Milk may exacerbate multiple sclerosis symptoms: Study

Bonn : A recent study has found that people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) complain of severe disease symptoms after consuming dairy products. Researchers have also found a possible cause for this.
The study was published in ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’.
The prompt for the study came from MS patients. “We hear again and again from sufferers that they feel worse when they consume milk, cottage cheese or yoghurt,” explained Stefanie Kurten from the Institute of Anatomy at University Hospital Bonn. “We are interested in the cause of this correlation.” The professor of neuroanatomy is an expert on multiple sclerosis. She began the study in 2018 at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. A year and a half ago, she moved to Bonn, where she continued the work together with her research group. “We injected mice with different proteins from cow’s milk,” she said. “We wanted to find out if there was a constituent that they were responding to with symptoms of disease.” And the researchers did indeed find what they were looking for: When they administered the cow’s milk constituent casein together with an effect enhancer to the animals, the mice went on to develop neurological disorders. Electron microscopy showed damage to the insulating layer around the nerve fibers, the myelin. The fat-like substance prevents short circuits and additionally significantly accelerates stimulus conduction.
In multiple sclerosis, the body’s immune system destroys the myelin sheath. The consequences range from paresthesia and vision problems to movement disorders. In extreme cases, patients need a wheelchair. The insulating sheath was also massively perforated in the mice — apparently triggered by casein administration.
“We suspected that the reason was a misdirected immune response, similar to that seen in MS patients,” explained Rittika Chunder, who is a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Kurten’s research group. “The body’s defences actually attack the casein, but in the process, they also destroy proteins involved in the formation of myelin.”