, PhD, associate professor of pathology at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, and Anne-Katrin Pröbstel, MD, of University Hospital of Basel, University of Basel, in Basel, Switzerland, have been willing to go on camera to talk about the link between gut health and MS and the possibility that this link could be exploited in the treatment of MS.

I suppose it’s the complexity of the idea that has so many people in a wait-and-see holding pattern when thinking about sharing this evolving science. I’m not happy that we had to take gut health off the roster of programs for a little while. I am, however, grateful for the information I was able to find on my own and that I shared in the links above.

I hope it helps and informs you the way it did me — until we can find someone to speak on this “unspeakable” subject.

Wishing you and your family the best of health.

Cheers,

Trevis