Researchers to study whether keto diet eases MS vision issues

Researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) received a $470,000 grant to investigate how a ketogenic diet — one that is high in fats and low in carbohydrates — may help protect vision in people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The project, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute, will focus on optic neuritis, or inflammation of the optic nerve that carries visual information from the eye to the brain. The condition affects up to 70% of people with MS at some point, and can cause sudden vision loss, blurred vision, and eye pain.

Optic neuritis is typically treated with high-dose corticosteroids to reduce inflammation, but these medications can cause significant side effects.

“Our goal is to find non-steroidal methods to reduce the inflammation before it destroys the optic nerve,” Scott Plafker, PhD, the OMRF scientist who will lead the project, said in a foundation news story.

Research has suggested that a ketogenic diet, which encourages the body to burn fats instead of sugar to produce energy, may reduce inflammation and protect nerve cells. Studies have linked the diet to easing of fatigue and depression and improved physical function and quality of life for people with MS.

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The new project builds on Plafker’s earlier work in MS mice, in which animals fed a ketogenic diet showed less vision loss and milder motor symptoms.

The researchers found that the diet also altered the gut microbiome ( the collection of microbes living in the gut), increasing levels of bacteria that produce compounds called indoles. These molecules enter the bloodstream and appear to limit optic nerve inflammation and support the nerve’s recovery. The researchers will now study whether these compounds alone can provide similar benefits.

“If so, it may eventually be possible to develop these compounds as nutritional supplements or therapies that are easier for people to use than maintaining a strict ketogenic diet,” Plafker said.

Gabriel Pardo, MD, who leads OMRF’s Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence, said he’s “quite hopeful” that Plafker’s project will bring new options to patients.

“Current treatments for acute optic neuritis aren’t ideal,” Pardo said, adding he expects the research “will lead not only to a more natural treatment with fewer side effects, but also to a better understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and inflammation.”