A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions
A third of patients who are newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) will need a walker or wheelchair in about 10 years. For Dr. Terry Wahls, the diagnosis of secondary progressive MS meant needing a wheelchair in just 3 years. 4 years after that, she needed to be reclined at all times due to rapid deterioration in her back and stomach muscles.
As a doctor, she naturally dove into research on neurodegenerative conditions. She took the drugs that were advised to slow her decline but opened her conventionally-trained mind to other alternatives for healing. She looked at the role of mitochondria in diseases like MS, nutrients that support cell function, and even modalities like meditation.
Dr. Wahls experimented on herself over the course of several years and never stopped digging deeper. What she was able to accomplish is nothing short of astonishing: she went from a reclined wheelchair to riding her bike 18 miles. Her severe pain and immobility dramatically improved, she had more energy, a clearer brain, and she ditched her wheelchair for good.
I was so excited to listen to her fascinating conversation with Dhru on this week’s episode of The Broken Brain Podcast.
Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa. Dr. Wahls restored her health using a diet and lifestyle program she designed specifically for her brain and now pedals her bike to work each day. She is the author of The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine, The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, and the cookbook, The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions. She recently updated the original Wahls Protocol with 30% new material. Dr. Wahls conducts clinical trials that test the effect of nutrition and lifestyle interventions to treat MS and other progressive health problems.
Dhru and Dr. Wahls dive into her personal experience with extremely aggressive MS and how a diet super-rich in phytonutrients (we’re talking 9 cups of greens a day, on top of other veggies!) plus the right kinds of lifestyle choices became her most powerful interventions. After 20 years of being vegetarian, Dr. Wahls embraced a Paleo diet and began to research the benefits of specific nutrients, like vitamin K, for myelination and brain health. She shares the amazing things she learned and experienced throughout this episode.
While Dr. Wahls is careful to say she’s not cured of MS—she still needs one medication and will need to manage her condition for life with her protocol—she was able to reverse severe symptoms that were said to be permanent and slow further decline. She has turned the conventional approach to MS on its head, as well as how we view other neurodegenerative conditions, and reveals the true power of food and lifestyle choices for healing.
I hope you’ll tune in to this inspiring episode. There is always hope for better health.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD
