Â鶹ֱ²¥ researchers have trialled an online nutrition education program designed to help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) manage their symptoms through healthy eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Eating Well with MS\u2019 was co-created with the MS community and provides a tailored approach to meet the specific needs of people living with the chronic condition, which affects the central nervous system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lead researcher Dr Rebecca Russell<\/a>, from the Curtin School of Population Health, said more than 33,000 Australians live with MS and diet can potentially impact their symptoms and disease progression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaking dietary changes can give people with MS a sense of control over the disease, but there\u2019s a lot of conflicting information online. This program was developed to fill the gap in accessible, evidence-based nutrition advice,\u201d Dr Russell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe enlisted 70 people with MS to evaluate the program\u2019s effectiveness and participants rated it 6 out of 7 for usefulness, reporting significant improvements in diet quality, meal planning and the ability to critically assess nutrition claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur next step is a larger national trial, with the ultimate goal of making this program accessible to all Australians living with MS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Eating Well with MS\u2019 includes recipe booklets and behaviour-changing techniques and covers topics ranging from understanding healthy eating to making informed decisions about the special diets marketed to people with MS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perth mother of two, Michelle Evans, who was diagnosed with MS six years ago, said the six-week program helped her navigate confusion around what to put on her plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much contradictory information out there and it can be hard to make the right choices. The \u2018Eating Well with MS\u2019 program helps give a clearer understanding of how diet can play a role in the management of my symptoms,\u201d Ms Evans said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Russell said the initiative demonstrates the potential for co-designed, online educational tools to complement traditional healthcare delivery, especially for communities with specific needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs people with MS continue to seek out ways to manage their condition through lifestyle changes, \u2018Eating Well with MS\u2019 offers a promising resource for improving their overall diet quality which can impact their quality of life,\u201d Dr Russell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Published in the journal \u2018Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders\u2019,<\/em> the research was supported by MSWA and an MS Australia<\/a> Incubator Grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This study, titled \u2018Feasibility of a co-designed online nutrition education program for people with multiple sclerosis\u2019<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> was part of the MS Nutrition Research Program, led by Professor Lucinda Black<\/a> across Curtin and Deakin Universities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Â鶹ֱ²¥ researchers have trialled an online nutrition education program designed to help people with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4454,"featured_media":25933,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"7280,4669,7238,5597,8594,8348","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[1048,1047],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-25930","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-eating-well-with-ms","tag-multiple-sclerosis"],"acf":{"experts":false,"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":[24383,24381]},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/MS-for-web-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"display_name":"294101E"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/25930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/25930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25930"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=25930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}