March 18, 2025 | News | Living with MS MS Research

Metabolic age – new data on MS diets

A new diet study was recently presented at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ACTRIMS), one of the main research conferences on the MS calendar.

The study was conducted in the U.S. and looked at the impact of diet on what is called ‘metabolomic aging’. ‘Metabolomics’ is the study of the breakdown products (metabolites) in a person’s body. What your body’s tissues are producing will provide clues about how your body is functioning. Some of these metabolites are markers of a person’s biological age (as opposed to their chronological age). What is useful about this approach is that it recognizes how a person’s genetics, lifestyle and environmental exposures contribute to the wear and tear on the body (Siavoshi and colleagues. medRxiv, February 3, 2025). This is the scientific equivalent of the adage, It’s not the years but the mileage.

The researchers looked at whether calorie-restricted diets offered any benefits (Siavoshi and colleagues. ACTRIMS 2025;P008). The three 6-week regimens on offer were either a calorie-reduced diet (22% reduction in calories every day), intermittent near-fasting (75% reduction in calories for two days a week), or a weight-stable diet (100% of daily calorie needs). A parallel study looked at the Atkin’s ketogenic diet (low in carbohydrates, higher in fats). The researchers estimated that both the near-fasting diet and the ketogenic diet slowed biological aging by about 1 year/month in people with MS (although it is safe to assume that there is a limit to how far back you can reset the biological clock).

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