The Wahl’s Protocol: Combatting MS and other Diseases with Diet
Dr. Terry Wahls is the author of The Wahls Protocol. Dr. Wahls was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in 2000 and by 2003 she had transitioned to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. She underwent chemotherapy in an attempt to slow the disease and began using a tilt-recline wheelchair because of weakness in her back muscles. As she says on her website, www.terrywahls.com, “It was clear: eventually I would become bedridden by my disease. I wanted to forestall that fate as long as possible.”
“Hoping to find something to arrest my descent into becoming bedridden, I used PubMed.gov to search scientific articles about the latest multiple sclerosis research…. Unfortunately, most of the studies were testing drugs that were years away from FDA approval. Then it occurred to me to search for vitamins and supplements that helped any kind of progressive brain disorder. Slowly I created a list of nutrients important to brain health and began taking them as supplements. The steepness of my decline slowed, for which I was grateful, but I still was declining.”
In the summer of 2007, Dr. Wahls discovered Functional Medicine, an organization devoted to helping clinicians use the latest scientific discoveries to take better care of those with complex chronic diseases. As a result she developed a longer list of vitamins and supplements that were good for the brain. In addition, she discovered that sulfur was extremely important for detoxing the body. Then she had an important epiphany:
“What if I redesigned my diet so that I was getting those important brain nutrients not from supplements but from the foods I ate? I used what I had learned from the medical literature, Functional Medicine, and my knowledge of the Hunter-Gatherer diet–the most nutritious of any diet–to create my new food plan. At that same time, I also learned about neuromuscular electrical stimulation and convinced my physical therapist to give me a test session. It hurt a lot, but I also felt euphoric when it was finished, likely because of the endorphins my body released in response to the electrical stimulation. In December 2007, I began the Wahls Protocol™. The results stunned my physician, my family, and me: within a year, I was able to walk through the hospital without a cane and even complete an 18-mile bicycle tour.”
For more information, or to order Dr. Wahls’s book, The Wahls Protocol, go to www.terrywahls.com