`Med Diet Beneficial for Bowel Disease Patients, Study Suggests - Olive Oil Times
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Med Diet Beneficial for Bowel Disease Patients, Study Suggests

By Julie Al-Zoubi
Jun. 9, 2020 09:02 UTC

The results of a new study pub­lished in Oxford Academic showed that patients suf­fer­ing from inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­ease (IBD) who fol­lowed the Mediterranean diet for six months saw a sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in their con­di­tion.

Patients who had adhered to the Mediterranean diet ben­e­fited from a decrease in their body mass index (BMI) and saw their waist­lines shrink. Lower inflam­ma­tory mark­ers and less dis­ease activ­ity were also noted.

The adop­tion of a proper ali­men­tary habit based on (a Mediterranean diet) and the achieve­ment of com­pli­ance might be piv­otal in the clin­i­cal man­age­ment of (inflam­ma­tory bowel dis­ease) patients.- Fabio Chicco, the study’s lead author

“Our data sup­port the role of nutri­tional coun­sel­ing in the mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary man­age­ment of IBD,” Fabio Chicco, the study’s lead author, told Reuters. ​“The adop­tion of a proper ali­men­tary habit based on (a Mediterranean diet) and the achieve­ment of com­pli­ance might be piv­otal in the clin­i­cal man­age­ment of these patients.”

To assess the impact of the Mediterranean diet on IBD con­di­tions, Chicco’s research team devised pre-study ques­tion­naires to eval­u­ate par­tic­i­pants’ qual­ity of life. Patients were assessed for clin­i­cal and dis­ease activ­ity and were tested for pos­si­ble steato­sis (fatty liver dis­ease) using an abdom­i­nal ultra­sound.

See Also:Olive Oil Health Benefits

Participants were given dietary advice by a nutri­tion­ist and were advised to con­sume olive oil at every meal as part of the MedDiet.

The study, which was under­taken by researchers from the University of Cagliari, observed 142 patients with IBD. Participants were made up of 84 ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis patients and 58 suf­fer­ers of Crohn’s dis­ease.

Olive oil con­sump­tion has been asso­ci­ated with the pre­ven­tion of ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis since a 2010 study by researchers from the University of East Anglia con­cluded that a diet rich in oleic acid (a com­po­nent of olive oil) sig­nif­i­cantly reduced the risk of devel­op­ing the dis­ease.

At the start of the study 43 ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis patients and 30 Crohn’s dis­ease patients were deemed obese.

After adher­ing to the MedDiet for six months the BMI of ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis patients had decreased by an aver­age of 0.42 points and their waist cir­cum­fer­ence had decreased by around 1.25 cen­time­ters (0.50 inches). Similar results were noted in the Crohn’s dis­ease patients, whose BMI decreased by around 0.48 points and waist cir­cum­fer­ence by 1.4 cen­time­ters (0.55 inches).

During the study, the num­ber of patients with the active dis­ease (expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms) also declined, falling from 23.7 per­cent to 6.8 per­cent in ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis patients and from 17 per­cent to 3.8 per­cent in Crohn’s dis­ease patients.

It was also noted that the MedDiet led to a sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tion of liver steato­sis (fatty liver dis­ease), which com­pletely dis­ap­peared in some patients.

“I’m a big fan of the Mediterranean diet, so I’m excited to see a study that looks at it,” Aline Charabaty, direc­tor of the IBD Center at the Johns Hopkins-Sibley Memorial Hospital, told Reuters.

Charabaty claimed that pre­vi­ous dietary stud­ies which focused on the effects of indi­vid­ual foods on IBD were a mis­take due to the com­plex nature of IBD.

“This study is very nicely done, and it mir­rors what is known from epi­demi­o­log­i­cal stud­ies. I’m glad to see it backs up my rec­om­men­da­tions to patients,” she said.



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