How I Went From Wheelchair To Walking By Changing My Diet | Dr. Terry Wahls | Revitalize

why your jeans aren't your destiny over a hundred years ago Thomas Edison foretold that the physician of the future would give no medication but interest his or her patient and a proper diet in the care of the human frame and the cause and prevention of disease now sadly that's not how we physicians act no we know very little about nutrition even less about the root cause of disease and we are still in love with the newest drugs and the latest technology and as a young faculty physician teaching the new medical students taking care of my patients I thought the very best way to do that was to use the newest and latest drugs that is until I became a patient with a chronic progressive disease for which there is no cure in 2000 I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis on the basis of a history of visual dimming thirteen years earlier a new problem with my left leg lesions in my spinal cord and abnormal spinal fluid I saw the science I knew that within 10 years of diagnosis one-third will have difficulty walking needed a cane walker or wheelchair and one half will be unable to work because of severe profound fatigue I had two young children I was the main breadwinner for our family I could not let that happen so I decided to treat my disease aggressively I sought out the best MS center I could find the Cleveland Clinic I saw their best people I took the newest drugs still within three years my disease had transitioned to secondary progressive multiple sclerosis my physicians told me that at this point of the disease there are no more spontaneous remissions that functions once lost are gone forever and so I got the tilt recline wheelchair I took the chemotherapy I took the miracle drug Tysabri but I continued to slowly decline conventional medicine was not going to stop my slide into a bedridden and demented life but I knew my basic science colleagues in their labs were discovering the secrets that would be used to guide MS care in the future and so I started reading about the animal models for multiple sclerosis Parkinson's Alzheimer's hyejin's disease eventually I found studies which had used vitamins and supplements that had protected those Mouse brains and so I translated those mouse size doses into human sized doses and I started my first rounds of self-experimentation the speed of my decline slowed and I was very grateful but I was still declining so I continued to read the science I found papers that describe the genetic risk and I learned that if I had a parent or a sibling with MS my risk of getting it was three to five percent if I had two parents the risk rose to 30 percent always it was a very complicated interaction between genes and their so-far about 100 have been identified that increase your risk ever so slightly and the environment the scientific term for this is epigenetics it is how factors out in the environment speak to my DNA and will turn genes on making them more active and tert other genes off making them silent and in so doing it will change the phenotype and the phenotype is just a big fancy word for the appearance and performance of the body and the healthy phenotype is called the wild-type that wild type is healthy robust and disease resistant but the environment by turning some genes on and other genes off and doing this without changing the DNA sequence can convert can transform a once healthy wild these resistant body into an inflamed sickly disease prone one and further or it does this by putting marks on our DNA without changing this DNA sequence but these marks will be passed on to your children your grandchildren and your great grandchildren that's huge so now I want to know so what are these environmental factors and most importantly were there any that we're under my control that I could do something about and so I began to continue to study and read I'm going to summarize some of what I've learned in that journey the food that we eat provides the vitamins minerals essential fats antioxidants that my cells we use to conduct the chemistry of life but if the food I eat delicious tasty yummy so addictive fails provide those key building blocks the chemistry of life does not happen properly molecules do not get made or get made with wrong shape which leads to the foundation the seeds of chronic disease this graphic depicts the kilograms of sugar consumed per person per year in 1700 we ate less than five kilograms of sugar that's less than 10 pounds per person per year by 2000 we're eating 70 kilograms more than 150 pounds of sugar per person per year and our children are eating even more all that sugar crowds out the foods that provides the building blocks that we need to run the chemistry of life so our cells will thrive and furthermore all that sugar speaks to my DNA truning genes on other genes off shifting a once healthy wild phenotype into an inflamed sickly disease prone phenotype and increasing my risk for high blood pressure obesity diabetes heart disease neurological problems but two health problems and auto immunity you know there's one more problem with food a potential problem in the genetically vulnerable individual gluten the protein in wheat rye barley and many at ancient grains causes an abnormal elevation of our immune cells increased inflammation in the body and will again shift us from that healthy wild disease resistant body transforming us into the inflamed sickly disease problem body and increasing the probability of neurological problems mental health problems and autoimmunity the next factor is the toxin level now since World War two we've done better living through chemistry over 80,000 chemicals have been registered with the Environmental Protection Agency because of toxic effects on ourselves and as you heard earlier these compounds are so pervasive in the environment several studies have found over 200 different synthetic compounds toxins in the cord blood of new babies the breast milk of new moms things like herbicides pus pesticides plastics solvents dioxin heavy metals like lead mercury arsenic which confused the chemistry of ourselves disrupt our hormonal signaling increase the inflammation and again speaks to my DNA shifting what DNA probably what genes are on what genes are off in transforming that once wild healthy phenotype into inflamed sickly disease prone phenotype and increasing my risk for high blood pressure obesity diabetes heart disease neurological problems mental health problems autoimmunity and cancer the next issue is our physical activity level before the dawn of Agriculture a mere 10,000 years ago we were foragers and hunters the women would travel two to three miles a day and the men six to nine but in today's society we sit and stay and in one place all day and then for leisure we sit on our but that inactivity speaks tomorrow hormones shifting the balance increasing the inflammation it also speaks to my genes turning genes on and others off and shifting that once healthy wild phenotype transforming it into the inflamed sickly disease prone one and increasing the risk again for high blood pressure obesity diabetes heart disease neurological problems mental health problems and auto immunity and the next factor is stress now when faced with a threat my body will secrete hormones so I'm faster stronger and then when I'm safe I rapidly clear those hormones get back to the idle state where my body takes up the work of digesting making hormones find the infections and growing but if I am continually under stress continually secreting those stress hormones I never get back to that resting idle state that disrupts my hormonal balance increases my inflammation and again shifts which genes are on which genes are off and transforms made from the healthy wild phenotype to the inflamed sickly disease prone phenotype and again increasing the risk of high blood pressure obesity diabetes heart disease neurological problems mental health problems and auto immunity so here I am 2007 I've had six years of slow steady decline my belly and back muscles are so weak I cannot sit in the chair like you are now instead I rely on a zero gravity chair I've won at work one at home I can walk short distances using two walking sticks otherwise they use my zero gravity chair I have severe fatigue I'm exhausted by ten in the morning and I've been losing my keys and my phone had to replace my phone three times that summer I know I cannot work much longer and that is when I create a diet and lifestyle program designed to address the food toxins physical activity and stress level for food I turn to science to identify what were the vitamins minerals essential fats antioxidants that science says brain cells need to thrive and I found 31 and then I turn to my forager hunter ancestors to design an eating plan that looks like this I start with 3 cups and by the way that's a dinner plate heaped I so three cups of leafy greens you can have them cooked or raw 3 cups of deeply colored vegetables carrots beets berries peaches oranges just has to be colored all the way through and 3 cups of sulfur rich vegetables in the cabbage family onion family mushroom family grass-fed meats organ meats wild fish and seaweed and to reduce my risk of food sensitivity issues and eliminated the gluten-containing grains to reduce my tox exposure I switch to eating only organic foods and using only organic personal care products and to help my body eliminate the toxins that were no doubt stored in my fat from all those years of eating conventionally I ate three cups of greens three cups of colored vegetables and fruits three cups of sulfur rich cabbage family onion family mushroom family because those food groups stimulate the enzymes responsible for the processing and elimination of toxins and to improve the elimination of lead and mercury I ate seaweed because you need iodine to eliminate those metals and I needed to improve my physical activity now I was a former athlete and actually it when I was diagnosed with MS I knew I had to keep working out every day to stay as strong as possible so I did but they had to get small and smaller and smaller and smaller all I could do is this very small 10-minute workout but now I added a technique that the athletes have used for decades electrical stimulation muscles and I did that while I did my exercises and then to reduce my stress I added daily meditation within just three months of this my fatigue was gone I was able to stop provigil medication I'd used for five years for MS related fatigue at six months I could walk throughout the hospital without a cane my physician said a lot frankly he was quite amazed and so as his nurse and they said that I could taper and stop my disease modifying drugs and at nine months I got on my bike but pedaled around the block the first time in five years and at 12 months I did an 18 mile bicycle tour with my family so in one year I went from tilt recline wheelchair utterly exhausted struggling with brain fog to walking not having brain fog and pedaling my bike 18 miles obviously this transformed me as a person and it transformed me as a physician how I understood disease and health was very different and how I chose to practice medicine was also transformed I began to talk to my patients about the quality of the food that they were eating the toxin exposures the physical activity level and the stress level and I began to teach them about the wall what I now called the walls diet in the walls protocol I taught them to eat these radical things known as vegetables greens colors sulfur nine cups a day crowds out a lot of bad food and to go organic and I saw fatigue resolve moods improve headaches resolve pain diminish blood pressure normalized blood Sugar's normalized and most importantly the need for medication steadily declined often to none even for people with serious autoimmune problems and I then transformed the research that I did I now study the same protocol that I used for my own recovery to treat others with multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury the multimodal intervention that was essentially what I did the walls protocol for patients with second day progressive MS those are people who have no more spontaneous remissions you expect them to steadily decline we're able to show that yes people can do vegetables exercise meditate the biggest side effect was if you were overweight or obese you lost weight and got back to a healthy weight that's a tough side effect and fatigue severity scale which goes from seven to one one equally no fatigue decreased by two point three eight from five point seven our baseline to three point three to at twelve months point zero zero zero eight four p-value that's the largest reported improvement in energy or reduction fatigue to date by comparison the studies using provigil which is the number one medication used for MS right fatigue that reduces fatigue severity scale by 0.75 they were really thrilled with that the p-value is 0.07 not significant but favorable trend I took it for five years as very grateful for the small amount of help it did yes medications can be very helpful I do use them they can control symptoms but they do not address the root cause of why people develop chronic disease which is the transformation of a once healthy phenotype into a sickly inflamed disease prone phenotype because of diet and lifestyle choices medications will do nothing about the diet that does not provide the building blocks you need to thrive or the years of toxic exposure or the years of physical inactivity or the years of chronic stress for if we do not address those diet and lifestyle factors our patients will get steadily worse their disease we'll progress and every time I see them in clinic they will need more medications higher doses and I will be making more new diagnosis so hundred years ago Thomas Edison had said that we would move from in essence medicines to diet and lifestyle and it's true modern medicine is mostly not there yet but we all could be we all could Harold in an epidemic of health because every day you all of you choose what you eat and what you do every day you could choose to eat nine cups of vegetables switch to organic foods personal care products move your bodies and meditate we could all become that physician of the future we could all Harold in at epidemic of health every day you choose what you eat and what you do now that you know what choices will you make thank you

Channel: mindbodygreen

Views: 254,273

Keywords: terry wahls, disease, diet, nutrition, medical care, mindbodygreen, revitalize, MS, recovery

Id: lJT4gRUlpkc

Length: 19min 4sec (1144 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 12 2015