association of macro- and micro-nutrients intake with the risk of multiple sclerosis: a case control study

background and objectives: multiple sclerosis (ms) is the most prevalent autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, and it has been suggested that nutrition might play a role in the etiology of ms. this study was aimed to evaluate the relationship between ms risk and intake of some macro- and micro-nutrients in tehran (iran). materials and methods: in this hospital based, case-control study, a total of 60 newly diagnosed patients with ms and 140 controls underwent face-to-face interviews. information regarding the usual dietary intake of each individual in the past year was collected by using a valid and reliable 168-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. results: inverse significant associations were observed (p< 0.05) between the intake of protein (or=0.19 95% ci: 0.04-0.76) and micro-nutrients such as vitamin b1 (or=0.10 95% ci: 0.02-0.53) , vitamin b2 (or=0.15 95% ci: 0.04-0.50), cobalamin (or=0.13 95% ci: 0.04-0.38), vitamin c (or=0.20 95% ci: 0.07-0.58), vitamin a (or=0.23 95% ci: 0.09-0.59), vitamin d (or=0.28 95% ci: 0.11-0.72), vitamin e (or=0.15 95% ci: 0.05-0.41), β-carotene (or=0.38 95% ci: 0.15-0.97), zinc (or=0.05 95% ci: 0.01-0.27), magnesium (or=0.12 95% ci: 0.03-0.47) and calcium (or=0.23 95% ci: 0.08-0.67) and the risk of ms. conclusions: the results suggest that intake of some macro- and micro-nutrients might be associated with reduced risk of ms. it seems promising that intake of nutrients at least in the dietary reference levels may decrease the risk of ms. keywords: multiple sclerosis (ms) micronutrients case-control study