A pilot study of Michigan’s medicine researchers found that the Mediterranean diet can provide symptoms for people with irritable intestine syndrome.
The study participants were randomly assigned in two groups, one after the Mediterranean diet and the other after the low diet in Fodmap, a common restrictive diet for the SII.
In the Mediterranean Diet Group, 73% of the patients fulfilled the primary final point for the improvement of symptoms, versus 81.8% in the group under Fodmap.
Irritable intestine syndrome affects approximately 4-11% of all people, and most patients prefer dietary medication interventions.
The low fodmap diet leads to the improvement of symptoms in more than half of the patients, but is restrictive and difficult to follow.
The previous investigations of Michigan’s medicine researchers in more accessible alternative diets led to a proposed “simple fodmap”, which tried to restrict only food groups in the Fodmap acronym that is more likely to cause symptoms.
“Restrictive diets, such as low Fodmap, can be difficult to adopt for patients,” said Prashant Singh, MBBs, Michigan Medicine Gastroenterologist and main author in the document.
“In addition to the issue of being expensive and slow, there are concerns about nutrient deficiencies and disorderly feeding when trying a low diet in Fodmap. The Mediterranean diet interested us as an alternative that is not a elimination diet and overcomes several of these limitations related to a low Fodmap diet.”
The Mediterranean diet is already popular among doctors for its benefits for cardiovascular, cognitive and general health. However, previous research on the effect of the Mediterranean diet in the SII had yielded contradictory results.
In this pilot study, two groups of patients received a Mediterranean diet or the restriction phase of a low Fodmap diet for four weeks.
The primary end point was a standard 30% reduction in the FDA in the intensity of abdominal pain after four weeks.
All patients included in the study were diagnosed with IBS-D (diarrhea) or IBS-M (mixed symptoms of constipation or diarrhea).
This study was the first random controlled trial that compared the Mediterranean diet with another potential diet. (Previous studies had compared the Mediterranean diet with the typical diets of individuals or were not random controlled trials).
Although the Mediterranean diet provided relief of symptoms, the group under Fodmap experienced a greater improvement measured both for the intensity of abdominal pain and by the severity score of the symptoms of the SII.
The researchers found the results of this pilot study, which completed 20 patients, sufficiently encouraging to justify further future controlled trials to investigate the potential of the Mediterranean diet as an effective intervention for patients with SII.
“This study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that a Mediterranean diet could be a useful addition to the evidence -based dietary interventions menu for patients with SII,” said William Chey, MD, head of gastroenterology at the University of Michigan, elected president of the American Gastroenterology College and Senior Author in the document.
Researchers believe that studies are needed that compare the long -term efficacy of the Mediterranean diet with long -term results after the reintroduction and customization phases of low Fodmap.