Pulmonary fibrosis and Mediterranean diet

An investigation has verified to what extent following a Mediterranean diet can influence the adverse gastrointestinal effects derived from a medication for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Doctors Maria Molina and Vanesa Vicens Zygmunt recently presented the results of the MADIET clinical trial, coordinated by the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB) and the Pulmonology research group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), at an international fibrosis congress. ), located in Hospitalet de Llobregat and which is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The clinical trial has had the participation of hospitals from six European countries.

The aforementioned congress, the International Colloquium on Lung and Airway Fibrosis 2022 (ICLAF), was held in Reykjavík (Iceland) from October 1 to 5.

The European multicentre MADIET phase IV study has shown that patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who follow a Mediterranean diet suffer fewer gastrointestinal side effects from treatment with pirfenidone. In fact, this is a common treatment for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, with a positive response, despite gastrointestinal side effects.

However, it had been observed that there is a lower incidence in hospitals in southern Europe, which report fewer adverse effects than northern countries. One of the reasons that can account for this difference is diet. Until now, no studies had been carried out on the influence of diet on these adverse effects.

Thus, with the coordination of IDIBELL and the HUB, the diet of some 90 hospital patients with a prescription for pirfenidone has been studied. In this multicenter study, hospitals from Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have participated, and the HUB as representative of the Spanish State.

Doctors Maria Molina and Vanesa Vicens Zygmunt have presented the results of the MADIET clinical trial at the ICLAF congress in 2022. (Photo: IDIBELL)

The study subjects were divided into two groups: some followed a Mediterranean diet – with plenty of vegetables and garden products, fresh fruit, legumes and cereals, olive oil as the main fat for cooking, fish, moderate intake of dairy products and a low meat consumption- and the others a diet rich in saturated fatty acids, for 16 weeks.

Comparing the gastrointestinal effects of both groups of patients, it was found that those who followed the Mediterranean diet suffered significantly fewer adverse effects.

In addition, patients who followed the diet rich in saturated fatty acids have had to suspend treatment in a greater number of cases. (Source: IDIBELL)